“Aww, crap, we gotta go!” I quickly stated as I wrapped Twilight in one arm, grabbed the book bag in my other hand, cradled them in my arms like a football, and high-tailed it out of there with extreme haste.

“Wait, why?? What about th— WHOA!” Twilight tried to hurriedly ask as I whisked her away. I wasn’t sure where we were going, but I bolted across a street adjacent to the park to escape our “predator.”

“Dude, wait! I just want to talk to her!” The stranger called after me, surprisingly keeping up. “My friends and I would LOVE to meet her!”

“Nah, we good, dawg!” I yelled back, sprinting full speed towards no particular destination except away from the guy who spotted us. I could feel the adrenaline beginning to fuel my every step as I charged forward, not caring about my own fatigue quickly setting in as sweat was beginning to drench me like I'd taken a dive in a swimming pool of perspiration.

“I don’t think he wants to do us any harm! Plus, he already knows I’m a pony! Maybe we should stop and let him talk!” Twilight shakily reasoned as she bounced around in my arm.

“And risk… exposin’ you to the… whole world? No!” I hastily objected as I ran, bobbing and weaving through small groups of people as they walked by. “I can’t…! risk you bein’ taken…! away and experimented on…! or some craziness like that!” I ran in that direction for four blocks before making a sharp right and ducking behind a tall building to catch my breath and put Twilight back into the bag. I peeked back to see the heavy man nowhere to be found.

“I thought I was supposed to learn more about this world, not hide from everyone in it,” Twilight disappointedly stated as she looked at me, visibly upset and frowning. “I've been keeping silent on the issue, but now I really don’t get why I have to hide from everyone… Especially since that guy already knew what I am…”

“You are… hah… learning… hah… But I think it’s better if… you learn undercover… hah… that way, you… hah… can get all the info you… need without bein’ bombarded… with all kinds of stuff from people… who could possibly wind up takin’ you away to who-knows-where to do who-knows-what to you,” I replied breathlessly, but with concern for the unicorn’s safety. “You came… to me, and I want… to keep you safe.”

“I can take care of myself, y’know. I’m not a foal,” Twilight shot back, seeming to be offended by my concern.

“I understand that, Twilight, but please… trust me on this. I don’t want you to think… you couldn’t-a taken this trip on your own or… handled yourself better than I been doin’, but I… I guess I care too much t’ see anything bad happen t’ you, especially in a world… you ain’t even been to before. A hasty confession, yes, but—!”

“Please, say no more,” Twilight sternly interrupted.

“Listen, you! I—!” I began, taking a tone of frustration, but I abruptly stopped when I looked at her. Her eyes were glimmering in the afternoon sunset, tears forming in them as she gave me yet another one of those heartwarming smiles of hers. Calming down, I took a deep breath. “Y’know, that smile of yours could be dangerous…” I quietly joked as the tension I was feeling had melted away.

“How so, Ty?” She asked, climbing her way partly out of the bag to offer a hug.

“It’s just so ador— Wait, why are you callin’ me ‘Ty?’” I asked as I kneeled down to embrace the unicorn.

“I figured it’s easier to remember. You can call me ‘Twi’ so we’re even, if you’d like. That's what my friends call me...” Twilight innocently suggested.

"Aww, she wants to be friends with me... Awesome!"

“You have no idea how many times I done got that as a reason for someone not to call me by my full name… But sure… Twi,” I quipped with a small chortle as she and I still hugged each other firmly.

“THERE SHE IS, DUDE! WITH THAT BLACK GUY!” A familiar voice screamed from down the street, bringing both the unicorn and I, now back on good terms, back into the situation at hand.

“Looks like we gonna hafta cut this moment of ours short…” I murmured to Twilight, quickly getting up as she ducked into the bag. I zipped it shut and took off in the opposite direction of our pursuer.

“Dude, wait!” The familiar voice called after me with a tone akin to worry.

“We just want to see what’s in the bag!” Another voice shouted.

“Yeah, don’t run!” Yet another voice shouted as I heard their footsteps trailing behind me.

“Aww great… This persistent sumbitch done got his friends on me…” I growled through my clenched teeth, ignoring all of their pleas for me to stop as I sprinted away from them. They expectantly gave chase, seeming willing to follow me to Hell and back just to get their hands on Twilight. I ran to the edge of the sidewalk and made another sharp right into a shopping center’s parking lot that was filled with parked vehicles. I frantically looked for a place to hide, eventually choosing to duck behind the largest vehicle in the area.

“What’s going on out there?” Twi whispered. “Can you get away from them?”

“I ain’t sure... at this point… They seem… hah… persistent,” I answered breathlessly as I caught a glimpse at two of the men coming into the parking lot from the same direction I’d entered. I heard the sound of Twilight’s horn activating, which must have meant she was getting her own view of the surroundings.

“Where’s the third one…?” I asked myself.

“Behind you, behind you...!” Twi whispered anxiously. I heard her horn suddenly stop twinkling. I turned around and sure enough, the missing man, a rather thin fellow wearing a large light blue hoodie with a strange-looking cloud and rainbow lightning bolt design on it was creeping his way towards us. I dashed from behind the truck we were hiding behind and headed towards the supermarket it was parked in front of, but stopped, stumbling and almost falling over as I saw the heavyset guy already standing there waiting, smiling with an almost-lustful look on his face.

“Try the other way...” Twilight advised. I obeyed, quickly turning around and running some more, but I didn’t get far before another one of the trio of would-be pony-nappers popped up from behind a car in an attempt to catch me off guard. This guy seemed to be a bit more muscular than the guy in the hoodie, but he was wearing a plain white t-shirt and jeans. However, the noticeable thing about him was his hat; it was a bright white baseball cap with a dark purple brim, but the logo on it was for some team I hadn’t seen or heard of before. The logo was a trio of light blue rhombus-shaped diamonds set up in a sideways equilateral triangular formation.

“Nrrgh… Dammit…!” I grumbled, clenching a fist in frustration as I backed away from the man in the diamond hat. “We’re surrounded… any ideas?” I whispered to Twilight, looking around frantically and backing up from the man in the hat as all three men slowly closed in on me like hungry lions on an injured antelope…

“Hmm… Oh, I’ve got it!” Twilight responded. “I know a spell that will take us back to your home.”

“Simple, but gre—!”

“But, there's a catch: It will not send us directly there when I cast it.”

“What? So h—!?”

“In order for it to work, I’ll need you to accelerate yourself to your terminal velocity for approximately 5.2309 seconds after the spell is cast. You’ll notice a glow around you when you hit your maximum speed. You will also need to imagine your home the entire time you’re running without so much as a FRACTION of a second of distraction, so as to make absolutely sure we will be transported there.”

“Sooo… run as fast as I can while thinkin’ about my house for five seconds an’ some change, then poof?”

“Precisely!” Twilight said, casting the spell as I saw a faint, yet familiar glow envelop me for a brief second. “But there’s something you sh—!”

“No time!" I interrupted as the three men closed in on me. "Alright… Here goes nothin’!” I announced as I ran towards the parking lot entrance, the only opening I had. The three men quickly followed suit, refusing to give up their seemingly-bloodthirsty hunt. I ran across the street, narrowly avoiding an oncoming car as my pursuers had stopped on the other side of it behind me. I made a sharp left while waving towards the driver of the car as an apology. I reached the corner of the sidewalk, turned right, and sprinted as hard as I could for what felt like an hour.

“Any minute now, spell, c’mon!” I complained. Soon enough, I saw my entire body begin to take on a familiar pinkish-purple glow as I ran. I took no time to stop, knowing what the glow meant.

“There he is! But something’s up with him…” I heard a voice say. I knew it was one of the three men who were relentlessly hounding me, which provoked me to double my effort.

“Y’mean other than the fact that he’s run… wait, is he glowing!??” another one of the trio shouted as they continued their hot pursuit.

“Get ‘im before he disappears or something!” the third voice commanded.

“Almost there, Ty…! Keep going!” Twilight whispered in encouragement. I nodded, ducked my head down, and squeezed my eyes shut as I raced toward the home stretch. I could feel an electric tingling sensation all around me as I heard crackling.

"Come to think of it, this kinda reminds me o' Back to the Future, where the Delorean, in order t' time travel, had to accelerate past a certain speed... I think it was about 88 miles an hour...? Too bad I never actually watched that movie to see exactly what happened when they teleported..."

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

*POOF*

I vanished. Everything went black as I felt like my body had been split into many tiny molecular pieces. The surprising part is that it didn’t hurt in the least. I wish I could have seen how the many different particles of my being were separated and sent off in one direction at such a blinding speed that it felt like I’d become one with the wind. However, with such spontaneous molecular deconstruction, also came the loss of all awareness and most of my basic senses. The only thing I was able to see was a faint image of my home that rapidly grew clearer and clearer. This wonderful new experience didn’t last very long, though… I’d say it lasted for just a few seconds before my body reformed in front of my house, with me blindly charging toward my door with my head down and my eyes squeezed shut.

“Ty, st—!” Twilight tried to warn, albeit too late.

*BOOM* “AWRGH!!”

Blindly running at full speed, I crashed against my door head-first, and hard. A large dent was left where the door met my forehead as I flew backwards. Knowing Twilight was in the bag strapped to my back, I quickly turned my body as I fell so as to land on my right side. “AHH-OW!” I screamed in pain as the awkward landing caused me to sprain my left wrist due to me trying to break the fall with just that hand.

“OOF!” Twilight grunted from within the bag. I moved up to a sitting position, clutching my head in extreme pain with my right hand while folding my left arm over my waist.

“Owwwww… why the fu…nnel cake did I go runnin’ int' my door?” I wearily asked, my voice straining from the agony of the sudden migraine combined with the jolts of pain shooting through my left arm.

“I… was going to tell you that uh… when you envisioned your home, you probably should’ve envisioned yourself running in any direction in an open space parallel to it instead of simply bringing up the image…” the unicorn sheepishly explained as I reached behind my back with my left hand to open the zipper of the bag a little so she could make her way her way out of it. She let out a small, embarrassed giggle as she climbed out. I chuckled a little as well, especially when I saw that her mane and tail were all frazzled like someone furiously rubbed a balloon on her.

“Now you tell me… Then again, I ain't give ya the time t' explain it to me... Still, I don’t see the humor in th— Oh, god…” I said as I removed my hand from my head to be greeted with a most wonderful welcome-home gift; the palm of my hand bathed in my own blood. I froze in disbelief at the amount of the ruby red liquid staining my hand. It looked like I'd just murdered a strawberry. I was more alarmed when I felt small beads of it slithering down my face and dripping off like sweat, staining the collar of my already slushy-stained blue T-shirt. I reached a finger up to where I felt the intense burning pain coming from to feel a huge gash streaking down the right side of my forehead, just above my eye. A simple touch was enough for me to pull my finger away and clench my hand into a fist as I flinched.

“Hey what’s wro—?” Twilight began to ask, but gasped in horror at the sight she beheld. “Oh, no! I’m soooo sorry! Let’s get in the house now so we can fix that up!” Twilight worriedly suggested. I tried to get up, but the impact had disoriented me greatly. My vision was getting blurry, I felt unbelievably tired, and I couldn’t even walk more than two steps without staggering and taking a knee. I tried to shake my head, but that made it much worse. I sprinkled blood on the ground from my still heavily-bleeding head wound and I became much dizzier. I almost felt as if I was going to vomit from the sudden case of nausea. It didn’t feel any better when I tried to use my left arm, with its wrist noticeably swollen, to push myself to a standing position.

“Aaaaaaaaahh…!” I hissed as I snatched my hand off the ground, falling back to a sitting position. All of this moving around was making things much worse... If I didn't see those donuts and that slushy again, I'd be VERY lucky.

“Oh, no! Please, don’t try to get up again! I’ll… I’ll teleport us into your room!” the unicorn said in a worried hurry. She placed a hoof onto my back as I heard her horn powering up.

*POOF*

We had teleported back into my room much quicker than I expected. I was too dizzy, tired, nauseous, and in too much pain to ask her any obvious questions that would have followed her seemingly easier, less painful spell being cast. She then levitated me onto my bed in a sitting position up against the wall, and made sure to take my shoes off and put them in the corner of the room.

“Okay, I need you to be very still…” she cautioned, jumping onto the bed and walking up to me. I hardly heard the unicorn talking as I was dozing off.

“But Ah’own wanna go t’ school, mommy…” I deliriously blurted. My eyelids were unbelievably heavy and my head bobbed as I fought to stay awake.

“Ohh...! umm… Mommy needs you to keep still, sweetie… okay?” Twilight whispered in a concerned motherly tone, presumably hoping that would keep me awake. She climbed onto my lap and stood on her hind legs, using her fore hooves to position my head so I was directly facing her. Then, she bowed her head down as her horn began to glow once again. When her horn shined its brightest I’d seen since I met her, she pressed her horn against my forehead and took a deep breath. Her breath smelled faintly of strawberries and freshly baked bread. She closed her eyes and focused on her spell as her horn maintained its luminescent glow. After a sudden flash of white, my vision became clear. I noticed the pain in my head and left arm rapidly fade away, and blood ceased to flow down my face. I also felt a strange tingle as the wound on my forehead gradually closed up and healed in a matter of seconds. In addition, my wrist shrunk back to its original size. When the spell finished, Twilight let out a sharp, exhausted exhale, relaxing herself on my chest.

“Wow… that’s amazing, Twi! I wouldn’t-a guessed you was a nurse!” I praised in amazement and gratitude.

“That’s because… I’m not,” Twilight responded, out of breath as she opened her eyes to look up at me. I didn't know what it was about that tired, fleeting facial expression she made as she rested up against me, but I thought my heart skipped a beat...

"Wow... she's... prettier than I thought... Wait, what?"

“Healing spells aren’t my… strongest point," Twilight continued, bringing me out of my train of thought. "Using them takes a good deal of my energy as of right now… and seeing as I used a bunch of it already…”

“Still, thank you!" I praised. "How can I repay you?”

“Hmm… Two things,” Twi began, recovering her composure, yet still lying down on my chest. “One, you can give me the rest of that cake you have to make up for that chocolate éclair you left at the park in the city, or two, you can give me one of those amazing rub-downs,” she joked, but I could see the sincerity in her statement with the smile she flashed me. Her large, beautiful violet eyes were half-closed; looking at me in such a way that she seemed to be expecting someone or something extra special. Twilight was silent, but her eyes just screamed, “Rub me!” I smirked.

“Ooh, tough choice… I forgot about that éclair back there… Tell ya what: I’ll do both, because I’m feelin’ generous. But seein’ as you’re already comfortable, why not start with option two?” I said in the lowest, most soothing voice I could muster. I placed my left hand on her head and slowly, but gently ran it down her mane and back.

“Ahhh…” Twilight sighed in blissful ecstasy as she stretched herself out on my chest. I repeated the stroke time and time again, occasionally chuckling at Twilight’s unusually extensive enjoyment.

“I’ve been meanin’ to ask, Twi… why do you like this so much?” I queried.

“I’m not sure...” she replied, still in a euphoric stupor. “I’ve only ever been massaged with hooves and claws before... But those…”

“Hands.”

“…those ‘hands’ of yours… they just feel so much better… They’re a lot softer and easier on the fur than hooves or claws…”

“Interestin’…” I said as I continued to rub her. Suddenly, an idea came to me. “Hold on, Twi. Lemme go wash my hands before I go on.” I got up and rushed to the bathroom to wash all the dry blood off of my other hand and face and returned to an eagerly-awaiting young mare sitting on her haunches, longingly and drowsily staring at me like a puppy waiting to be fed. With great mental fortitude, I withheld the sarcastic remark I’d thought up about her playing the part of a dog too well. I lay down beside her in the same position as earlier, and she assumed her previous position on my stomach.

“Now that that’s out of the way, I wonder… how does this feel?” I asked, as I began to gently scratch behind her left ear.

“I… incredible…!” she practically moaned with pleasure, lying her head down.

“Wow… for a magic talkin’ horse from another universe, this girl sure does seem to like bein’ rubbed like a puppy…” I thought. “But then, what do I know about ‘ponies’? I suppose I’ll hafta wait till tomorrow when i’ss my turn t' ask the questions…” I decided to up the ante by running my other hand across her body as I’d been doing before while I continued to scratch her ear.

“Hmmmmmmm…” She sighed, seeming to be in total relaxation. She closed her eyes and smiled sweetly as I continued to stroke and scratch her, occasionally moaning in full enjoyment. At this point, I was beginning to feel a bit unsure about the nature of the unicorn’s contentment with this treatment. I shook it off and assured myself with a “Nah…” and continued.

“Hey, I’d hate t' interrupt your relaxation, but… that spell of yours that made me run int' my door… Why’d we need t' use that instead o' the spell you used t' bring us back in here?” I asked partly to ease my small sense of discomfort.

“Hmm… it was because I don’t know this world very well… and given the situation we were in, I couldn’t focus on bringing us back here myself… So I made things a bit less complicated by giving you a little bit of my magic, and then having you do the rest of the work…"

"Whoa..." I was astounded... I just used MAGIC??

"The fact that it made you run into the door was… something I’d only predicted, but didn’t fully expect, considering I’m usually the one doing the teleporting to a safe location when in danger… I was able to bring us directly to this room from outside because the situation was somewhat less stressful, and as far as memorization, I have this house and its immediate surroundings down-pat…” Twilight dreamily answered with her eyes closed the entire time.

“Aight,” I plainly said. “I suppose that makes sense… in a nonsensical kinda way. I understand ya, though. By the way, you seem tired. You think we should hit the hay now?”

“Hay? Where?” She quietly asked, raising her head looking around, seeming very drowsy. I sighed with relief as her tired disposition put any odd… unsanitary predictions I could have made to rest.

“I meant, ‘go to bed,’ Twi,” I answered with a chuckle.

“I knew that,” She replied, yawning. “But not yet. Please, continue…” I obliged her with a nod as I laid back and she rested herself on my chest once more, and we picked up where we left off. After a while (I’d guess about an hour as it had gotten dark outside during the massage), I felt her breathing pattern change to long, gentle inhales and exhales as she went limp on me.

“Aww, she went to sleep… Good, because my arms are tired as hell…” I murmured to myself as I let out an extensive yawn. “…and so’s the rest of me…” I gently wrapped my arms around the sleeping unicorn, shifted myself down to a more comfortable position, and drifted into a comfortable slumber, joining Twilight Sparkle in the world of dreams…