Penchant: CH 1: New Beginnings

Story by Lord_Ike on SoFurry

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#1 of Penchant, Predilection

Ike awakens to find himself in a new world, but fate has plans for him...

This seemingly peaceful world will eventually pit him against one of Equestria's greatest evils.

In his journey he will either find the resolve to save Equestria... Or doom it.

A story of love and sacrifice,

of power and its price.

Oh yeah, and plenty of clop...


Advisory: This story will contain sex, and plenty of it. This is your one warning. ~Thanks

Penchant

Dear Princess Celestia," Twilight spoke as she wrote, the magical aura resonating from her horn guiding the quill.

"I am writing to tell you about a strange happening in Ponyville. Just the other day a new..."

Twilight paused "handsome, wonderful, attractive... No... I cant use those, Celestia probably wouldn't approve... gentle colt? That works."

"...a new gentle colt appeared seemingly from nowhere. This colt also has no cutie mark and no knowledge of Equestria. We are working hard to make him feel at home here in Ponyville as he is having some troubles adjusting to his 'new body' as he calls it. Despite never knowing that magic existed Ike, that's his name, seems to have an amazing potential.

I just wanted to make you aware of the situation, as I could not find any reference to humans in the Ponyville library. I would like to ask you to check Canterlot's royal library to see if you can find anything. We are slowly accepting his stories as truth, as there really isn't any other reasonable explanation. These new events have kept us six girls busy, some of us more than others. I can at least report that helping somepony new settle in will bring us all in the end just a little bit closer together.

Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle." She signed.

"There, all done. Spike?" Twilight looked over to the young dragon hatchling that she had raised as a brother "Can you send this to princess Celestia tomorrow?" Twilight rolled up the parchment and placed a seal on it, her horn glowing as she did. She looked upon the sleeping form in her second bed trying not to be too loud.

"Sure thing Twilight." Spike responded grabbing the floating scroll from the sparkling aura. "But right now it's time for bed." Spike yawned. "Those cutie mark crusaders really tired me out, I could sleep a whole millennium."

Twilight giggled, "Spike, you probably could. But that would leave me without my favorite helper."

"Alright Twilight." Spike sighed "But I am at least sleeping in at least a little bit."

"As long as you remember to send that message." With that Twilight levitated her alarm clock over to her and prodded the buttons with a hoof, setting it to wake her at a decent time.

Twilight and Spike drifted off into the realm of sleep trusting princess Luna, the guardian of dreams, to watch over them and their new guest.

A few days earlier:

"Ugh..." I mumbled, opening my eyes to the dreaded sunlight.

"Great..." I continued to mumble as I looked around. "Not only am I experiencing a drum circle in my head, my so called friends dumped me in the middle of a friggin meadow." He sighed gazing around at the fine green grass and a single flower poking its way out of the ground a few feet from him.

"Well... If I am going to find where I am I better get going." I felt funny, and my body did as well. "Did they drug me?"

My legs shakily pushed off the ground, brining me into an awkward feeling upright position. Trying to walk was nearly impossible as my center of balance was extremely skewed.

"Did they get me to drink?" I spoke aloud, trying to remember the party last night. After a few more shaky steps I took a tumble, putting my arms out to catch the fall. I landed quite nicely, feeling less of a jolt than expected from an average fall.

It was then that I caught sight of something strange. Hooves? "What!?"

The words spoken coming loudly from my..."Wait this isn't my mouth!?"

I looked back in a state of panic, seeing what I could my own body. I blinked slowly, checking to see if this vision of a dark blue flank would disappear... It didn't "No, no, no, no, no. There is something seriously wrong here..." I paused scenarios flying through my mind as i attempted to rationalize this.

"Oh great!" I almost shouted to the open sky coming to a conclusion. "First they get me drunk? And then they drug me!? That's it! When whatever this is gets out of my system I am getting some major payback."

"I should find someone to help me... I'm loosing it." I shook my head and tried walking again; the same awkward tumble came again seconds later. Sighing, I resigned myself to walking on all fours. If someone saw this they would at least know something was wrong... My brown haired tail twitched in agitation. I forcefully stopped its motion, dreading that I could somehow feel this imaginary appendage.

Shambling slowly forward on these newfound hooves I saw a town in the distance. "Good, maybe they can help me... yeah... help me into a jail cell for public indecency..." I looked on my unclothed form.

It took quite a while to get to the edge of town, but as I forced myself forward I slowly grew accustomed to this new feeling, my steps taking on a familiar rhythm.

Despite the somewhat calming pattern to my steps I felt nauseated and dizzy; my heart was pounding as my mind raced on what the cops might do when they picked me up.

Hearing voices I took my eyes off the ground in front of me, noticing a myriad of colors approaching a little ways down a street. I blinked my eyes in disbelief, it was a group... Wait, a herd? Of ponies?

"What the hell?"

They bantered amongst themselves, sound coming from their horse like maws.. "Its all fake, its just the drugs those assheads gave me..." I reassured myself.

Come on? Really? How could a white talking unicorn be real? Her mane was even stylized, who would hallucinate little details like that?

"Apparently me" I mumbled to myself continuing to stare at the approaching group.

Another member of the group was an orange kind of color... A straw hat rested upon her head.

There were six in all, each a different color, and each unique. Two of the things even had what appeared to be wings!

"Pegasi... Unicorns... ponies of every shad and color? I could write a Dr. Seus book with this crap..." I chuckled to myself... "No... Stay sane.... stay sane.. get help."

The six must have seen me staring as the pink one with a mane that almost looked like proofed up cotton candy shot straight into the air.

"Oooh!" and "New pony!" It exclaimed before dashing straight towards me faster than I could blink, stopping within centimeters of collision. I stood there too stunned to even speak. There was something seriously off here, was there more to this than just some strange hallucination?

"Pinkie, do give him some space. He looks terribly mortified." Stated the white unicorn in a very sophisticated voice. At that point is when I passed out, going into a dead faint in front of the six.

"So no party?" Pinkie asked deflating slightly.

"I don't think so Pinkie," said Applejack nudging Ike lightly with her Hoof.

"This simply will not do." Stated Rarity, looking at his collapsed form.

"This poor pony, what could be wrong?" Fluttershy meekly spoke.

"I've passed out like this a few times actually. We should take him to the hospital to see nurse Redheart just in case though." Stated Rainbow Dash.

To this statement Twilight gave a chuckle "Can't handle the hard cider Rainbow?" She jokingly asked.

"Not when she drinks a whole barrel... in ten seconds flat." Applejack added, holding back her laughter.

"Ha. Ha. Very funny." Replied Rainbow sarcastically. "AJ grab a cart to carry him in. "

Applejack quickly fetched a cart and Twilight and Rarity gently lifted Ike with magic and placed him upon it. The six chatted as Applejack towed the dark blue pony off to the hospital.

"Twilight." Rarity said as she trailed behind the cart with the others.

"Hm?"

"He's a unicorn."

"And?"

"Just look at him. When he doesn't have that perpetual look of confusion slapped on he's quite a looker."

"He does look nice and peaceful when he's sleeping." Twilight took a long glance at the sleeping form in Applejack's cart.

"Two bits says he's eligible." Rainbow winked and bumped Rarity, who preceded to blush."

"I wasn't... well..." Rarity cleared her throat. "We should learn a little more about him before jumping to conclusions."

~

I awoke sometime the next morning to the sound of a heart monitor beeping away. Well at least I was in a hospital; maybe it was just all some strange dream? I pushed the white bed sheet away with... My hooves. "Great..." I guess not a dream... and sat up on the bed. Considering that I couldn't even feel my proper hands there was something more to this mystery. I highly doubted that some drug could affect me for so long and give such vivid hallucinations.

The tiny hospital bed left me feeling cramped, and with all the leads and wires connected to me I felt like some strange lab rat. I reached over to the monitor pushing a large toggle with my hoof to turn it off. After a few minutes of fumbling I had myself completely disconnected and on my way. I needed to go outside and get some fresh air.

My first steps were shaky but from the little bit of practice the other day I was able to manage. As I came to the main doors I paused. No handle? I guess I couldn't exactly grab one if there was unless it was a lever knob. I reared up and pushed firmly on the door. It swung open with more force than I had intended, slamming right into Twilight. Twilight took a backwards tumble onto the ground as I fell from the door.

"Twilight... I told you should pay more attention to Pinkie's warnings," scolded Applejack "Her pinkie sense was rearing up something fierce when we told her we were coming to check on our new arrival. Speaking of, here he is now."

"Crap... um, Twilight? I am sooo sorry about that, I really didn't mean to..."

"Im fine, it's happened plenty of times before this. I really should pay closer attention. Especially when Pinkie gives such blatant warnings." Twilight picked herself off the ground and shook off a little dust but otherwise was none the worse for wear. "It seems you know my name now, what might yours be?"

"Ike, My name is Ike... And I am guessing that wherever this is it's a long way from home."

"You ain't ever been to Ponyville before?" Queried Applejack. I shook my head in response, my mane giving an awkward tumble over my eyes; I blew it away with a quick puff of air.

"It seems you have a mighty strange story to tell, Let's hear it over a bite at Sugar Cube Corner. I'm Applejack by the way. And don't you worry about nothin'. The folks in Ponyville are mighty fine."

~

The three headed away from the hospital just as the voice of Nurse Redheart cried out, "Has anyone seen the patient in room three that was brought in yesterday?!"

~

"I'll be darned." Said Applejack "We've got an adventurous one here, giving the nurse the slip. Lets go before she scolds us all." With that the two girls galloped off and I followed behind quickly adjusting to the new pace. I didn't feel quite so out of place in this new body, and for some reason I absolutely loved this running... No. Wait. I'm human, not a pony... "Get your act together." I mumbled to myself.

When the girls felt they were far enough away from the hospital they slowed down stopping to giggle furiously. I felt like I was loosing my mind, how could any of this be real? I joined in with false laughter, afterwards saying, "I hope she isn't too mad."

Twilight responded, saying, " Next time she sees you there will be a stern talking to coming."

To that I gave a concerned look, receiving another bout of laughter. After collecting themselves yet again the girls continued their walk.

Something came to my mind in between random questions and conversation. "By the way, that hyper pink pony..." I tested the conversation by dropping the word pony in, neither of the two seemed to notice at all. "The one who practically ran me down when she first saw me... Her name was Pinkie? I asked seeing if what little I remembered from yesterday was correct.

"Yup, Pinkamina Diane Pie." Replied Applejack "She works at Sugar Cube."

All right... things were certainly off here. My assumptions that I had been drugged had dissipated entirely, my grasp on reality slowly shifting. Could this really be true? A new world, a new form of life. My transformation into something else?

As I followed the two approached what I could guess was Sugarcube Corner. My teeth almost hurt just looking at it. The whole building looked like a giant skewed gingerbread house, complete with frosting, gumdrops and even two poles that looked like real candy cane. There was even a giant cupcake perched on the very peak complete with candles. At least they have sweets in ponyville, I thought to myself adding all the strange variables in my head in an attempt to rationalize something... Anything.

The girls must have noticed my stare and possibly the rumble that my stomach gave as I absentmindedly gazed at the building dubbed 'sugarcube corner'. "It's not a real gingerbread house, it just looks like one, the edible stuff is inside" Twilight told me.

As we entered the door Pinkie zipped by, somehow pulling our whole group to a booth along with a whole tray of muffins. We sat there disoriented for a few seconds as Pinkie unloaded in quick, almost unintelligible, speech.

"My pinkie sense told me I was getting a brand new customer today! I'm glad it was you so I can meet you without you going all faint like this!" Pinkie did an overly dramatized keeling over, standing on one hoof spinning around once slowly and collapsing with a dying noise to imitate my passing out the other day.

Immediately after she sprung up and continued to speak. "I know eeeevry pony likes muffins, especially blueberry muffins, so I made a whole batch just for whatever pony it could be. And it was you!" She then took a huge breath, having somehow managed the whole segment without.

Regaining enough composure from the sudden relocation Applejack said "Pinkie. Slow down a bit."

"Okie... dokie... lokie..." Pinkie replied at an extremely slow pace and began to slomo take a seat with the three.

They all munched on some muffins as I observed, slowly soaking in all the information I could about these creatures. A short while later Rarity, Rainbow, and Fluttershy came in, their names having been told to me minutes earlier.

"It looks like awesome ponies think alike," commented Rainbow Dash joining us at the table.

As muffins were shared all around Ike was introduced to the rest of the gang who occasionally would glance at Pinkie questioningly as she was still speaking in slomo.

"Now then. Ike, you ready to tell us your story?" Asked Applejack.

"Sure... Though it might be a little hard to believe." I stated. "Before yesterday I didn't even know ponyvile existed. In fact I didn't even look like I do now. I was nearly six feet tall and walked on two legs."

"You aren't havin us on are ya?" Asked Applejack.

"No this is the honest truth." Replied Ike. " My world is entirely different."

"Your world?"

"Yes, my world. At first I thought this place was some strange dream or hallucination... but now it is starting to sink in. My body... My real body doesn't look like this... And where I'm from ponies don't talk."

"Ponies that don't talk? That's preposterous." Stated Rarity

"In my world they don't even come in as many colors" I replied, continuing on. "I can't tell you how this even happened, one day I was on earth and the next day I wake up in a random field... wherever this place is. "

"Earth? That's another name for the dirt silly." Replied Applejack

"Well that is just what we called our planet in general." I replied

"How original." Applejack Joked.

"I know this is strange and hard to believe, but unicorns and pegasi are just creatures of myth in my world."

"We don't have any reason not to believe you, I can spot a lie a mile away." Applejack stated, to which every pony stopped and stared, slack jawed.

"Y.. You really think he's telling the truth?" Fluttershy spoke for the first time.

"The honest truth, I would bet my best bushel of apples on it."

With Applejacks affirmation I could tell that the group of ponies were now willing to trust my tales, for over an hour I continued to try my best at explain things.

Over the course of that hour I felt my barriers slipping away. This might be strange but it was real, and these ponies seemed to be a good place to put my trust.

~

"Hmm... I will look in my books right away to see if anything like this has happened before." Said Twilight she paused, deciding on something. "You probably don't have a place to stay , so you are welcome to stay with me so I can learn more about this Earth. This could be the biggest discovery in ages, I cant miss out. "

At this Rarity looked a bit downtrodden. "Twiiiliiight, you beat the element of generosity to the offer." Rarity said using her whiney voice.

At this the girls giggled and Rarity seemed to get over it quickly enough. Element of generosity? I really had no clue as to what was meant by that so I shrugged it off. Must be some inside thing. The girls continued to chat, and I sometimes caught them looking away, blushing like they had done something wrong. After this happened a few times I looked down... Oh... I thought shifting my legs to a more modest position.

Pinkie whispered something to Twilight who nodded. Pinkie dashed off up a set of stairs and could be heard dashing around doing something. Twilight passed the message on to Rainbow and got up from the table. Rainbow also shared whatever it was. I was getting a bit suspicious wondering what secrets they were keeping.

Twilight soon distracted me, saying, "Ike. If you are going to be staying with me I should probably show you where I live."

Rarity got in one last word with Twilight, slipping her a seamstresses measuring tape.

At that I got up heading off with Twilight but not before taking one look back at all the ponies trying to sneak up the stairs. I really didn't think that much of either events at the time.

Once we were outside Twilight looked at the sky saying, " It looks like the Pegasus ponies have a light shower scheduled for today."

I looked up, amazed at what I saw. There were multiple pegasi in the sky literally pushing clouds into place over an expansive apple orchard and some other fields.

"Do they always control the weather?" I asked.

"Yeah, everywhere in Equestria. Well except for the Everfree forest."

"Wow" I replied, taking in the sight." On my world people would love to be able to do that. We could end droughts, prevent floods, and even end famine."

"That sounds bad, does your world actually get those things?" Twilight asked

"Yeah" Ike sighed. "It's not the best place to live for some people. And even if we could control the weather some business would probably have a monopoly and charge a fortune for it."

"Hmm..." Twilight muttered. Not wanting to pry any further.

I hope I hadn't completely crushed her desire to learn about humans... If just that were too much for her to handle I definitely wouldn't want to tell her about mankind's bloody history.

The rest of the walk was taken mostly silently until we were almost there.

"Wait?! A house built into a living tree?" This world continued to surprise me at every turn.

"It's actually a library." Replied Twilight. As the two entered "And it's where I live. I have an extra bed for when I invite the girls to sleepovers so you can have that one. Spike isn't in right now; he recently got conscripted into the cutie mark crusaders. I don't think they realize dragons don't get cutie marks."

"Dragons? They are real here?! And what the hay is a cutie mark?" I had already managed to pick up on one of Applejack's substitute swears.

"Yeah, spike is like a brother to me. And wait?! You don't know what a cutie mark is?" Twilight looked back at me staring at my flank. " You don't have one?" her look was puzzled.

I looked at where she was staring and looked back at her seeing a pink star that accented her flank. "Apparently not." I replied, "What are they for anyways?"

"They show what some somepony is especially good at, like a talent or skill or possibly calling. Usually all ponies get theirs when they are pretty young. I guess you just don't know your calling yet." She shrugged

"Wow, that's a lot to take in, wearing part of who you are so openly to everyone. May I ask what yours is?"

"Mine has a long story behind it but I can simply say it appeared when I realized my true potential to use magic."

"Wait... You are telling me magic is real too?"

"Yeah." Twilight responded as her horn was enveloped in an almost raspberry colored aura. She lifted a book off one of the shelves with magic, as if to demonstrate, and it floated to her also covered in the same color aura. "You should be able to do magic too."

I could hear the rain from the Pegasus formed storm clouds starting up outside, it was a pleasant sound from inside the tree.

"How?"

"Well you are a Unicorn." She stated nonchalantly flipping through the book looking for references to humans.

I put a hoof up to my head and felt my horn. "How have I not noticed this before?"

Twilight shrugged again, tossing aside the book and picking another. She looked busy so I went over to a stack of books against the wall. I nudged one off the stack keeping it from hitting the ground too hard with a hoof and flipped it open. Thank goodness they write in English, and speak it at that...

I noticed a magazine to the side of the pile of books and scooted myself over to it looking at the cover. PlayMare it read, and from the male pony posing on the cover with a bowl over his junk I could only guess what was inside. Apparently they have those kinds of things in Equestria too.

I felt like I was being watched and looked back. Twilight blushed and stammered, "I didn't mean to leave that out!" before practically flinging it away into a drawer with her magic.

I gave a light snicker and she blushed an even deeper shade. "It seems our worlds have a little in common..."

"Soooo... You wanted to learn how to use your magic right?" She said changing the conversation topic.

"Magic? The one thing that so many people in my world wish was possible? Hell yes, I want to use magic."I allowed her to change the subject. Come on, who wouldn't jump at the chance to learn real magic?

The next five minutes of my life felt like the longest five minutes ever as she tried to explain how I should go about accessing my ability for the first time. As her explanation reached its end I listened to the calming rain to help focus myself. I could feel the power inside me stirring; it was locked behind a barrier I had never known was there. All I had to do was pull that power past that barrier... The perfect place to focus it just happened to be my newly found horn.

The aura coming from my horn was a blue similar to the color of my coat just lighter due to the transparency. I let out a short cry of triumph as I levitated a book off the floor. With this newfound power I decided to try another book allowing the two to rotate around me. I lost myself in the flow of this power and the sound of rain. It felt amazing and I felt so free. My eyes were closed in concentration as I forgot the world around me. Until...

"Ike, that's amazing for a beginner! Even I wasn't able to manage self levitation that quickly."

At those words my eyes snapped open, and my concentration shattered as I fell a few inches back to the floor. I hadn't even realized that I left it.

I jokingly looked at my flank replying, "Guess it isn't my talent though."

To this she laughed, "You're starting to sounding just like the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Who knows? It might have something to do with it, or it might not. No pony can find out but you."

"Maybe I should join those crusaders," I joked. "Sounds like an adventure."

"No time for adventure now, I have to document this for science!" Twilight started scribbling notes with quill and ink on a page. Looking up to me on occasion as I fiddled around with this new magic. On occasion she would stare for long periods of time looking like she wanted to say something before hastily returning to her writing.

"Ike... If i could ask a few questions?"

"Sure" I replied as I folded a piece of her blank paper with my mind, fashioning it into a simple paper airplane.

"In your world, magic doesn't exist but your culture still knows about it?"

"Yeah."

"Unicorn and Pegasi, don't exist but are legends?"

"Yes, I told you these things already. What are you getting at?"

"It is strange how two completely separated cultures can be connected by ideas..."

"There was a word for that. If only i had paid more attention in school..." I picked up the paper airplane, giving it a shove. It glided its way across the room, gently banking as it turned towards Twilight.

"Did they teach you thermodynamics and lift principals too?" She said as she gabbed the airplane with magic, giving it a shove. "A lightweight glider..." she mumbled.

"They tried. And if you are going along the same thought paths as some of history's failed inventors... Don't make a giant version of that and try to test it yourself."

" I wasn't... Besides we have hot air balloons."

"You were, admit it!"

"Being able to fly like a pegasus, who wouldn't think to try? I was able to magically give wing to Rarity once... But it didn't last."

"Just wait until Equestria invents motorized engines. No never mind that, pollution..."

"Engines?"

"No... just forget I said anything"

"But with my mind and your knowledge of earth we could build new inventions like equestria has never seen!"

"Do you have some sort of swear to never share a secret?"

"Pinkie pie made one up, its called the pinkie swear. Why?"

"Because, I am now 'pinkie swearing' to not alter Equestria's future with technology it isn't ready for. If it is something meant to be discovered it will be discovered on its own."

"You didn't pinkie swear correctly... Theres a special line you have to say."

"Fine, whats the line?"

"Not telling you."

"Oh?"

"Yup, but I am keeping this." She took the paper airplane and stowed it away somewhere.

"Don't try it Twilight.

"Fine, back to the notes. Im going to need measurements."

"Because Rarity asked me, and so I can log them in the book i'm going to write about you."

"A book about me? Well that's going to be boring."

Twilight brought out the measuring tape Rarity had slipped her back at sugarcube corner. "Now stand still so I can get accurate results."

Twilight proceded to measure my neck width, my spine, my legs, and a whole load of other random things. She even measured my horn.

"How much of this goes to Rarity?"

"About half of it. The rest is for research purposes..." She measured something underneath me, taking a rough estimate to avoid touching. "So is there a special somepony back where you come from?"

"Are you asking if I had a girlfriend?"

"Just for book writing purposes..."

"Well, no. I haven't really had any inclination to... Are you sure you need to know all this?"

Twilight paused, seemingly making her mind up about something.

"Well... You are quite well endowed for a colt." Twilight nudged my dangly bits at this, letting me know what she had been eyeballing down there. I took an immediate skittish step away. "Im just saying that if your world were anything like equestria, your handsome face would draw quite a few eyes." She finished.

"Twilight. I... Um, i'm flattered. But I don't want to get into any trouble."

"Its no trouble, in fact it would be so easy.

Twilight approached looking me right in the eyes standing just a few inches away from touching muzzles "A handsome colt like you, full of magic potential. Full of secrets from another world, the things we could learn from each other... Just think of this as another part of your adventure."

Author's Note:

Thanks for reading!

Please Comment, Vote, Like.

I will try and remember to mark each chapter with explicit content.

an example would be the next chapter... Penchant: CH 2*: (look for the * to know if the chapter contains any clop)