That was quite a pleasant smell.

Maybe it was a stupid thing to notice, but really didn't have much of a choice at the moment. He still remembered everything that had happened with perfect clarity, and he really wished he didn't.

He kept his eyes closed so he wouldn't have to look around and see. His mouth was tightly drawn and his entire body was numb. As for his ears, well there was a distant buzzing in them but otherwise they seemed to be just as out of order as the rest of his senses.

Except for his nose apparently.

That smell was too strong to ignore, which was strange because it wasn't that strong by itself. It was more like it came from all around him. Like every part of his so far unknown surroundings was overflowing with it. It made it impossible for him to simply ignore everything that had happened and pretend he was back home asleep in his basement.

His basement didn't smell this nice.

He had no idea how long he had spent this way, laying there ignoring everything but that annoying, probably health friendly smell. But he was fighting a losing battle. Gradually, he felt sensation return to his body. The buzzing in his ears receded and he felt how his mouth was filled with saliva. Even his damn eyes were telling him that something very bright was shining on his eyelids.

His fingers twitched, and he breathed in through his nose which only made the smell double in strength. His brain was quick to tell him how nice it was and that he should continue doing it. Stabbed in the back by his own brain. This was just going terrific.

He expelled the breath and started feeling around with his fingers. There was definitely something around him on the ground.

It felt dry and brittle and crumbled at his touch.

He sat up without opening his eyes and turned his head, then spat out the mouthful of saliva before taking a few quick breaths and holding the last one as he tensed up and opened his eyes.

He was in the middle of a forest. The world was bright as a golden sunlight fell on the nature around him, bathing it in a warm glow and giving it a very idyllic appearance. He could see squirrels scurrying up a far away tree, and birds of all kinds were singing happily around him.

He threw up in his mouth a little.

Spitting out the sour phlegm, he forced his stupidly smiling face into a sour scowl and got up from the ground. Looking down around him, he noticed something very strange though. In a perfect circle around him all of the grass had died and was now a deathly white colour that fell apart into dust as he moved his feet around.

“I wonder if I had anything to do with that?” he asked himself loudly.

It COULD have been a coincidence, not very likely but still.

He felt around his body with his hands and started to get nervous. It felt really solid....almost like a physical body.

Which was of course impossible. He already was connected to a physical body, and transporting a physical body across worlds and even dimensions was strictly forbidden without permission, which he did not have. And even if he did have it, he didn't even come close to having the necessary skills.

So what had happened?

Obviously, Loke had decided to do something incredibly stupid just to spit in the powers faces without actually spitting. It certainly sounded like him at least.

But how? He couldn't have transported his body. He would have been stopped immediately by some agent of the powers, and as long as he had a body he was connected to Loke couldn't do a damn thing to connect him to a new one.

Besides, he recognized the body he was wearing. It was his, no question about it. Though it still felt...strange.

But where the hell did that leave him?

“Arghh!” he screamed at nothing trying to vent his frustration, and all the forest around him went deathly quiet. However it didn't last long. First one brave little bird gave off a hesitating chirp and waited. When no retribution followed all the other birds began singing again and the forest went back to normal.

Except for the furious human standing in the midst of it who could feel a brain aneurysm creeping closer.

“Fine, only one way to get to the bottom of this.”

He certainly hoped he would be listening.

“LOKE YOU BACKSTABBING TREACHEROUS SCUMBAG! ANSWER ME!”

“I can hear you fine little mage,” a faint echo answered. It was coming from such a large distance that it was barely perceptible.

“WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO!?”

“Hehehe, something very clever.”

“Explain, now!”

“Well,” the voice went on, “It was quite simple really, so simple it was a stroke of genius I dare say. To put it simply, when you were drawing power, you needed a large source of energy, and you used me first since your body could not generate enough.”

There was a slight pause for dramatic silence before he added.

“But that was not quite true. You see, a physical body is an enormous bundle of energy, but so much of it is chained down to create the physical matter it is composed of. What I did was simply turn your dense meat bag of a body into energy. I shifted the matter and released it from the crude design so it could start vibrating at a higher frequency. It isn't that complicated, so you understand what I mean.”

“I do,” the mage responded in a hollow voice, “But why?”

“Because I could. This was the whole reason I had you fetch that tiny unicorn in the first place, so I could break one of the most core tenants laid down by the powers without actually breaking a single rule. Now, now don't act so depressed. This place isn't some kind of hellish dimension after all. Breaking the rules might have been my primary concern but I still had your own interests in mind.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” the mage growled. He really shouldn't be surprised, but despite knowing this, he couldn't stop feeling like he had been betrayed. He had trusted Loke to a certain degree.

A foolish mistake obviously.  

“What I mean is that this world happens to be one of the most innocent and uncorrupted worlds I have ever seen. All in all, it is the perfect training ground for an up and coming trickster.”

“What if I don't feel like playing your student?”

“First of all you wont be. This is strictly a trial and error kind of deal. You'll be on your own. Secondly, you don't have much choice. If you had finished your training with your old master and achieved full wizardhood, you could have easily made a dimensional jump back to your home. But you didn't because you are just too set on the idea of being dark and tragic that you won't even try and deal with your personal issues.”

“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU KNOW ABOU...!”

“Shush child, there's a grown up talking now. Where was I...Oh right.”

He could hear the sound of a throat being cleared before the god went on.

“Yes thirdly, you made a promise to obey one order no matter what it was, and here it is. You will remain in this exact world in this exact dimension until I tell you it's fine for you to leave. You may not try to leave and you may not allow anyone, or anypony, to make you leave either.”

The mage kept quiet. What was there to say? He had just been tricked into an unwilling banishment from his home, and technically Loke had KILLED him before stranding him here for an undetermined amount of time.

"Fuck my life..."

Which reminded him. “Why do I have a body. You said you unravelled it and feed it to the ritual?”

“What would be the point of all of this of you would just roam around as some kind of incorporeal spirit. No, the energy that was feed into the ritual was more than enough to shape into a new body. Before you ask, it used your stored mental imprints of your body as a blueprint before taking shape.”

The god hummed a bit before adding.

“Come to think of it you should really thank me, your new body isn't an exact copy of your old one , more a copy of your mental image. Your new body should be without imperfections, you were just handed a realization of your ideal body image on a silver platter and you do nothing but complain. The ingratitude of youth these days!”

Curious, the mage couldn't help but check how his new body felt. It certainly felt better, like he had done nothing but adhere to the strictest and healthiest of behaviour for all his life.

“Now if that was all I am afraid I have other business to take care of, remember, no leaving.”

Despite having literally several dimensions between them the mage could feel the grin of the old god.”Oh, and do remember to have fun! Tatty-bye!”

All the mage could hear now was the birds going about their singing and the rustling of leaves as the wind gently blew across the forest canopy.

He hated the place already.

Taking a deep breath to calm himself he pushed all his anger out of his mind and tried to focus. Fine, he was stuck in this world for maybe the rest of his life. So he'd find a way to live with it.

He had learned to live with far worse.

Refusing to let his thoughts drift even close to that direction, he angrily set off in a random direction with heavy stomps and a look radiating anger. Oh, he was going to make quick friends with the locals he was sure of it.

“Great now I'm being sarcastic towards myself as well,” he muttered as he passed tree upon tree seemingly without end.

He continued to walk while ignoring what must have been hours passing by, and also making sure he was walking in the same direction. But the sound of water splashing stopped him in his tracks. He tilted his head while listening more closely. He was kind of thirsty, now that he thought about it.

There it was again! It was coming from his right. He ran toward the sound feeling an increasing desperation for water. He spotted a glistening pond between the trees and ran out towards it.

Honestly he had no idea why he jumped into it, and certainly did not know what possessed him to give of a scream of delight before disappearing beneath the water.

The water wasn't deep, barely deep enough for him to be completely submerged but it didn't matter, it felt so good. His body felt just so damn good! He wanted to swim, run, jump and cackle manically while doing it. He still hated Loki, but he couldn't disagree with the fact that his newly formed body was a step up from the last one. Not that there had been anything wrong with the last one, but a life of quiet study had not led to an over abundance of physical activity. Well except for the time spent under his old masters tutelage. He gave a small shudder at the memory and surfaced for air.

Now that his anger had simmered down and he was able to think clearly again, he had to admit that this was quite a beautiful place. He could have ended up in far worse.

Damn it! He was already beginning to forgive Loke for his selfish schemes.

He pulled himself up to shore and took a few sips of water from his cradled hands before giving off a satisfied sound. He walked over to a nearby tree and sat down with his back towards it and relaxed. He would get hungry soon and eventually night would fall, but he didn't worry. His old master was an old-school wizard, which meant they did not take kindly to having to rely on any kind of “technological mismatchery” as he had called it.

His idea of training someone to eventually be a wizard was a curriculum that consisted of learning to survive in the wilderness during the day and when he finally got to return home and was barely able to keep his eyes open, it was time for all the magic studies.

Oh, and then the martial arts training on the weekends that took about five days to heal from, just in time for the next round.

Yes, old school wizards held to the idea of only training those with the potential to become superhuman. It might have worked too, if he hadn't actively tried to learn as little as possibly purely for the sake of rebellion. It happens when someone else has that kind of utter control of your life, you rebel purely by instinct ... being a teenager at the time might have contributed as well.

As it stood, the mage might not have become the demigod, take-on-all-challenges superman his master had hoped for but he hadn't done too bad either. Not so bad he would die of starvation in happy sunshine forest at least.

His quiet reminiscence had left him sleepy, and the gently wafting breeze and the insistent bird song made it very hard for him to keep his eyes open. After a while he realized he was falling asleep, and he didn't mind that at all.

He dreamt something. He didn't know what exactly, everything was so confused and scattered. He thought to himself that it was his brain still trying to process all the changes he had gone through to the point he couldn't dream anything properly yet. It didn't matter thought. For once he actually felt ... at peace.

But eventually he woke up.

Night had fallen but he could see everything very clearly. Suspicious, he looked around and began noticing little details that had escaped him before. Unless his new body came with some kind of night vision, which he doubted, there was a fundamental difference here between Earth and ... Equestria.

He stood up and turned to face the tree, and then let his hand glide upwards along the trunk. It was too smooth. Not rubbery smooth or weird smooth. He could feel the usual texture of tree bark but it felt diminished in its sharp angles. More friendly somehow. This made him think a bit and he began biting his nails.

From what he learned from Twilight, this entire world had a streak of innocence in it. Compared to the standards of his native world at least. Was this innocence and friendliness so exaggerated that it shaped the entire natural world around them as well? Was purity and naivety some kind of requirement for existence in this world?

If so, he was in trouble.

Putting that thought out of his mind, he looked around. He could see almost as well as he did by day. Maybe this world didn't want anypony to be scared of the dark or something. It didn't matter. He could see, so that meant he would not need to make a camp waiting for daylight to break.

Continuing on his path west he only stopped once to sample some strange berry's he found growing on a bush. Like everything about this place they were sweet and bright to the point they almost glowed in the dark, and they did well for sating hunger.

He moved easily through the forest. The power in his new legs made it easy to move at a faster rate than he normally would, and even then it took several hours before he felt his heart rate increase.

Damn that felt good.

“Don't get arrogant. You are a stranger here and don't know what kind of danger might be waiting to pounce on you at any time.”

Barely a second had passed after stating that out loud before he heard a rustling sound come from a pair of bushes a few meters to his left.

“Just my luck. It's probably a manticore or one of the other predators Twilight spoke of.”

Readying himself for battle, he sank down into a basic martial arts stand and prepared for whatever horrible monstrosity that would come charging out of the bushes intent on tearing him apart and devouring the remains.

The rustling was heard again.

“Any moment now.”

And again, this time closer.

“Any moment now.”

Finally the bushes shook violently and out of the bushes came ...

A tiny white bunny.

The mage stared at the small creature for a moment before he began laughing at the relief that coursed through him.

But the bunny obviously failed to see the humour as it gave off a little squeak and came running towards him.

“You're kidding right?” the mage managed to ask the little ball of white fur before it tried to bite his ankle.

Yelping loudly the mage jumped back and before the bunny could make another attempt he grabbed its neck and held it up at eye level.

“Hey! No scratching or biting. I just got this body and I'd like to keep it in pristine condition for one day at least.”

It was strange, the bunny wasn't squirming the way bunnies usually did back home, and he had hunted quite a few of them.

No, this bunny was just waving his arms around, almost as if he was trying to punch him ...

A voice interrupted his thoughts as well as the bunny's futile attempts to knock him out. There was someone in the forest, and whoever it was it was trying to find someone else by the sounds of it. Long drawn out calls with what sounded like a sentence structure.

He thought about this for a moment, he would have to be careful, there would be many ways for the first interaction with the locals to go wrong.

He looked down at the bunny who was looking in the direction the voice had come from.

"Hmmm, maybe I should just break the bunny's neck and offer to share some food over a camp fire with the unknown creature. Most likely it is a pony".

But if it was a pony then that wouldn't do. They were herbivores. That he was sure of from Twilight's reaction when had he eaten a steak.

“Hehehe, she never did answer my question if she liked the taste.”

He could hear the creature moving around. She was heading south, and if he didn't go to her she would pass him by soon. Judging by the voice it had to be a female ... otherwise he felt very sorry for the males of this world.

Of course, if it wasn't a pony, it might be a carnivore or omnivore like him, then grilled bunny might be a perfect gift.

She was beginning to draw away. He had to make a decision. He put his right hand around the bunny's neck and it immediately began trembling. But just as he was about to snap its neck he realized he didn't need to. If the stranger was a meat eater he could simply kill the bunny then and there, if not he guessed he could release it or come up with an excuse of some kind for having it.

Nodding his head at the wisdom of his decision he began walking in the direction the voice had come from, for some reason when the bunny noticed this it began struggling twice as hard as it had before.

Walking around a big tree he came out in a small clearing and to his far left stood a small pony with it's back turned towards him. She was slowly heading towards the tree line and from her posture looked incredibly tense. He guessed even the very bright night around here was enough to scare some ponies. He walked silently towards her and stopped about three meters behind her before giving off a small cough.

The little pegasus, it was hard not to notice the wings, twisted around so fast he thought her neck would crack from whiplash, but her eyes instead immediately went to the little bunny dangling at his left side.

She made some kind of relieved sound in what sounded like an incredibly smooth singing language, looking down the mage realized what the pony must have been out looking for.

“...Oh my...”

That could have gone really badly.

But the pegasus, it was a little hard to see but she seemed to be of a very light cream colouring of some kind in both body and mane, looked up at the creature holding her stray pet and started trembling before she promptly fell down to the ground and put her hooves over her face.

He could hear her whimpering softly to herself.

He took a step closer to her, about to try and reassure her that he wasn't about to eat her, never minding the whole grilled bunny idea, when said bunny began twisting about like it was insane.

Giving it an annoyed look he dropped the bunny in front of him, hoping the pegasus would notice and understand his harmless intentions. The bunny didn't seem to get his status as a harmless newcomer either, because it immediately jumped over so he stood before the pegasus and spread it arms out to either side as if barring him from touching her.

He couldn't help himself.

“Really, what you gonna do? Cute me to death?”

The pegasus had removed one hoof slightly when she felt the tiny bunny leaning against her, and was now watching the mage from the imagined safety behind her little protector. He must have taken that job very seriously, because the bunny puffed up his chest before once more charging against the mage, who didn't bother with some witty remark on the utter ridiculousness of the situation.

He just flung out his right hand at the charging bunny and it promptly fell to its side, asleep.

Judging from the pony's reaction though, one might have thought he made it explode in a shower of guts and blood, because she started whimpering twice as loud and shaking so bad he became worried something might break.

“So what do I do now?”

She was obviously scared beyond reasoning, and even if he could reason with her they didn't speak the same language, that problem never existed with Twilight since they'd utilized telepathy.

“Fine, one problem at a time, I hope she won't die out of shock for what I'm about to do.”

He took a quick breath and cleared his mind before he ran towards the pegasus, when she heard him coming she flew up from the ground and screamed, preparing to fly away from what she must think is some kind of monster attacking her.

He didn't give her a chance.

He threw himself at the pegasus and pinned her wings against her body before landing on top of her, her wings were pushed to the ground and the rest of her was unable to move because of his superior mass. He grabbed her head with both hands and forced her to meet his gaze.

She had tears streaming down her face and he hesitated for one second at the sight of this. She looked like a perfect representation of angelic innocence and purity despite being non-human in form, he shrugged and forced all thoughts from his mind.

“The sooner this is fixed the better.”

He steeled his mind and as he looked into the pony's eyes he began exerting his influence over her mind. It worked almost immediately.

The pegasus beneath him had a relaxed look on her face and her eyes were glasses over. He took a slow breath and held it for a moment before letting it out, blowing on the pegasus face. He continued with this and with every time he slowly blew out air his mind went a little deeper into hers, after just five breaths he felt her walls surrender to his pressure and he melted into her.

       **************************************************

He was in the middle of a fucking zoo!

But there were no cages or zoo-keepers as far as he could see. No, just a shit load of animals covering almost every square inch of the place!

The mage himself was standing hidden behind a large tree, above him he could hear what sounded like hundreds of birds singing in perfect tune with each other. So far they hadn't noticed him standing below them. He didn't want them to either, in the distance he could see lions, tigers, elephants and a lot of other animals for which he had no name but was pretty sure had sharp teeth and claws.

He looked around and tried to locate the pegasus whose mind he was currently within but couldn't see her anywhere.

Oh wait, there she was!

She was flying high above all the animals and was spreading some kind of unidentifiable food, strangely enough all the animals ate at it when it fell down around them, including the predators.

Trying to develop a strategy for dealing with all of these creatures, he eventually arrived at the conclusion that the best way was the direct way. The mind would only defend itself if the conscious controller did, he had already broken through the automatic mental defenses.

So either she was just as timid and afraid in here and that wouldn't be a problem, or she would turn out to have channelled all her pent up emotions inwards and turn into some kind of bloodthirsty death god.

It was her mind after all.

“No guts no glory. Get out there now!”

As far as inspirational speeches goes, it left much to be desired but at least it was something. The mage abandoned his hiding place and went out into the open, all the animals ignored him until he stood below the flying pegasus and called.

“HEY, you up there! I need to talk to you!”

The pegasus looked like she had managed to trip on air before she corrected herself and looked down, as soon as she did the entire assortment of animals froze.

“Oh shit,” a thought echoed out from the mage.

But his fear didn't come to realization as all the animals began squeaking, squawking, roaring, screeching and all other kinds of noises.

All in fear.

It was the most well coordinated retreat the mage had ever seen, the forest they stood in was cramped with animals, yet they all managed to avoid running into one another in their attempt to flee as fast as they possibly could. After a few minutes of ear shattering noise all was silent, and a very terrified pegasus lowered herself down from the air until she stood before the mage, trembling but not as bad as before.

“You... you can talk?”

“Yes amazing isn't it what one can do with a vocal cord and a tongue, I am sorry for the ... introductions outside.”

“What do you mean....b-by outside?”

“I mean that we are inside you're mind as we speak, can you remember what happened before, meeting me outside?”

She looked confused, but realization dawned upon her soon enough and she started whimpering again, looking up at him with her eyes filled with terrible loss.

“N-no.....oh poor little...A...angel.”

She looked about to burst into tears so he hurriedly said.

“The bunny? He's only asleep don't worry about him he's fine.”

“Y-you promise that he's not hurt?”

“Promise, now the reason I'm here is simple: I don't speak your language and I need to learn fast.”

“What do you mean, we're talking right now.”

“No, we are just thinking thoughts. Now listen closely. I want you to concentrate on all that you know about your language, every feeling, thought and whatever else you can associate with it.”

“But I....”

“No buts, do it now.”

Her face looked tense, but she seemed to have gotten over the worst part of her fear and was now trying to help him. It took time but eventually a sound echoed out of her. It contained all that he had asked her to think about concerning her language. And as the sound spread out another sound responded in turn. It came from an old well close to where they were standing.

The mage walked over to it while a confused pegasus watched him, she was really cute as well, just like Twilight but in a different way. Her mane had a pink coloring to it and a light, soft, yellow covered the rest of her body, she had a cutie mark that was in the shape of three butterflies on her flank.

“Oh crap.”

“What?” the pegasus asked in a fearful voice.

“Your name wouldn't happen to be Fluttershy would it?”

“H-how do you know my name?”

“Great, just great, Uhh, I'm a friend of Twilight.”

“Twilight! But...but...do you know what's happened to her? Please we have been so wor...”

“Yes, yes I know. We'll talk about that later, right now I need to let an alien language be absorbed into my mind.” and with a dramatic flourish of his robe had let himself fall down the well.

He heard a squeak of fear from the pega ... from Fluttershy before he hit the water. When he did, he allowed himself to sink deeper down, and felt around with his senses for what he was looking for.

And there it was, the language of Equestria. He didn't get a sense they had a name for it, it was simply the language of Equestria at least to this particular pony. He ignored all the personal emotions she had connected with each word and its meaning, and instead simply let the factual understanding seep into him.

It was extremely unpleasant but considering the situation, he didn't have any other viable options.

When he felt he had absorbed all that he could, he relaxed his mind and let the mental projection he was wearing fade into nothingness, and he was abruptly called back into his own body.

    ***************************************************

He was still on top on Fluttershy, but the pony didn't really look scared now, she looked more like she was on the verge of utter panic but hadn't decided if she should be or not.

Who could resist the opportunity?  

He raised an eyebrow and with a suggestive tone and half smirk simply asked in his newly acquired language.

“How ya doing?”

Next Chapter: Chapter 4: Smile at the world and it will smile back Estimated time remaining: 26 Hours, 49 Minutes