Adjustment - 2

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I felt a sour taste in my mouth from sleeping for too long.

The sheets were much more comfortable than I was used to back on the farm, seemingly knitted from actual wool. The pillows too, they didn't have straw in them, that was for sure, but actual feathers that didn't poke into the back of my skull. I felt a sinking feeling. It was obvious that I wasn't back in the bunkhouse, but somewhere else entirely. My first thought was that I'd been in some kind of accident and rushed to hospital, but the smell of wood and burning candles put that theory down before it could really begin.

So just where the hell was I? I had some kind of mask covering my eyes. Malicious kidnappers certainly wouldn't have put me into a comfortable bed. I could hear a door opening to my left, and the sound of hard shoes on the wooden floor. They intruder didn't seem to want to talk, rather than just wait and observe me.

I realized that they didn't know I was awake. I did have a mask covering my eyes after all. I elected to wait and see if they would give away anything about my situation, which they eventually did.

"Hm, this creature seems to be a heavy sleeper," the woman from before mumbled to herself, what followed was the sound of rustling paper as she scribbled something down.

Creature? That didn't sound right. Was she observing me? Had I finally lost my marbles, and been kidnapped by aliens? While in reality I was laying in a ditch somewhere? I decided to test the waters a little bit, reaching over and waving my arm at whoever was in the room with me. The woman gasped, "Are you awake? Can you understand me?"

Biting the bullet, I slowly arose from the comfortable bed and peeled open my crusty eyes. The room was odd, with strange, tiny furniture and wooden walls that almost looked as if they were ripped directly from a tree, grain and all. The windows were warped like I had walked into an M.C. Escher painting. Books covered many of the surfaces that remained free from other clutter.

I glanced to the left, catching a brief glimpse of a moving purple blob before I shut them tight again. The creature gasped slightly and stepped back, a loud clopping, not unlike a horse followed. In my mind, I was thinking of ways to escape the situation, but in reality I was closing my eyes and hoping that I'd wake up back in my shitty bunkhouse. I gripped the sheets until my knuckles turned white.

"Where am I?" I asked, not expecting any kind of response.

The creature seemed surprised for a reason I realized shortly there-after, we somehow were speaking the same language. "You can talk?" she (I presumed it was a she anyway,) asked with wonder.

"Of course I can talk! Where am I?" I repeated.

"You're in my home, the Ponyville Library, located to the south of Canterlot, which in turn is the capital of Equestria!"

That was certainly alien to me. Wherever I was, it wasn't anywhere near my home. It's hard to describe what I felt like at the time, a creeping sense of dread, the sinking feeling in my stomach, or the feeling of injustice I felt having been taken away from everything I knew. Why, of all people, did it have to happen to me?

"Do you feel okay?"

What a stupid question, "No, no I don't." I shook my head and like tearing off a bandage, gazed upon the visage of my captor for the first time. It was a horse, a small, purple horse with multi-coloured hair and a little horn poking out of it's head. I briefly wondered if I had suffered a case of major head trauma, and reached out to touch it. I griped the thing's cheeks between my hands, it's fur was soft and most definitely real.

"Do you mind?" it mumbled. I backed away, pushing the sheets from my now sweaty body. Thankfully my clothes had been left intact; the only thing worse than what was happening, was the same but me being naked. Let's be honest, all things considered I was handling the situation with a masterful grace that future me can only look back on with wonder. I was really far gone.

"What the hell are you?" I asked to the talking purple horse.

She raised a brow, her face surprisingly expressive. "I'm a pony, my name is Twilight Sparkle."

"What kind of name is that?"

"What do you mean?"

"My name is Gerry. Does everybody around here have a weird name?" The room was silent for a moment as she mulled over my question, a sour look crossing her equine features.

"There's nothing weird about it Mister!" she scolded, "That's very uncalled for!"

"Woah! Sorry, I mean, I don't know anything about this... place." I stuttered. A tense silence settled over the room for a moment, before she smiled and nodded.

"Okay, apology accepted."

Just like that? I didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth but... anyway. The mare smiled at me, showing off her pearly whites before pulling a scroll of parchment from under the bed using her horn. By this point I had given up trying to rationalize what I was seeing, but still, seeing this little horse break the laws of gravity and cause something to float towards her left me gawking, open mouthed. She didn't seem to understand at first, but blushed when she realized I was staring at her glowing horn.

"Holy shit! How are you doing that!" I had exclaimed, scrambling on my hands and knees to get a closer look.

"This?" she responded hesitantly, "it's just some levitation, magic!" she explained as if it were the simplest, most boring thing in the world.

"Magic?"

"Yep!"

"As in, lifting things with your mind magic?"

"Well, of course."

"And there are other horses than can do this?"

"It's ponies actually, and yes, there are lots of unicorns here in Ponyville."

A silence hung in the room, as Twilight shifted uncomfortably in place.

"Where the fuck am I?" I sighed, falling back onto the bed. "Is this hell? Did aliens kill me or something?"

"I can't say I've heard of this "fuck" word before. Oh! This is an amazing opportunity to learn about your culture!" the purple only said, hopping from leg to leg like an excited child. "What's it like back home?"

"Can we save the interrogation for later please, I seriously need to get my bearings here!" I shouted. Twilight jumped as my volume before meekly backing away from the bed. "I'm sorry, but... I need a minute."

"I understand," Twilight muttered almost solemnly, but it was evident from her expression that she didn't understand why I was so upset.

"No, you really don't," I pointed out. "You've never seen anything like me before have you?"

"Well, certain literature mentions a race of bipedal creatures matching your description, but they're thousands of years old! There's never been any evidence of them actually being real."

"I said seen, not read, you've never even seen a human before!" I ranted, becoming increasingly tearful along the way.

"No."

"So where do you think I came from? I didn't just pop into existence right now, I'm twenty-two years old! I had a life, a job, a family!" I sobbed slightly. "And now I'm stuck in some fucked up town full of talking magic ponies! I'm never going to see another human again am I? I'm going to fucking die alone in this shithole."

The wall that held me back had come crashing down in spectacular fashion. It was fairly humiliating to sob openly in front of her like that, but by that point I didn't care, I just needed to get angry at something, anything, to make me feel a little better about myself afterwards. There were no villains or evil wizards, just a force I couldn't understand or comprehend, one that had decided to bring me to another planet, hell, another universe.

"What the hell am I going to do! I don't know anybody, I have nowhere to go! I'm just some freaky, lanky fucker surrounded by magic quadrupeds. And no amount of well wishing, or apologising is going to fix that bullshit!"

What was I meant to do? I didn't know anybody except her. She clearly didn't know how to react and I was glad, her silence spared her from another one of my little rants. I jumped out of the bed and pace the room, gripping my skull tightly between clenched knuckles. I felt a deep, rumbling headache approaching in my future.

I ran out of gas eventually, gasping and collapsing onto the bed once again and staring at the ceiling. Like a tipped over jug, I'd let out my water all over her nice wooden floor.

"I'm sorry," the mare whispered. "I had no idea."

How could she?

"If you feel like talking just... shout okay?"

...

The door clicked shut, and despite the circumstances I immediately felt regret. I needed to talk to somebody, so badly, but I'd laid my cards on the table, and now I had to sit alone and pout like a grounded child. Despite everything my pride kept me from running to the door and begging her to come back.

I rolled over and looked at the window, I needed to take my mind off things. I walked over and looked through, finding a tranquil view of a small village, it still shocked me to see other ponies walking the streets each one more vibrant than the last. I gasped to myself as I saw a winged one take off from the ground, waving goodbye to another.

I dried my eyes on my shirt and continued to watch, fascinated. Would I ever be able to fit in here? Everything was so different and fantasy like, how could a tall downer make friends in a place like that?