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[NORMAL] The Stranger

Chapter 1: A strange visitor

This is a story revolving around a series of events that occurred one summer in a small, quiet town called Ponyville. On the outskirts of this town there is a large tree that dominates the horizon, but has strangely got windows, balconies and doors scattered throughout its exterior. This tree is in-fact the Ponyville library and contains books on everything from humble muffin recipes to ‘The Elements Of Harmony’. Flying around the outside of the Library is a Pegasus, a feathered winged pony,  that has two saddle-bags full of what appears to be letters.

        Inside the library books are scattered everywhere, all over the floor and every conceivable flat surface. There is a Unicorn pony rushing about gathering books up with her magic frantically, nearly tripping over her purple mane, and is accompanied by a small dragon with green spines, who is sleeping. The Unicorn hears the doorbell ring and stops mid-trot. “Just a minute” she calls toward the door, the reply was a muffled “I haven’t got forever”. The Unicorn put a book away with her magic and answered the door; she was greeted by a soggy letter in her face.

“Rainbow, seriously you must stop carrying these in your mouth!”. Stated the white unicorn in disgust.

“Ugh, sorry Rarity. It is kind of hard not to, and I am still getting used to this ‘delivery pony’ thing.”. Replied the blue Pegasus. This Pegasus was different from many other ponies for she had a mane that contained all the colours in the spectrum. For some reason, the red colour seemed dominant throughout.

“Well, I think you are doing the right thing covering for Ditzy. Oh, how is she?”

“Getting better, but she has got to learn to fly higher, above the tree line. Hey, where’s Twilight?”

“She’s with Applejack, apparently Sweetie Bell and Applebloom got involved in an accident regarding a scooter...” Her voice trailed off as if she was asking a question.

“Scootaloo”, Rainbow Dash said under her breath. “Uh, Rarity got to go, there’s letters to deliver”, as Rainbow flew away she muttered “That filly is going to get herself hurt soon, she needs to start flying like other Pegasi, and get off of that silly scooter”.

Rarity kicked the door shut and turned around facing the mess that she had temporally forgotten about, she sighed and got on with her work, the dragon is still asleep, snoring loudly now.

***

“Twi!, Where are you? Ah found Scootaloo”. Yelled a bright orange pony with long but tidy hair kept neat under a hat. A reply was heard from the other side of the farm “I am coming Applejack, hang on”. Applejack could see a purple glow in the distance and then out of nowhere appeared a purple Unicorn, with a violet mane with an indigo stripe stretching its length. “Jeez Twilight, you gotta stop doin’ that, you scare me”. Twilight’s face went red and a just audible reply of “Whoops” could be heard. From behind Applejack appeared a tiny orange Pegasus, with tiny wings to match. Twilight looked at the filly with a mixture of anger and relief, anger that this little pony caused the whole farm so much trouble and grief, but she was glad for her safety. The filly suddenly jumped up with a smile beaming across her face and stared expectantly at her flank. The smile went as quick as it came and the filly sulked off. “Won’t that Scootaloo ever learn that her special talent is not hang-gliding?”. From afar they heard another screech as a small white unicorn riding a scooter narrowly missed a treehouse at quite a high speed. Twilight and Applejack simultaneously face-hoofed.

***

As Twilight approached her library, for it was also her home, she swore she saw Rarity duck behind a window, but she assumed it would just be her overactive imagination. After a party like the one she has just been at with the Apples, anypony would feel drowsy. The sun was dipping over the horizon behind her library and gave the sky a luminescent glow of different intensities of red. As Twilight approached the door she remembered what a mess she left behind, and recoiled from the door at the thought. She had to leave in a hurry after she got the emergency call from Applejack that Sweetie Bell crashed into Applebloom on her friend’s scooter. Twilight eased the door open, dreading the sight that was bound to welcome her.

It must have been a good minute before Twilight blinked again. There were no books to be seen, all were in their bookshelves and in the correct order. She looked over at the ladder that the little dragon uses to put the books back in the shelves, it hadn’t moved, and neither has Spike, the dragon, still in his basket. Twilight was more than confused, she was downright stumped. Then out of nowhere came a familiar voice.

 “Do you like it?”

Twilight gazed over at Rarity, who was beaming a smile that you only get when you see a friend speechless at a gift you gave.

“Rarity I... I... Don’t unde...”, she was cut off by Rarity.

“Twilight, dear, was I going to let you come home to such, shambles? After seeing you gallop off after Applejack earlier I knew something was wrong. So I thought I’d make an effort to cheer you up. I was going to make a dress but I forgot how many stars Onion had on his belt or something. So I tidied your lovely home of the disgraceful mess that you had left behind.”

“Thanks Rarity, anything I can do in return?”

Rarity just shook her head gently but then she stared straight ahead. “I need a cup of tea, I am so thirsty...” she stated bluntly. It was the least Twilight could do in return for such an act of friendship.

***

“Twilight? Where are you Twilight?”. Spike was walking around the library looking for his friend, he was barely awake. He heard her call from the kitchen. As Spike entered he saw Twilight washing a cup and saucer. “Twilight, when since did you drink tea? There is only one pony I know that drinks tea and that’s Rarity...”. It had just occurred to Spike that he slept the entire time Rarity had been here. He fell on his knees and looked up at the ceiling and let out a huge “Noooooooooo!”.

Twilight was more than shocked. An awkward silence ensued, and Twilights ears pricked. She heard a faint crash above her that sounded like leaves, followed by a louder similar crash. Then from across the library out of the opposite window she saw a pony fall out of her tree and land outside. Twilight galloped to the door and nearly tore it off of its hinges with her magic. The galloped round to where the pony fell.

The strange pony fell through the branches of the tree and had numerous scars on her brown coat, her mane was of a similar brown, just lighter. Her cutie-mark was two U shapes, they looked like closed eyes if you liked at them right. Her head was badly bumped and a reasonable sized one was on the pony’s forehead.

 Lying flat on its back was the stricken pony was out cold. The pony’s body began to glow purple and started to float toward the door of the tree with Twilight not far behind. She laid the pony gently on her sofa and looked at Spike, he responded with a shrug. “It’s too late to take her to Fluttershy’s place, she would be asleep by now” stated the dragon. It was tradition in Ponyville to address Fluttershy first about these sorts of things, for she had a way of waking unconscious ponies gently. “We need to take her somewhere, she can’t stay here”. Spike’s mouth hit the floor at this surprisingly selfish comment.

“How selfish Twilight, sure she can stay here, we have four free beds”, piped up the dragon in protest.

“No, I can’t deal with unconscious ponies, they look to much like they’re dead. And what if she were to die in her sleep. Oh Celestia...”. Twilight began to swoon.

“Ok Ok, so we to give her to Rarity to look after?”, Offered Spike, any excuse to see Rarity for him has he missed her earlier.

“No, I can’t expect more of her, after what she already has done for me out of sheer good will”. Twilight gazed about her lovely clean house, reminding herself of what Rarity had done for her.

“What about Applejack, she’ll be awake still after the party, just. And they got heaps of beds”

“Sounds like a plan” agreed Twilight. She gently lifted the pony into the air and both vanished into it.

*POP*

“Damn, I it always shocks me when she does that!” Exclaimed Spike.

***

Applejack was about to get into her bed after a ‘long day o applebuckin and an apple-rific party’’. She got into a comfortable position and her eyes started to close.

*POP*

“Woah” Shrieked Applejack. “What the hey? Twilight, what did ah say earlier? Applejack was quite surprised by the sudden visit.

“Sorry AJ, but this is an emergency”, Replied Twilight, the expression on her face confirmed this.

“Thats OK Twi, whats wrong...” She looked up and saw the floating brown pony above Twilight. “Oh, I see, spare bed in the barn next door”

“AJ, aren’t you going to ask why I have a pony floating above my head?”

“Twi, I have learned with you that anything can happen at anytime fuh whatever reason. As long as shes not dead, she can sleep here”

“Thanks”, Twilight trotted off to put the pony to bed, then teleported back to her library. Applejack was well asleep by then.

End of Chapter 1.

Chapter 2: The awakening.

“Goood Mornin’ world!” Applejack stretched “Ah wonder how mah little guest is doing” she trotted over to where the still sleeping pony was laying “Well, you ain’t woken up none at all durin’ the night. ‘ave you? Whats your name anyway?”

“AJ! AJ! AJ! AJ!” shouted a very exited filly as she ran into the barn, this made Applejack jump “I got my cutie-mark”. AJ whirled around to see Applebloom holding the biggest grin she had ever seen grace the young filly’s face.

 “What is it sugarcube?”

“It’s a... it’s a... I dunno”

“It’s a lollipop” Said Applejack flatly, and pulled it off with her teeth “Sugar, you slept on a sweet and it stuck to your flank, did you even think about checkin’ the other side?”

“No... Sorry AJ”

“Aruugh. Spleh. I’ll take two of those. Zzz” The unconscious pony stirred. Applebloom looked over too see a brown pony roll over and flop onto its other side.

“Whos that AJ?” asked the filly “Is she new to Ponyville?”

“Ah don’t know, Twilight brought her here last night and she ain’t woke up since, but she is sure making some strange noises!”

“Agh, ponies... too. Many. Ponies. zzz” Babbled the brown pony.

 Applejack smiled at the odd pony, she was saying some weird stuff.

“Uugh... Silly Derpy, thats not a muffin... zzz”.

“Derpy?” Applejack whispered to herself “Thats Ditzys nickname... she isn’t a Pegasus though... so how could she?...”

“Uugh, needs to be twent splagebleh... zzz” The pony grunted, just seemed like gibberish.

“We got to wake her up, but how?”Applejack pondered the question then snapped bolt upright. “Applebloom, fetch Pinkie Pie and tell her to bring balloons and a pin”

“Okay? If you say so” Applebloom trotted off, wondering why Applejack wanted balloons and a pin. “She must want to tie them to the pony and let her fly, then the cool air wake them up, if I am good at tying maybe I’ll get my Cutie Mark for being a balloonist-pony thing!!!” She galloped off as fast as she can toward Pinkie Pie’s, exited at the prospect of being a tying pony.

Back at the farm, the strange pony was still muttering odd lines that Applejack couldn’t make heads of tails of.

“uugh, don’t let Pinkie get cupcakes. Zzzz. “

“Ok? She knows Pinkie then” Said Applejack

“Spleh. Whos a silly pony?  You’re a silly pony, Applejack. Zzz”

“WHAT?” Exclaimed Applejack, quite loud.

“Zzz. What? Where? Mummy?”

“Darnit she’s waking up, I’ll fetch Twilight, she’ll be fine, after all she knows some ponies, and me evidently”

“Ooh, my head” Said the pony, she winced as her hoof came in contact with a rather large bump. “That was some party... Never seen anyone so happy to be 18!” she yawned “I think I need 5 more minutes.” She flopped her head onto the pillow and was out like a light.

***

“Here she is Twi”, Panted Applejack.

“AJ, she’s still asleep” giggled Twilight

“Oh Darnit! Ah sworn she woke up!”Applejack grunted.

“What, who?”The pony stirred once more. “Is it Monday already?”

“Poor dear” Said Twilight “She’s still half asleep”

“Who said that? Who... Mum?”

“Good morning, I am Twilight Sparkle and thi...”

“TWILIGHT SPARKLE?!”The pony’s eyes grew wide, the pupils shrank inside her ochre eyes. The pony fainted again. Twilight looked at Applejack for assistance, she shrugged. This pony can’t seem to stay awake!

“Twilight, do something”

“Ok, let me think”, Once more the pony glowed purple, lifted three feet above the ground and then shook violently.

“Okokokokok. I am awake now!” Said the now green looking pony. Twilight gave Applejack a knowing look and crept off to let the pony be sick on her own. Applejack scowled back at Twilight for a while and walked out of the barn. They poked their heads round the barn door to spy on her.

“See AJ, she’s ok”

“Ah hope for your sake she is”

“Look she’s standing... on Two hooves? What?”

“No, Twi, she is stretching”

“No, she fully stood on two hooves, then fell on to four, no pony does that. Look, she is trying again”. The pony stood on two hooves then fell again onto four. Twilight saw her look at her hooves and then she fainted. Again. “Darn it, can’t this pony stay awake?” Twilight gingerly trotted over and nudged her with her hoof. She sat bolt upright and stared into Twilights eyes like she saw a ghost.

“Y. Y. You’re Twilight Sparkle.”

“Yes I am” She agreed.

The pony leaned round Twilight and saw Applejack “That’s Applejack, and your, no this can’t be real.”

“Am I your dream pony or something?” Questioned Twilight, giggling.

“Dream pony? Dream PONY! Twilight, you’re not real, none of this is. I have been reading too many misleading stories.”Twilight frowned at this statement. “Therefore, I can do whatever I like” The pony kissed Twilight and galloped out screaming.

“What the hey?” Asked Applejack. Twilight just stood there, trying to work out why that pony kissed her.

End Of Chapter 2

----------

Chapter 3: The Unveiling

The brown pony ran out into Sweet Apple Acres, the farm the Apple family worked, and stood next to a tree. “Wow, they were not kidding, this place is awesome”. Twilight and Applejack followed her at a discrete distance.

“Excuse me, but who are ‘they’?” Queried Twilight, the pony didn’t listen.

“I can do anything, I want to be like Applejack” She yelled and kicked a tree “Ah, What the hell; that hurt. It is not meant to hurt!”The brown pony looked decidedly confused.

“You did kick a tree without any practice or training, of cause it would hurt silly” Said Twilight, giggling to herself. She looked at the pony, she could see that she was getting distressed. Twilight stopped giggling and went to the side of the pony who was staring into space ahead of Twilight. “Are you alright there? You don’t look so good.”

“Take me to your library NOW” Said the pony, looking straight ahead, not blinking.

“Thats no way to ask...” Frowned Twilight

“I wasn’t asking you Twilight, I was telling you” Her voice was getting wavy and tears were forming in her eyes. “Take me there NOW”, she stamped her hoof, still looking straight ahead, not blinking

“Ok, hold on we’ll think of a way to get you to my library”

“Just teleport” Whispered Applejack from the barn, she was keeping her distance; she had never seen this before.

“Oh, right” Twilight blushed then her horn and the brown pony glowed purple then...

*POP*

***

*POP*

“Wow” the brown pony stated, still staring into nothing.

“Ok, you’re here, talk?” Offered Twilight. She looked at the pony next to her, she was still staring, now with tears dripping off of her face and on to the floor. She lay down next to Twilight and whispered “I’m gone”.

 Twilight came down to her level and spoke softly “Do you want to talk in private? These things happen, it comes to us all...”. Twilight started swelling now, but the brown pony just shook her head and looked at the floor. “I’ll never see them again, Twilight. They’ll never see me again either.”.

Twilight was lost now, what was this pony on about? The brown pony looked at her and said quietly “I should be happy, this is everything I ever wanted, I just wished I could’ve said goodbye first.”, Twilight didn’t hear her. The brown pony once again stared into the distance, then at her own Cutie Mark, and back to Twilight again, obviously thinking hard. She had to formulate a name, she looked at her cutie mark again and she thought it looked like two closed eyes. After some hard thinking she said, “Call me Drowsy please, it seems to fit”.

“Ok, Drowsy, looks like you have amnesia, I’ll call...”

“No, it’s not amnesia, it’s more complex. You won’t understand”. Drowsy’s spirit fell again, remembering the circumstances.

“Drowsy, were in a library, I can look it up...”

“No, you can’t understand, you can’t relate to it”

“Come on, you haven’t said it yet, you can’t know for sure if I don’t understand.”

“I don’t understand and I’m me, how could you possibly...”she was cut off by Twilight.

“Listen here, Drowsy, either you tell me or bottle it up forever and feel sorry for yourself!” Twilight was seriously concerned about Drowsy.

“I came shfrm a shiffe wosh” She mumbled

“Say again?”

“I came from a different world OK?”

“OK? That it?”

“Yes, I can’t give you any more information”

“The Everfree Forest?”

“No. You haven’t heard of it Twilight, neither you nor Spike could find a book on it.”

“I never mentioned Spike, how do you know Spike?” Twilight now was the one to be confused. She looked over at Drowsy and her face begged answers. “Just who are you Drowsy?”

“My identity is not important, but I live, uh, used to live in Manchester and I have no idea how I got here, Ok Twilight? I’d prefer it if you called me Drowsy though, it fits better then... my other name.”  Drowsy perked up slightly. After a pause, where she had a think to herself, she immediately broke down into tears as it clicked that she may be stuck here. She muttered how she would never see her family or friends again.

“Manchester, is that in Equestria?”. Twilight cocked her head and looked over at Drowsy only to see that she was staring into the distance again. Drowsy turned to Twilight with a look of concern.

“Is there anything you can do to help?” begged Drowsy, her face brighten up again. “We are in a library after all, let’s go on a book hunt.”. She got up and trotted over to a case and took a book down, five others came with it and hit the floor.

Twilight winced as the once clean library was now getting covered in books again. “Drowsy, my friend spent time over cleaning this place earlier; the last thing we need is a mess right now. Also, you need sleep, you have had a distressing day. Drowsy, you can sleep in the guest bed.”.

Drowsy looked at Twilight and nodded in agreement. She then walked up the stairs and strait toward the bed Twilight specified. Twilight was perplexed how she knew her way around her house. She decided it was dumb luck and headed to bed herself, all that teleporting was tireing.

End of Chapter 3.

----------

Chapter 4: Mystery Solved

“Drowsy! I found a book that may help you!” called Twilight from across the library. Drowsy poked her head out of a pile of books and looked across at the unicorn. They have been scouring the library for about an hour looking for any books that contain the words ‘Manchester’ or ‘England’. The book was old and dusty, and hadn’t been opened for years by the looks of things. The title read ‘Strange Ponies, From Strange Places’. Twilight levitated it over to a bookstand and opened it with her magic, the book was written in old Equestrian. Unlike the modern Equestrian language, which is symbols and characters, this Equestrian was different. The page was covered by small, wavy lines that seem to concentrate and the left hoof side of the pages. Twilight did recognise something though, something she thought she’d never see in a book in her library. 

‘Equestria,Gobonando por Celestia y Luna.’

Twilight remembered her first lesson with Princess Celestia, and a verse that the Princess had made her learn off by heart. “I know what that means!” She piped up, “That means ‘Equestria, ruled by Celestia and Luna’, so this must be written in old Equestrian!”. Drowsy looked over Twilight at the book and said bluntly “Er, that’s Spanish Twilight... and I can kind of read Spanish, so what have we got here...” She scanned for the Spanish for England. “Ah here we are...”

‘Inglaterra es un isla pequeno. Capital es Londres, un ciudad grande. Norte es Manchester, un ciudad poco grande y muy industrial.’

“It says ‘England is a small island. Its Capital is London, a big city. North is Manchester, a quite big city and very industrial’. That sounds about right. Twilight is there any way you can get me back there?” Drowsy asked.  Twilight thought for a moment, then answered.

“If this place exists, which it does, then definitely.”Twilight confirmed “But there is a catch, you came here Friday evening, so you must only be able to leave on Friday evening.” Today is Saturday, so it is another 6 days you stay here. If our attempts fail, you have to wait another week. It is definite we can get you home, first try is another thing.”.

“So you can definitely send me home, Oh Twilight that’s fantastic! I am going to go exploring Ponyville!”. The pony was now incredibly excited. Twilight couldn’t fathom why she was so sad one minute and so ecstatic the next. Twilight heard a knock on her door, Drowsy yelled “I’ll get it” and opened the door, to a face full of wet letter. Drowsy wiped the letter and whatever it was covered in off her face to reveal a blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane.

“Ohmygosh Ohmygosh Ohmygosh Ohmygosh Ohmygosh! Its Rainbow Dash!” Drowsy barely could say the last words for the amount of grinning. It then hit her that she was the mail pony. “Rainbow, isn’t that Derpy’s job? You’re not going to give me a muffin are you?”

“If I could get a word in edgeways, I would explain it.” Said Rainbow, with a frown “But it looks like somepony here is a big Rainbow Dash fan!” She finished proudly, with a hoof on her chest. Suddenly the odd brown pony was replaced by Twilight, who apologised to Rainbow Dash.

“Rainbow, I am sorry you got a face full of Drowsy before I had the chance to introduce her. She is new here but seems to know a-lot of ponies”

“Don’t sweat it Twilight, shows my name is well known outside of Cloudsdale and Ponyville!” The hoof was back on her chest again “Where did she come from anyway?”

“Some place called Man-cheater in Angle-land, or something like that, she seems to know anyway.”

“And how far is that from here?” Queried Rainbow

“I don’t actually know. And neither does she”

“Anyway, have to go, muffi, i mean, letters to deliver” Rainbow Dash yelled over her shoulder as she flew away. Twilight shut the door with magic and turned to face an open mouthed Drowsy.

“That. Was. EPIC! Oh my god, I met Rainbow Dash!” Drowsy was hopping up and down like a filly, she turned to Twilight and put on her most begging face “Please Twilight, you have to take me on a tour of Ponyville, I wanna meet ponys!” Drowsy was now running around the library, bumping books off of shelves and waking up Spike in the process.

“Twilight, what time is it?” Called the small purple dragon, he clearly had only just woken for his voice was low and dragging. The little dragon appeared down-stairs in time to be nearly hit by a brown pony with what looked like two horse shoes on her flank. “Twilight, who’s this? And why do I not feel safe around her?”. The brown pony stopped dead in her tracks and trotted over to Spike. She poked him with her hoof and twanged one of his spines. “Excuse me, I am not a toy”.

“Ah, Spike, it seems you met Drowsy!” Twilight said innocently.

“Drowsy? She seems very awake to me!” Retorted the dragon, slightly miffed as to why there is a brown pony here anyway. “Why is she here?”

“She fell out of the tree a night ago”

“Then why didn’t I see her?”

“Well, for the first night she was at Applejacks, then she came here, looked for books. Went to bed to rest. That is when you woke up. Then it was now!”. Twilight felt quite proud of her summary of the last few days and went to find Drowsy, who had left the library and entered Ponyville.

End of Chapter 4

----------

Chapter 5: To be written.