“Ughh....” I woke up slowly and groggily. I was mentally awake, but my body refused to move. I couldn’t open my eyes. I felt a breeze, so I was probably outside. I could hear running water off to my left, which meant a river for drinking or a way into town was available.

I started to feel my muscles come to, so I decided to open my eyes. I was in some kind of cartoon/animation world. Somehow, it looked very familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I heard a groan behind me, and saw two unconscious ponies on the ground; one a pegasus, the other a unicorn. My jaw DROPPED. I WAS IN EQUESTRIA! And I somehow transformed into a PONY! The brony side of me wanted to bounce around like Pinkie Pie and celebrate such a marvel, but the serious side of me realized that there are more important things at hand.

The unicorn was brown with a black tail and mane that slightly covered the right eye. The horn was about 5 inches in length. On its flanks was an image (identified later as a Cutie Mark) of a large, blue star that clashed somewhat against the brown coat. The Pegasus was yellow like Fluttershy and had a golden mane and tail, both of which had an orange streak. Her Cutie Mark was a flaming arrow. I assumed that these two ponies were Zack and Lara. I ran straight to where I previously heard running water, and as guessed, there was a river. I looked at my reflection and saw a dark gray pony with a jet-black mane and tail and a streak of metallic blue in them. My blue eyes matched the streaks in my mane. My Cutie Mark was the black silhouette of a sword and a white lightning bolt behind it, and kind of bisecting the shadowy sword.

What surprised me even more was that I had a horn! I thought since the Zack and Lara were a unicorn and pegasus already, that I would, locially, be an Earth pony. With further inspection, and with even more shock on my account, I HAD WINGS. I was an Alicorn!!!!!! I was going to scream in joy when I heard Zack (unicorn) waking up.

“Whoa....what happened?” He looked to his side at the pegasus Lara. “HOLY BUCK, IT’S A PEGASUS!” He looked at himself, and checked his forehead. “AND I’M A UNICORN! YAAAAAAAaaaaayy.....” His screams died down to a Fluttershy-like level when he saw me. I saw a look of fear in his eyes, which disappeared completely when I called to him, “Hey Zack, are you okay?”

He immediately recognized my voice. “Luke? You...You’re an alicorn? What’s going on here?” I replied with a theory I made up on the spot, “I think that the shoe Luna left acted like...um.... what did the Harry Potter people call them?” “Portkeys.” Zack answered. “Ah, right.” Leave it to the egghead to respond immediately. I continued. “This ‘portkey’ brought us here, and in order to keep the natural laws of nature in balance, we were turned into ponies.”

Now Pegasus Lara stirred. She had the same reaction as Zack, but we briefly told her my theory, and we went straight to trying to think of names. Zack went first. “I have a black star as a Cutie Mark, right? So....umm...how about Dusk Star?” Zack queried. Lara and I agreed. It was simple, easy to remember. Lara’s turn for a name. “I have a fiery arrow for a Cutie Mark, which is pretty cool, soooo....I’ll go with.....” *pause here indicates the twenty minutes of Lara’s decision making process* “Fire Storm seems appropriate, right?” Zack and I agreed; mostly to escape any further drawn out deliberation by Lara.

And now it was my turn for a name. “Since I have a shadowy grey coat, and a sword and lightning bolt on my Cutie Mark, I’ll be called Shadow....” I needed a second name to exemplify the lightning bolt behind the sword. “Blitz. That sounds pretty cool. Shadow Blitz. Alicorn of Awesome. This could work.”

After this we decided to get used to moving around in these bodies. It took a while, but soon enough, we had the basics of walking and flying (for me and Lara) down. Lara flew above the treetops, and saw where Canterlot was on a mountain. My guess was that Ponyville should be about twenty minutes from there. Zack kept worrying about the fact that we were in the Everfree Forest. However, due to the fact that it was really cold today in Equestria, I doubted any creatures would come out to strike us. And so, we started our trek to Ponyville.

Next Chapter: New Ponies at the Corner Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 23 Minutes