Plink. Plink. Plink.

The rhythmic dripping of water from somewhere set the time as I laid down on an old mattress, lumpy with age most likely. My surroundings were extremely drab, the dull greys of stone lining three walls, with a slightly less dull grey of some sort of metal lining the fourth. Yup, a cell. Murphy was having a field day with me today. At the end of what was supposed to be my Friday, the start of another wonderful weekend, I instead found myself captive.

It had started out as one of those days. Where, before you even get out of bed, things just seem to go wrong, regardless of what you do. When I rose out of bed, a soft squishy noise accompanied my left foot as it came to rest on the wood floor. My dog, in all his intelligence, decided to leave a present for me. Grumbling, I made my way over to the bathroom, doing the one legged hop the twenty or so feet to the toilet. I managed to stub my toe on the porcelain throne while cleaning up. And this was just the first few minutes of my day.

I had at least managed to get out the door to work on time. At least, until the twenty four car pileup on the highway happened right in front of me. Luckily, I wasn't part of it, but that was the only 'lucky' part of it. My twenty minute commute turned into two hours as the various vehicles were slowly removed from the highway. Arriving at work late never goes over well, even when there's a valid excuse. So, needless to say, I got chewed out by my boss when I finally showed up, somehow being the only employee affected by the accident. Bah!

So, the workday at least flew by. Seeing how my late arrival put me starting at a little past nine, I only had six hours of actual IT work to cover. Of course, we ended up getting slammed with work. One of our larger client's servers had all failed; the primary, secondary, and tertiary ones. Seriously Murphy, fuck off, it's my Friday! So, due to this workorder coming in late in the day, and being a high priority job, quitting time was moved from three in the afternoon to six.

Getting into my car, the low fuel light greeted my sight. Muttering quite a few curses, I made my way to the nearest gas station, to find that during my work day, the price of gas at all the nearby stations had increased by twenty two cents while I'd slaved away at work. Talk about a shitty Friday!

Once I got home, I cleaned out my pockets and beelined for the fridge. Nothing like a cold one to take the edge off a crappy day, while also starting the weekend. Sitting down in front of the computer, I set my beer down next to it and simply petered around online for awhile, catching up on the news and some stories.

Feeling hungry, I got up and made my way to the kitchen, deciding to have some breakfast for dinner. Grabbing the eggs and bacon, I set them on the counter then fired up the stovetop. After a few minutes, the sizzling of wonderful bacon began to reach my ears, the delightful aroma tickling my senses. Then, right as it was perfect and ready to be removed from the pan, it happened.

A large rumbling noise occurred, accompanied with massive shaking. An earthquake. Now, if I had lived in California, or any other part of the world where such a thing was somewhat common, it wouldn't have been such a cause for concern. However, I lived in Florida. One natural disaster hit the state with some frequency, and it wasn't earthquakes. I braced myself against the counter as the pan went flying off the stove; hot grease and my bacon clattering to the floor at my feet.

The shaking continued to intensify, knocking me on my ass after a couple of seconds. The rumbling became a thunderous sound, rising up from the ground, getting closer and closer. Next thing I felt was a searing pain covering my body, as if I had taken a bath in napalm or something; then, nothing.

I woke up to find myself where I currently am now. I've already had my little freak out, at least internally. Losing one's mind doesn't help much when you wake up after an earthquake inside a cell. And oh, did I mention that I'm not even a human anymore? That was quite a shock, let me tell you.

Now, being an avid reader of the fantasy genre for twenty years gave me a very creative and open mind. Throw a little bit of science fiction into that fold, and well, one's imagination could conjure up a lot of things most folk might consider odd. However, waking up with hooves and a slight snout was only the beginning of my troubles. After ensuring that I was indeed not dreaming, which was accomplished by clipping my nose against the cold wall, I attempted to take stock of both myself and my surroundings.

The fact that I was in a jail cell of sorts was very obvious. The first thing that came to mind were the novels in which magic prevailed over technology, or simply a lack of technology. No cameras, lights, or anything else electronic in sight. Not to mention the distinct lack of sound, implying that I was also isolated. With no one in sight, I really couldn't figure out anything else, so I turned my attention fully towards myself.

It was quickly apparent that I was some sort of horse, although obviously none that Earth had seen. My arms and legs, or should I say legs? All bent backwards of what I was used to, and were extremely flexible. I had a muzzle with a somewhat sensitive nose on it, which was still capable of speech... Thank god for the small things I suppose? I felt something cool on my head, but couldn't get a good look at it, as there were no reflective surfaces around for me to use. Turning my head to look backwards, I saw a tail that flicked itself as it came into view. Oh! I nearly forgot another important detail! My hair, or is that a mane for what I am now? That came into my vision was a near indigo in color. And, my new tail matched it as well. My... coat was a shade of green, the closest color I could pin on it was a sea green.

It was rather fascinating really; well, once I got past the memory of the pain. I didn't have much in my history to really place it on a scale, the worst I'd ever really felt was the one time I accidentally stood in an ant hill in sandals for a couple of seconds without noticing. Worst. Day. Ever. My foot was swollen rather well for the next few days, and for a year or so I refused to wear sandals. The sensation prior to blacking out though, it blew that ant experience right out of the water. I suppose that's to be expected though, since it probably did this to me and all that.

I figured it would be a good idea to get a handle on my speech. When I first checked it out, my tongue felt somewhat swollen, which was attributed to it being both larger and longer. Because of this, I stumbled over simple speech. Not fun, not at all.

"Teshtch." I focused a little more, feeling how my tongue moved around inside my mouth a bit more. "Tesht." I squinted a bit in concentration, "test. Test. A-one, a-two, a-tshtr-" Damn, almost. I sounded a bit funny talking aloud with no one around, but I figured it would be best to not sound like a drunk when I did finally meet whomever it was that had put me here. My voice was a nice rich baritone, at least that hadn't changed much.

It took me some time to finally get a proper handle on it. I considered myself successful when I was able to say the pangram 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' three times in rapid succession. Satisfied that I wouldn't make a fool of myself talking now, I decided to singing some. I didn't have the best voice, but I tended to do a pretty good job on karaoke nights down at the bar I visited with my buddies in Saturdays. The first song that came to mind was Breaking Inside, and I began singing softly aloud.

I started out softly, hesitation and uncertainty coming across in the notes. As time trekked on, I began getting louder, more confident, the sound echoing across the empty stone corridors. One song gave way to another, as it helped put my slightly troubled mind more at ease. Plus, the more I sang, the longer I could put off trying to walk. It was something that I wasn't looking forward to.

The sound of a door opening then closing reached my ears, and I immediately stopped singing, curious as to who it could be. While most folks would probably be going crazy to some degree, I was too practical to let such a thing occur... at least for now. Why panic over something that is out of my control afterall? A multitude of clopping noises could be heard, which I assumed were hooves.

The first figure to come into sight was a solid white horse, his mane some shade of blue that I couldn't quite put a name to. He was dressed to the nines in what appeared to be a military dress uniform of sorts, and I did a double take as I also noted the pearly white horn that rested atop his forehead. "Huh. Unicorn. That's cool."

His eyes tightened and narrowed as he rested his steely gaze on me as I spoke. I heard a few others out of sight and waited for them to come into view, but after a few seconds of a very uncomfortable silence, it appeared as is they were content being out of sight, at least for now. "So," He began, gaze never leaving me as a piece of parchment flew into sight, surrounded by a magenta color, as was his horn. "You are imprisoned under charges of trespassing in a restricted area. Depending on what you say, more charges may be levied against you, from assault to attempted regicide. Do you understand?"

My gaze was still focused on his horn and the floating parchment. It seems that I was indeed in a place where magic existed in lieu of technology... cool. I caught the last word he said as it snapped my attention back towards him, a slightly sheepish grin across my face. "Errr, sorry... I missed what you said. Is that magic? Pretty cool." I'm sure if I were to ever look back on this next part here, I'd want to shoot myself in the face for how poorly I handled the next few minutes.

His eyes widened in shock, then refocused on me as his tone turned to anger. "Foal, do you not understand the gravity of your situation? You could easily find yourself locked up for quite some time, and you don't even have the attention span to listen to your charges? Pathetic." He levitated a quill from somewhere and brought it to the parchment. "Now, what is your name?"

After a few moments of looking between his horn and the stuff he was levitating, I refocused and faced him. "Sorry about that, never seen real magic. Name's Arthur Ziegler, nice to meet you? Where exactly am I anyways?" As I was still laying down, and he was outside the door, I didn't make any moves to walk up to him. Besides the fact he might try to pound in my face, if the crimson in his face from anger was any indication, I didn't want to fall on my face and look a fool.

I felt a cold wave of something wash over me. Whereas my entry into this place was accompanied by a searing pain, this particular feeling was as if I'd just jumped into a frozen lake. Cold numbness encompassed my being for a few seconds, leaving me shivering slightly in its wake. I heard muted voices as another individual came into sight.

She was definitely something to behold. It might've been my new brain chemistry, but wow was she hot. Her coat, horn, and wings were a lovely shade of dark blue, possibly navy blue. Her tail and mane floated around, seemingly of their own volition, and rather than strands of hair a starfield lay in sight. I was reminded of pictures that the Hubble Telescope took, everything was in startling clarity.

"You! Human!" She growled at me, her stance indicating an extreme willingness to fight. "What are you doing here, what are your intentions?" Her head was lowered, the rather pointy horn leveled directly at me. I suppose the bars were a good thing, now.

I still ended up letting my thoughts get the better of me, at first. "Huh. Winged unicorn. Unisus? Nah, sounds like garbage. Pegacorn? Sounds better, that." I shook my head slightly, still a rather odd sensation, what with having a muzzle and all that now. "Since you know what I am, mind sending me back? I love the idea of magic and all that, but this isn't quite home."

She looked visibly surprised for a moment, raising her head slightly. However, her stance still spoke of impending action. "What do you mean? You know that we cannot travel between our worlds, that alone rests with your human magic. Don't bother trying anything though, not unless you want a nasty headache." She laughed a little in amusement at the end, seemingly taking pleasure in my apparent helplessness.

"Uh, lady, listen. Up until..." My eyes rolled upwards as I tried to calculate the time since waking up. "Maybe two hours ago, I didn't even know magic existed, it's been the stuff of lore for at least a millennium, if not longer. Even if I could access any, I have absolutely no clue how I'd go about using it." She looked taken aback now, confusion evident in her eyes and scrunched brows. For having an equine face, it sure was still plenty expressive, if not more-so, than a human face. "Now, mind telling me where I am, what I am, and how I can get home?"

She relaxed her stance, looking at me inquisitively now. "You say that you don't know of magic?" She trailed off at the end, closing her eyes. They remained closed for a few seconds as her horn became surrounded by an indigo color. Hah, same color as my mane, how funny! The glow cut off as I began to chuckle, amused at such a simple thing. Her glare killed it dead though as she fixated on me once more. "If I had my way, I'd just banish you to Tartarus and be done with it, but my sister sadly doesn't share my sentiment."

A large radiance filled the cell and hallway as a quiet popping sound occurred. I rapidly blinked in an attempt to regain my vision, my eyes watering slightly. As the spots faded away, two new arrivals greeted my eyes. I had thought the dark pegacorn to be rather large in stature, but one of the new arrivals was even larger than her, with a coat similar to the unicorn, except a trace amount of pink was evident in it. Her wings were massive, even folded in at her sides, her horn just as long and deadly looking, and her mane waved in the air as well. Instead of a starfield though, it was filled with colors reminiscent of a cool spring day, and for some reason was very comforting.

The second arrival was just a tad smaller than the unicorn, and wow, so much purple. Or, would that be lavender? Her horn was blunter than the other two pegacorns, and her wings smaller, but still looked rather majestic. As she embraced the darker one, I noticed her mane and tail had stripes of pink and blue in the very center, lending her an exotic look.

All four of them talked in muted whispers, I could see their mouths moving but heard no words. Magic, most likely. The darker one apparently heard something she didn't like, she kept hitting her hoof on the floor in emphasis of something as I watched them. Suddenly, sound returned, and the darker one walked off with the unicorn in tow. The two new mares looked towards me.

I felt another wave of something rush over my body, except instead of extreme cold, I felt more as if I were being caressed by down feathers. Relaxing, yet also somewhat tickling. The lavender mare's horn cut out the same time the feeling did, and she turned towards the larger one. "It's exactly what you said. Eight, Three, and Two right now, with the rest composing the unknown."

The taller one nodded. "I thought as much. No more on that matter for now though, we can discuss it later." She turned her head towards me, sizing me up. Her eyes briefly locked with mine, and in that moment, I felt sheer power, as if the force of the very sun itself was blazing into my soul. As she moved her gaze elsewhere, I was thankful for still being on the cot, as otherwise I would be on my ass for sure.

"I suppose I shall start off with introductions first, then from there I have some questions for you. I am Princess Celestia, alicorn of the sun, and co-ruler of Equestria, the land in which you are currently a guest of. This is Princess Twilight Sparkle, my protege, and alicorn of magic. You met my sister already, Princess Luna, alicorn of the night, who rules alongside me, as well as my Captain of the Guard, Prince Shining Armor." She paused and looked at me expectantly.

Luckily, I took her hint rather quickly and didn't waste too much time. Would be a bad idea to look like an idiot to these two when I'd already pissed off two members of what passed for royalty here. Not a good start, that. "I'm Arthur Ziegler, and uh, I'm from Earth. Not sure how I got like this though. Kinda weird, to be honest." I nervously gulped, the sound sending an echo through the silence.

Celestia nodded at my reply as Twilight wrote something down on a piece of parchment that she held in her grasp. "You'll have to forgive my sister's xenophobia, there was an... incident with one of your species that left a deep mark on her. And me." Another gulp on my part, and for some reason, it caused her gaze to soften, if only a bit. "Now, I'll try to stay impartial here and figure out exactly what is going on. Twilight?"

Twilight finished writing something down and looked up at me. "I only know a little bit of what's going on, but I would like to start with your arrival here, if you don't mind. You appeared out of what appeared to be a standard teleport in the middle of Luna's chambers, and landed on us. You were immediately blasted by her, rendering you unconscious. What do you recall, leading up into that as well." She spoke with a voice I'd expect from a researcher, a mostly flat tone, yet always questioning.

"Well, honestly, I don't recall any of what you said. I remember waking up here and having absolutely NO idea where or what I was. Before I lost consciousness, I was at home, on Earth, cooking some eggs and bacon. Then an earthquake began, which was really odd as the last one felt where I live was something like forty years ago, and it was barely felt. This one shook everything though, and knocked my frying pan clear off the stovetop. Then, there was this searing pain covering my body, and nothing. That's all I remember before this cell, where, Luna? Came and talked to me about an hour or two after I woke up."

The scritch-scratch sound of the quill rapidly moving across the paper was the only sound following my statement for the next minute or so. Celestia and Twilight shared some looks, and their facial expressions changed occasionally, but if they were communicating or not, I didn't know. Finally, they both turned back to me as the quill stopped moving.

"For now, I don't deem you a threat, and you seemed to be telling the truth. In the off chance you were lying to us and know how to use magic, however, know that there is an inhibitor on your horn. Any attempt to use magic will rebound, so the stronger the magic, the higher chance of you being sent right back into unconsciousness." A golden hue formed around the door and opened it as she stepped to the side. "Now, if you would follow us?"

"Horn? What?" My hands, uh, hooves shot up to probe my forehead. After nearly taking out an eye on the way up, they prodded around until I made contact with a spiral atop my own head. Sudden nausea coursed through me as I clinked a hoof against it a bit hard, my body letting me know it protested the rough treatment. "Huh. Fancy that." I sheepishly stared between the floor and my hooves, trying to figure out how to proceed.

I noticed Twilight acutely staring at me out the corner of my eye as I shakily moved to the edge of the cot and dropped my front feet to the ground. It was an odd experience, even though my hoof was a rather solid object, I could still feel the ground beneath me somewhat, almost as if I had balled my hands into a fist then put them on the ground. Taking the chance to stretch my back slightly, I made like a cat and was rewarded with a nice pop or two. Of course, when I looked back up, I flushed slightly in embarrassment as they looked at me with an eyebrow apiece raised, while fighting to hold back some laughter.

Now with two hooves firmly resting on the ground, I shuffled a little bit, and very slowly set down my rear feet. "Uh, a little help here... please?"

Twilight smiled slightly, turning to Celestia. "You owe me ten bits." Moving in to assist me, she came up to my side. "Now, I'm guessing you haven't tried walking since waking up. Our destination isn't very far, and only Celestia and myself will be witness to any... mishaps you might occur, so don't worry yourself. Too much, that is." She chuckled slightly at her joke while I gave her a deadpan stare. "Okay, so what you want to do is..." She proceeded to instruct me on how to properly walk. Talk about feeling like an idiot.

Luckily, it was rather easy to walk once explained. It took all of five minutes, three faceplants, and falling on my ass an additional four times to get it down. Satisfied that I would at least manage to make it to whatever room we were moving to, I followed them out of the dungeons. At the end of the corridor was a large door made of metal, which opened while surrounded by a purple glow. "So, the magic stuff. Anything you mess with glows?" I tried breaking the silence surrounding our small group, while also getting some questions answered.

Twilight was the one to answer me as we began to ascend a staircase. "Anytime we use magic, the field around our horn resonates with the object or objects we want to interact with. This allows us to manipulate them, and it also mirrors the glow around them because of the resonation." She recited it as if reading from a dictionary, leading me to wonder if she was the studious type. That, coupled with her note taking led me to that conclusion.

Celestia interrupted us before I could really come up with a reply to Twilight's explanation. "Please, I know that you have a lot of questions, but they can wait for now. Besides, we're almost there." When she said that it wasn't that far, she wasn't kidding. At the top of the stairs we had only walked a couple of paces before coming up to another door, although this one was carved from a tree of some sort. A crescent moon was nestled inside the sun and surrounded by a field of stars, the two colors creating a large contrast. Two guards snapped to attention and saluted both princesses while looking at me oddly. They dropped their salutes after being acknowledged then opened the door.

Walking inside, still being careful to not fall on my face, I missed the fact that there was a raised rug in front of me. Snagging my left forehoof on it, I went down face first, coming to a halt in the middle of a circle of chairs laid out in the middle of the room. Gently shaking the dizziness from my head, I took a look around.

Luna and Shining Armor were both seated, the former a deep seated look of scorn smeared across her face as she eyed me critically, the latter trying to hold back laughter. There was a new mare sitting next to him, another alicorn. She was mostly pink in color, with a small smattering of purple in her mane, and she was looking at me with... pity? As I rose to my feet, Twilight moved to sit down next to Luna, whispering something in her ear, while Celestia motioned with a hoof to an empty seat that was centered in front of them.

I managed to take my seat without making a fool of myself as Celestia took her seat. From my left to right they were all seated; Twilight, Luna, Celestia in the center, the new alicorn, and then Shining Armor. I nervously shuffled in my seat, the setup had the effect of a perceived trial, at least in my eyes.

Celestia quietly cleared her throat, as her horn illuminated and outlined the room in a golden radiance. A flare of her magic and it disappeared, then she began talking. “So, we’re gathered here to listen to your story, and come to a decision as to what we should do with you. Once you tell us your side, I’ll explain a few things as to why we’re going to such lengths. You’ve met everyone here, albeit briefly, with the exception of Princess Cadance, my niece, and wife to Shining Armor.” She motioned with a hoof to the alicorn seated to her left. “Now, please retell the circumstances of your arrival here, to the best of your memory.”

I went ahead and did exactly that, and, just to humor them a little, also added in all the smaller details of the day. It was rather humorous having to pause to explain Murphy’s Law to Twilight, as out came the quill and parchment once more. Luckily that was the only interruption during my brief, yet detailed, recounting of events.

After I finished, there was a rather nervous silence filling the air as I focused on my front hooves, quietly bringing them together, then apart again. Celestia's horn lit up, and within seconds they broke into a heated discussion. However, I heard not a single word of it. Magic. All I could do was sit there, and wait.

My mind wandered off after the first few minutes. It was extremely obvious to me that Luna hated humans, even if Celestia hadn't confirmed it. Whoever, or whatever, she had encountered, it must have happened not too long ago for her to bear such animosity. Had an aircraft ended up in their land somehow, and bombed something? There were plenty of instances of aircraft, and ships for that matter, simply disappearing, never to be heard from again. Hell, the Bermuda Triangle had all those rumors and whatnot floating around about it. If even one story in one hundred could be believed, who knows what had happened to color her outlook so.

As my train of thought came to its station, the magical glow died down and Celestia spoke, her voice abolishing the silence at last. "It has been decided, Arthur. By a vote of three yes, one no, and one abstain, we shall attempt to help you either get home, or integrate into our society here in Equestria. The spells necessary to traverse dimensions are not at the beck and call of us, however, and therefore it could be a rather long process." She relaxed slightly, as did the others.

"Well, that's good, somewhat, I suppose..." I nervously stated, trailing off as I looked down at the carpet, attempting to count the fibers.

"Now, I'm sure you might want to know why this was necessary. The last humans we encountered inadvertently brought much pain with them, some of it still felt to this day." Her voice dropped to a near whisper as she asked a single question; one that caused my head to shoot up, my brain to freeze, and my jaw to loosely dangle open.

"Have you ever heard of Arthur Pendragon and his son Mordred?"

Author's Notes:

In light of all of these Pokemon crossovers lately, I shall begin with... A WILD STORY HAS APPEARED!

What we have here is a simple concept that quickly grew into a monster. What if Arthurian lore were to be intermingled with the history of Equestria? I think the thought first came to me while recalling the TV show Merlin, and it kinda took off on its own. Hopefully I can keep you all thoroughly entertained, I'll have another chapter up tomorrow!