“Is this real life? Or is this just fantasy?”

The words by Freddie Mercury had never been more appropriate, as I feel myself slowly descending into… Someplace… I really don’t know what’s going on even now. I feel something soft on my grip, but I can’t seem to be able to make it out, this place is just too hypnotic for me to care over some body pillow.

Speaking of place, I guess I should tell you where I am, but the truth, is that I don’t really know. I am still falling - Oh, guess I forgot to mention I have been falling for what could be long, or maybe just a few seconds, in this place, there was no way of knowing.

Who am I? What am I doing here? Is this even real? And who am I even talking to?

Maybe, I should try waking up…

The first thing the man noticed, was that he was extremely comfortable, and such comfort usually meant staying in bed, of course, he realized he’d have to get up in order to go to work.

“Wait, I have a job?” he thought, confused about the words he'd just thought of, but the urgency of the thought seemed to want to keep him out of his comfortable resting place. Realizing that going back to sleep was pointless, he reluctantly opened his eyes.

“What in the hell…?” were his first words as he came to notice he was in a big room, a grand set-up, it brought him memories of pictures he’d seen back in school with castles on them, and this had been a very familiar setting for him in that sense, yet, the fact he was there made him question it.

‘Castles? School?’ he tried racking up his thoughts, but to no avail. As he searched his thoughts, he attempted to remember his name, but to no avail, which frightened him. "What am I doing?" he thought, slapping himself. "First things first... find out where the heck I am."

He slowly got on his feet, and quietly walked around, he noticed a sports bag hanging from the side of his bed and quicklyi checked its contents; clothes, a lighter, and a folded object that upon further observation, turned out to be a pocket knife were found inside. Deciding that being in a strange environment weaponless wouldn’t do him any good, he pocketed the knife, and made his way to the door leading outside the relatively safe sleeping area, opening it slightly to check for company, he made his way outside.

“Whoa!” he gazed upon the long hallways with amazement, if he had doubted the place was a castle before, he didn’t doubt it now. Banners with pictures of the sun emblazoned on them adorned its walls, a red carpet ran along the length of the floor, and upon further inspection, he found that banners in the hallway bore similar aesthetic designs.

“Hello?” he called out to strangely empty hallways before covering his mouth at his dumb decision, he tensed up as he heard footsteps from one end of the hall. Senses kicking into overdrive, he ran into the opposite direction, and hid himself in the first intersection he came across, fearing his life, he ran to the end of that hallway, a feat that took him quite some time due to its length.

“Where am I?” he asked himself multiple times looking outside from a couple giant windows into the now visible night skies. Coming to the conclusion that safety was better than questioning his current existence, he continued.

He ran for a few minutes, coming across something that in his mind, simply said "a huge metal door” he stared at it in wonder for a few seconds before moving on, but stopped when the twin doors suddenly opened, revealing what he only described as a “big room”.

‘Clearly, I’m a master of linguistics.’ he thought struggling to find the right words.

“Come, there is much to discuss.”

He turned frantically at the sound of the voice, but found no one in sight, his first impulse told him to ignore it, but for some reason, he felt drawn to it, wanting to follow it. Finding no aggression in the soothing voice.

“Against my better judgment…” he said, as he made his way into the dark room, finding no human life to be seen. Unfazed, he kept his sight on what appeared to be a throne, he squinted his eyes trying to make out anything in the darkness, but his concentration broke at the sound of the enormous doors closing behind him, not realizing he was already halfway in the room.

Any calmness he felt was now gone at the potential new threat, he reached into his pocket and took out the knife which he quickly unfolded, as terrified as he was, and the fact that the guards there might have had guns, he wasn't going out without a fight.

Of course, he didn’t count on the knife being wrestled from his grip by an unseen force.

“Hey! Give that back!” he called out in anguish. Realizing as his only weapon was now gone, and the fact that he had no escape, he closed his eyes in panic and chose the best solution for himself at that point.

“Please, don’t hurt me too bad.” he put his hands in the air and stood in place, closing his eyes in panic, waiting for some sort of punishment from his unseen attackers.

The room was silent, but the sound of steps could be heard.

“I will not hurt you, please, open your eyes.” he heard the voice from earlier say.

Timidly, he slowly opened them. He then closed them again before opening them to the same sight; it was now illuminated by chandeliers hanging high from the ceiling, the room itself reminded him a lot of movies he'd seen as a child.

“I used to watch movies?” he thought and scratched his head, caught off guard by the stupidity of his own question, but those thoughts were quickly pushed aside by what sat in the throne itself.

A winged/horned white horse stood majestically, with flowing mane that reminded him of cotton candy, horseshoes that were more fancy that anything he’d ever seen. The sight brought back images of a little girl's fashion statement for horses. "With wings and horns..." he thought.

“Ah… Hello, horsie… I’m not going to hurt you… Now, if you’ll excuse me…” he was about to turn tail and run, but what he saw next brought him to a stop.

“I know you must be confused, and I can understand why, but please, I am not a “horsie” as you just referred to me just now,” the man stared in shock as the mare (whom he realized it was female by voice alone) talked to him, and slowly, began backing away.

"Um, this is weird..." he noticed, gulping in fear.

“Perhaps it might be better if I brought her out. Twilight, please, come on in,” the man just looked around quizzically at the side door that had just opened, but became deadly calm when he saw another horse—or rather, a pony—come out.

“John! You are okay!” the magenta colored pony called, she ran to him and began nuzzling his leg in affection. Confused, 'John' backed away slowly from the purple mare who flinched in surprise. “John? What’s the matter?” she asked, looking slightly hurt at his dismissal. Doing his best to ignore the sad horse, he mulled over the name, feeling a familiarity to it.

Before he could ponder too long, an influx of memories began assaulting his mind, instantly bringing him up to speed, he groaned at the suddenness of the moment and grabbed his now aching head, trying to nurse it back to health.

“How… do you know my name?” he asked the unicorn who only stared with mouth agape, she turned towards the taller horse who only shook her head and motioned her to go over to him. She slowly trotted towards her but stopped to look back at John who only gave a deadpan look, bringing a sigh from the purple mare.

“My apologies, I have yet to introduce myself; I, am Princess Celestia, and I am the ruler of this land, the purple unicorn you see here is named Twilight Sparkle, and she is my most loyal student. Now, would you like to introduce yourself?” she asked, still talking in a soothing tone, he debated speaking out of term, but decided against it.

He didn't want a kick to the face by a horse that size.

“My name, as, um, Twilight said, is John. Now if I may be a bit forward, what is going on, and where the hell am I?” he cursed at his lack of tact, but being in what appeared to be a land of talking horses seemed like a good reason to be angry. He looked over at the purple unicorn who just stared at the floor in response, he made a not to ask her when the time was right.

The ruler only stared with soft eyes and got on her hooves, she walked towards the window behind her throne and stared into the moonlight, she stood there for a few uncomfortable minutes, nearly causing John to cough under his breath to regain her attention.

Fortunately for him, she finally seemed to be taking the initiative.

“Twilight, take him to his room. I need to go relieve my sister from her post, and as you probably know, I must also raise the sun as well, I will be with you both soon enough,” Twilight nodded and gave the royal horse a close approximation of a hug, then nodded to John who returned the nod in turn before following Twilight out.

As soon as they made their way outside, the lone human noticed two new ponies standing at opposite sides of the door they had just exited from, they stared surprised for a moment, but quickly regained their composure, and returned to what he assumed was their job as guards.

They walked silently for a while, and John who at that point had had enough, chose to break the awkward silence.

“Raise the sun?” he asked with curiosity to the silent mare.

“In our world, the sun is raised by Princess Celestia herself. On the other end of the spectrum, is her sister named Luna, whose job is to raise the moon—Just added that in case you wanted to know,” John only stared incredulously at the back of what he now thought was an insane pony, but decided not to question it further.

He was now in a world that apparently housed sentient equines, another incredibly ridiculous thing added to the list certainly wouldn’t hurt.

They walked along the slowly filling hallways at a brisk pace, drawing glances from passerby ponies who stared in amazement at the young human, some approached him curiously, but all backed away almost instantly.

John, ignoring the craziness around him, was submerged deep in thought.

‘What’s going on? How come I am taking this better than I should have?’ he suddenly bumped into Twilight who had stopped, where he noticed the door to the room he woke up in.

“Want to invite me in?” he asked, giving her a playful grin earning him one in return from the strange being.

“Are you sure you don’t remember anything?”

“Nope”

“Just making sure.”

They entered the room, and John quickly locked the door behind him wanting no interruptions from the random guards or a certain “Sun Princess”.

“Okay Twilight, talk.” he wagged a finger at her, but only got a small giggle from the mare. “WHAT IS SO FUNNY ABOUT THIS!?” he was at the end of his patience, and laughing it off wasn’t going to solve it in his book.

“John,” she began giving him a serious look. “Your mind was affected when we entered something called ‘The Door’. You have what we believe to be short term memory lost, you will probably regain it in a few days, then we c-”

“I don’t care about that! When can you send me back home? I OBVIOUSLY don’t belong here,” he closed his eyes and breathed in, trying to contain the full extent of his contained anger towards Twilight. With effort, he repeated what he wanted in a much calmer manner. “When… can I go back…” he asked again in rasped breaths.

“John, when I arrived in your world, I didn’t know, I’m sorry, I…” she stopped talking and took a quick mouthful of air before resuming her explanation, and reluctantly mouthed out the words. “You can’t go back.”

"W-what?" his heart sank, and his mind became a minefield of emotions, confusiontaking over anything else. His body had gone numb, and he fell back on the floor hitting his head on the shiny floor, he felt the throbbing pain in his head instantly, but ignored it. Twilight was next to him in a flash, mouthing off questions along the lines of whether he was okay or if he needed to talk.

In his mind, neither question would yield a positive answer.

“John, I may not know what you are feeling, and I know this won‘t make it any better, but you have to know that you chose this,” she explained.

“Can you repeat that again?” he asked, while slowly turning his head to face her, giving her a venomous look.

“You chose to come here to my world… with me,” sick thoughts filled his mind at the realization that he might have inadvertently forsaken his life ‘Crappy life, sure, but my life nonetheless’ he began forming thoughts of conspiracy from part of the ponies themselves. ‘What if I was abducted to be forever used as a guinea pig? What if they want to put their weird alien ponies in my stomach!’

Twilight noticed the distraught look John was giving her and recognized it, she had seen the look whenever he had been over thinking things—something she quickly sympathized with— but quickly recalling a certain spell, she focused her magic on her horn, and touched his head, much to John’s increasing terror.

Twilight laid uncomfortably on the wooden floor, not being able to sleep on a bed had kept her in a lousy mood, and she needed to get the attention of the human, but had not been able to wake him from his deep slumber.

‘It must be a human thing.’ she thought amusedly.

“Oh man, I need to stop drin- Oh, wait, I don’t drink,” the now awake human said, following by stepping on Twilight whose breath was quickly thrown out of her body by the weight, she managed a loud enough groan that was not missed by him.

“How the fuck did Michael even manage to put this fucking horse in my house!?” by this time Twilight had gotten on her hooves, and she didn’t take kindly to the misconception the human was presenting, and decided to act against it.

“For your information, I’m not a ‘horse‘, but a pony, I understand we are both part of the equine family, but I consider that rather rude,” she said managing to include the minor tidbit.

The human turned to the sound of her voice and stared flabbergasted at her, unbelieving of what he had just heard.

“I need to start drinking right now,” he muttered keeping his attention away from Twilight, which didn’t bide quite well with her.

“Please, don’t ignore me. Well, now that we have that out of the way, let me introduce myself,” she cleared her throat and began the introductions she had practiced back home. “Greetings! My name, is T-”

The human let out a shriek interrupting Twilight who just rolled her eyes annoyed of the human disregarding her schedule.

‘This is going to be a looong day...” she thought as the human rambled off in panic.

Twilight suddenly broke the magical connection, an act that send her flying to a wall, leaving John gasping for air. He quickly recovered and looked around the room bewildered, until finally coming across Twilight. She watched as he walked towards her at a rushed pace, causing the hurt unicorn to panic, but much to her relief, saw a worried look on his face.

“Twi? Are you okay? I’m sorry for acting like a jerk, please answer me!” he let out words in a blur, causing Twilight to miss most of the intended message, but smiled getting the gist of it.

“Do you remember now, Mr. Grump?” she asked teasingly.

“You tell me,” he enveloped her in a tight hug that left her gasping for air, feeling the danger he was putting his best friend, he loosened his grip and let her rest on his arms.

“So… what now?” asked John, realizing that he had to begin anew.

”Now, you live, of course,” Celestia’s voice echoed in the room, as she manifested in a ball of white light that partially blinded the pair.

John quickly got on his feet and turned to bow while holding Twilight, an act that caused the Princess to raise a brow in surprise and Twilight to squirm in his loosened grip.

“I want to apologize for my early rudeness, your majesty,” she scanned him for a few seconds and gave a soft smile that John quickly returned in kind.

Then the smile faltered, and the Princess spoke in a serious tone.

“I, Celestia, decree that the human known as John, will be allowed to live in Equestria. He will be treated as any other of my little ponies, and he will be expected to follow the rules abided by our land in return. For the time being, he will be on probation, he will be watched over by Twilight Sparkle from Ponyville, and he will be expected to learn about the magic of Friendship by getting to know more ponies, just like my most loyal student has.”

John simply stared in confusion.

"Wait, what?"

Twilight beamed at the praise and clapped her hooves excitedly at the mention of John staying with her, the Princess raised her hoof and she stopped her motions, returning to full silence while Celestia gave her final thoughts.

“You may leave the castle whenever you wish to. I will make sure a written copy of what I have decreed is send to Town Hall back in Ponyville, there will be a meeting to speak of this in due time, but for now, relax,” she gave the pair one final curt nod, and made a beeline towards the door.

Both human and unicorn let out a sigh, relieved that everything had gone well.

“Oh, and John?” Princess Celestia called him from the door.

“Um, yes, Princess?”

“Welcome to Equestria.”

Author's Notes:

My first sequel! And the last time I post a chapter of anything until after New Year's.

I had a rocky start with this one I must say, but I think it went okay.
I'm looking for something I can use as cover art, if someone is willing to help me find some, or maybe someone I can refer to so I can do a request, any help is welcome.

I appreciate any feedback from you guys!

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Why, hello there. Didn't see you come in. If you are still reading this, here is your first and ONLY warning regarding what you read in the notes. I have been adding notes regarding the chapter you just finished reading, and will do so for every chapter moving forward. If you are enjoying the story, I heavily recommend not reading the spoiler marked parts, otherwise, go nuts. It's honestly something I'm doing for myself. A way to reminisce, I suppose.

Notes 1
This chapter was the beginning of a looooong journey that's still going, I'm rather comfortable about this chapter, and was much easier to edit, I must admit.

Also... I'm still hoping for that cover art that isn't me stealing one.