--Chapter 0 - Prologue/This Strange New World--

I awoke slowly, in quite the daze. My head was pounding, and my body was aching. I groaned and rolled over so that I could lay on my back, but I felt an odd surge of pain and discomfort around my shoulder blades. "That's strange," I thought to myself. "I've never had a problem sleeping on my back before. Maybe I pulled some kind of muscle or something in my sleep?"

As I opened my eyes, I began to realize that something here was definitely... off. Not necessarily wrong, just, you know, off. Weird. Odd. Out of place. Not really sure exactly how to explain it in any other words. The sky I was looking at was light blue, like it always is, but it was an odd shade of light blue. A very... pastel blue. A very... familiar blue. I blinked a few times, and then looked around, as well as I possibly could. The grass itself seemed very pastel, too. It also seemed a little too... oh, how can I put this... flat? Yeah, that works. It was too flat. "How can grass be flat?" might be a question that you're asking yourself right about now, and that's entirely understandable. I was asking myself that same thing. I honestly don't know how else to explain it to you, though, so I guess you'll have to make do with "flat."

Anyway, after I made sure to thoroughly examine the grass that still seemed too flat to be grass, I decided to try and stand up. That's when I noticed something else was really, really off. My entire body seemed unwieldy, and unfamiliar. Obviously, this wasn't exactly a feeling I was expecting, so I just ended up falling back to the ground, the pain and discomfort in my back spiking again. After this, I scoffed and decided to roll back over onto my stomach. It was at this moment that I suddenly noticed several things. Thing number one: I finally realized that I was not wearing my glasses, yet I could see very well. The second thing I noticed was this: the arms that I had extended out in front of me when I turned were... not exactly the arms I was expecting. In fact, they weren't even arms at all. They were...

Legs?

Yes, they were definitely legs. They felt and continued to move as if they were arms, but they were definitely legs. Silvery-gray, fur-covered legs with dark gray hooves at the end of them. This was the approximate moment that i began to realize what exactly was happening to me. "Oh. Okay, so... I'm dreaming!" I thought, elation overcoming me. "I'm dreaming that I'm a pony who got dropped off in Equestria, aren't I?!"

Over the course of the next few minutes, I struggled to get full control of the odd new pony body that I had been unceremoniously dumped in by the dream gods, or whatever. I finally realized that the pain coming from my shoulder blades had, in fact, been the marvelous dual-colored, silver and gold wings that now adorned my back. I figured that I'd just sort of learn to fly as the dream went on, so I decided to pay them little mind, for the time being. All of my legs, and my body had the same silvery-gray coloration as I described already, but my medium-length tail was a much darker gray, though it also had a streak of a dark yellowish-gold color that covered about half of it. It seemed to match my wings almost perfectly. I assumed at this point that my hair had the same color scheme, but, lacking a mirror, I was unable to actually see it.

After examining myself carefully, I decided to explore my current surroundings. I hadn't really gathered much from the environment, other than the blue sky, and the flat, yet nice and green grass. I wanted to see more. I mean, who wouldn't? After a short amount of time walking, I noticed a building on the horizon. I was apparently dropped off in some sort of field right outside of a town. I attempted to cross my fingers in anticipation, but it didn't exactly work, given that my fingers were now significantly less existent than they were previously. I shook my head and practically prayed, "Please be Ponyville, pleeeease be Ponyville," hoping that this would somehow magically become the case. I mean, hey, it was my dream after all, right?

And what a surprise, but what I saw next made my 17 year-old heart jump with the joy of a 7-year old girl about to visit Build-a-Bear for the first time in her life. In case that analogy isn't clear enough, "I was extremely happy," is the message that I'm trying to convey, here. It was the sight of a small house, positioned off to the right of a large, dark forest. That's right, folks. I was slowly approaching the cottage of everyone's favorite scaredy-pony, Fluttershy.

I immediately began to walk over to the door, a huge smile on my face, but as I got closer and closer to the house, I started to actually think a little. I mean, let's be real here, what would Fluttershy have done if I just casually went up to her home, (grinning like an idiot), and tried to start chatting up a storm with her. Eventually I slowed to a stop. I sighed and made a sharp turn to the right, heading into the now visible town. Perhaps I could catch up with her later. For now, though, I decided it would be best to leave her be.

As I strolled down the main street, I noted that this place looked exactly like it did in the show. It was nice and colorful, and all of the citizens were out and about, going through their daily routines. I saw a few memorable background faces as I nonchalantly trotted through the roads. I saw Lyra and Bon-Bon, casually chatting about this and that, over what looked like milkshakes that corresponded to their respective colors. Ignoring my inner fanboy yet again, I simply gave them both a small nod and a smile as I passed, and they both paused to return the gestures. I only got to walk for a little longer before I heard a loud gasp come from behind me. I think you can all probably guess who that came from.

"Ohmygosh, ooh, ooh, are you new here in Ponyville?!" everyone's favorite party pony asked as I turned around to face her. Before I could even consider an answer, she kept on talking away. "Oh, well, duuhhhh! Of course you are! If you weren't, I'd already know who you are! And since I don't know who you are, that means that you're new! Know how I'd know who you are if you weren't new here in Ponyville?" she asked, barely skipping a beat... or breathing.

"... Because you know everyone in Ponyville?" I asked, tentatively.

"Thaaaaaat's RIGHT!" she shouted, leaping into the air. "I know everypony in Ponyville! Or, you know, I did know everypony in Ponyville until you and that other new pony showed up today!"

"Other new pony?" I asked again. I had an idea of where exactly this was going, but I wanted to be sure.

"Yeah, yeah! She showed up today, and I saw her, and then I GASPED really loudly, like I did when i saw you just a minute ago! I actually have a 'Welcome to Ponyville' Party ready for her at her new house already!" she said, her grin only getting larger and larger as she went on. Suddenly, though, her expression became neutral, almost frustrated. "Oh, shoot!" she said, stamping one of her hooves on the ground.

"Is there something wrong?" I asked, once again. All I seemed to be able to do was ask questions in this so-called "conversation."

"I'm going to have to plan YOU a 'Welcome to Ponyville' Party, too! Ugh, but tomorrow's the Summer Sun Celebration and I have no idea when I'm going to have time to do that! Hang on, I've got this. okay, so if today is the new girl's party, and tomorrow is the Summer Sun Celebration, then maybe I can--"

"How about a week from today?" I offered, placing my hoof gently on her muzzle. I didn't want to accidentally hit her with my new hardened hand-thingy or anything in the process, but I figured I needed her to keep quiet for a moment. "I still, er... have to find some place to live, after all."

She brought her hoof to her chin and thought for a moment. "Hmm... you know what? Yeah, that'll work! Your surprise party can be next week! And just so you know, it'll be AMAAAZIIING!"

I laughed softly, smiling at the look on her face. "I'm sure it will be. What's your name, by the way?" I added casually, already knowing the answer.

"I'm Pinkie Pie! Ponyville's Premier Number One Party Pony!!!" She said, bouncing up and down a little. "And yooouuu?"

"I'm..." I trailed off, not having thought of a name yet. I looked over my body again, and noticed a cutie mark branded upon my flank. It appeared to be a golden-yellow "X" with a pale-gray lightning bolt over top of it. I decided to focus on the lightning bolt itself. I turned back to Pinkie and said, with a smile on my face: "Silverbolt. My name's Silverbolt. It's nice to meet you, Pinkie Pie."

"Nice to meet you, too, Boltie! You should come by the treehouse library in town tonight to celebrate the other new pony's party! Hope to see you theeeeeere!" she called, bouncing off into the distance, humming a happy tune.

I shook my head laughing, and turned again to walk down the street. Pinkie always made me laugh. And to think that I didn't used to like her. I began to whirl some thoughts around in my mind. From what Pinkie Pie had been saying, I could easily gather that the "other pony" she was talking about was, ahem, my absolute favorite pony ever, Twilight Sparkle. Apparently this dream was taking place in the first episode of the series, right when Twilight came to Ponyville. Which meant that the whole Nightmare Moon thing hadn't even happened yet. Ha, good times! Brought back some serious nostalgia, that thought did.

As I trotted once again down the road, lost in thought, I accidentally tripped over a very oddly-placed rock in the middle of the friggin' path. I smacked into the ground and groaned. Very loudly. As I pulled my sullied face out of the dirt I noticed something.

Nothing had changed.

Normally, when you fall, or get hurt in a dream, you wake up, right? Well, the pain in my new pony-nose and the obvious tumble I'd just taken hadn't snapped me out of dreamland. That's when I realized something. I wasn't dreaming. I blinked repeatedly and looked at my body again. And my hooves. And my tail. And pretty much everything else in the immediate area. If it wasn't all part of a dream, then that means that it was... real.

"I'm actually a pony. I'm actually a pony and i'm actually in Equestia. In Season One, Episode One of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic..." I said, dumbly, staring at the ground. Then, something clicked in the slowly-turning gears of my brain, and i realized: "... oh my god, thAT MEANS NIGHTMARE MOON IS COMING BACK TONIGHT!!!"

Probably not the best thing to shout in the middle of a fairly crowded street, in hindsight.