//------------------------------// // 6. Calling // Story: Gifts and Curses // by flamevulture17 //------------------------------// [Chapter 6] Calling The duration of her flight, Luna felt like she was in so many emotional states that contradicted one another, all at once. She could not explain anything at this point, other than being a witness of the unseen. All the secrecy, or rather keeping potentially valuable information from everypony, is not going over as she had anticipated. She abandoned her sister for a while, she was tired as psychologically possible, and she has no idea if this anonymous source is worth the trip. It was about that time when ponies in Ponyville were still out and about for the beautiful day Celestia has given them. The sun seemed to moved slower than usual, though it may be a result of staying up for so long and only getting a half hour of sleep. Luna approached the small town and made sure not to draw attention to herself. There were still many ponies roaming the streets. The scale of Ponyville was miniscule compared to that of Canterlot, or even any other Equestrian city: Fillydelphia, Las Pegasus, Baltimare, and especially Manehattan. One could argue that Manehattan was larger than all cities combined. Since her last visit to Ponyville, Luna recognized almost every area of the town. As she got closer to the within a few hundred feet of the first visible structure, she ceased flying and proceeded to lay low. She passed one house after the next, being as sneaky as possible. Once it came she kept to the edge of town limits, she ninja snaked her way around each corner and wall, every shadow and bush, a tree or two, and finally the short wooden fence that enclosed Sweet Apple Acres. All that sneaking around was fun while it lasted. Good thing no pony saw her. It did take a lot out of her physically though. “Whew,” said Luna wiping her forehead with her sparkling hoof. The endless fields of apple trees provided cover for her as she walked down the dirt road leading to the entrance of the farm. Then there was another dirt path to the Apple family residence. At least is was less conspicuous than flying directly over the land. Beside, Luna really dislikes long usage of her wings since it made her tired rather quickly. A chariot or rain cloud were preferred modes of transportation and luxury for a princess like herself. Luna was unsure who was expecting her or when this supposedly confidential meeting were to take place. Coming up on the house in the middle of the large clearing and the barn to its left, the nervous tension was feeding her impatience. It was assumed that knocking on the front door would be a good start. She strolled up to the wooden maroon door and gently knocked three times. Two seconds later, Luna heard a faint voice behind the door. “Ah'll get it” The door swung inward and a small yellow pony with a a red bow tie was ready to greet the visitor. “Howdy th-” The tiny filly paused and gasped at soon as she eyed Luna. Then she zipped away so quickly, like she vanished out of existence. This gave the Princess a strange look and a comedic giggle for a sweet little pony to be so shy. Feeling sort of confused, Luna waited a minute since the door was still wide open. She did not want to intrude until invited in. It did not take long before the little filly returned, but this time she was accompanied by a familiar mare. It was that of the Element of Honesty, Applejack herself. Luna felt so humble in her presence because of her help to break the cruse with Nightmare Moon. She was still very thankful for it. “Oh uh, howdy there Princess Luna. What a fine surprise,” said Applejack. The little filly stayed behind her sister as the greetings began. “Greetings, Applejack, nice to see you again,” Luna said back. “Aw shucks Princess, always a pleasure.” “So, um, I was sent here by a member of your family, correct?” “Oh it's you?! Granny Smith told us somepony be visitin' us. Ah didn't think it'd be you, yer Highness. Neither did mah baby sis Applebloom here.” Applebloom appeared to be afraid of Luna from behind Applejack, but it only occurred to her that she was only shy at first impressions. Luna turned to the yellow pony. “I apologize if I frightened you little filly.” “Oh err, ah'm sorry Miss Luna for runnin' off like that,” said Applebloom. “Well then, I guess we got that covered.” “Sure have,” said Applejack. “Shall ah direct y'al to Granny Smith?” Princess Luna and Applebloom nodded and followed Applejack in the house. They slowly made their way through the country stylized house, which amazed Luna at every decorated sight. It had never occurred to her how much things have changed since her banishment. This was her first time in the Apple residence and she had never seen anything quite like this. As they weaved through only two wide hallways, they entered the living room that occupied the same space as the main staircase. There on the rocking chair was none other than the old Granny Smith. Only she was how you always find her, elderly and asleep. Applejack waited a moment, then spoke in a low voice so she would not be startled. “Hey Granny Smith?” … “Granny Smiiiiith?” “Hmm.. huh... eh. Somepony ah say somethin'?” The long-lived pale green pony perked up for a few seconds, then fell asleep again. The three lively ones in the room giggled. “Hey Granny?” This time Applebloom stepped in and nudged her a little with her small hoof. “Huh waa?” “Hey uh Granny Smith, there is somepony here to see ya.” With a slow response, she moved her face closer the Applebloom and gave her the stink-eye. “Who might that young missy?” “It- uh, it's Princess Luna, grandma.” The little filly pointed at Luna, who was standing behind Applejack, who was standing to the right of the senior mare. Granny Smith began to turn toward the position of Applejack, then over to Luna. From the very sight of the midnight blue alicorn, her facial expression went from very tired, to very uptight and serious. Applejack and was first to notice their grandmother's change of mind. “Ooooo, Princess deary, ya made it.” “You can call me Luna,” she said for the first time to the old pony. “Err ok.” “So you sent the letter?” “Ya, that was me.” Granny Smith did not seem the slightest like her usual self. Applebloom and Applejack were giving each other weird looks as she talked to Princess Luna. It was like she was sixty years younger or something. No pony really knows how old Granny Smith was, only as far as the age of Ponyville itself. Granny then got out of her rocking chair onto the floor and turned to her granddaughters. “Why don't you fillies give us a moment?” The two Apple sisters looked at each other one final time. They continued to be curious about their grandmother as soon as Luna arrived. “Uh, alright Granny, are ya sure y’all don't need us?” said Applebloom. “Of course, deary, ay must speak to the Princess alone on this one.” “Okay then. We'll be outside helpin' Big Mac if y'all need us. Come on lil sis,” directed Applejack. Then the two earth ponies walked back the way they came and exited the house through the front door. Luna and Granny Smith went silent until the sound of the door closing was heard. Luna then scanned the living room around them, appreciating the selection of interior design, not that she really considered decorating a room like this in the castle back in Canterlot. It did seem like they could use a room for each culture they find in Equestria, including Zebran culture. Luna broke the silence by clearing her throat, waking Granny Smith as she dosed off again when the girls left the house. “So, Miss Smith, I believe the reason I am here is for information you have about our current- … hold on a second, how do you know what's going on?” “Well, er, ah think ah have seen this before,” said Granny Smith. “Ah felt it.” “The magical surge? But how? You are not a unicorn. Only unicorns were able to feel it.” “Ah had a friend back in the day who was a unicorn. She taught me some of mumbo jumbo magic. Ah haven't seen her in a long time, but she told me about somethin' that she encountered.” “Wait, you were told about it when it happened? That was over a hundred and fifty years ago.” “Ah guess it's been a while, ah lost count. Ah do remember when ah visited Canterlot all them years ago to see mah friend. One day we were walking through town when she was startled by a somethin', a weird feelin' in front of us.” Luna did not have much to say because she was too eager to hear what Granny had to say. She listened and waited for her to go on. Never before had she heard of a living, breathing pony who was alive during the previous event. This whole experience had been strange from the beginning, but this was unbelievable to hear it from an actual source. She continued to wonder how Granny's story ties into the most recent event. Rather than asking so many questions about her past, Luna respectfully asked the questions that only related to the story she was telling, hoping to know what went wrong. “What did she see?” “She seen nothin'. Ah suspected she was just tired of walkin' a lot that day, so we went back ta her house. Nothin' much else happened the rest of the day, so the next day we went for a walk to the edge of town clear our heads, but that's where we meet this somepony.” “This somepony? What was important about her?” “Him. It was a unicorn stallion that was not afraid, but confused when it seen us. He was talkin' to us like we was some foal learnin' to speak. We wasn't afraid of him, we was just worried he hit his head or somethin'. To figure out what was wrong with him, we invited him back to our place. He seemed like a normal pony until he started ramblin' about a place called... er, London, somethin' like that. Ah never heard of that place before. Have ya?” “Not that I know of,” replied Luna. The Princess was sitting on the couch, listening to every word Granny Smith that came out of the old Earth pony's lips. She was amazed that an old mare like Granny remembered a time like the one she vaguely described, so long ago. She was pretty sure London didn't exist. “Well, er, we reckon the young feller was spoutin' rotten apples, but he was serious he kept talkin'. He asked me what he was and I tells him he was a unicorn. He laughed when ah said that and kept saying it was impossible, that unicorns don't exist. Ah tried to tell him it was true, mah friend tells him, too, ah even show him in a mirror. Then he tells us he's in a dream or somethin'. He rambled sum more 'bout stuff we ain't heard of before. I remember him askin' where da train station was, where he was relative to some place. Ah think it was called England. Back then ah never heard of a train before, but now we use them to bring them young ponies to places.” “Do you think he predicted the inventions of some things that actually became reality?” asked Luna. “Ah don't know if he predicted them. He said he knew how they work and that they are common place where he come from. He also asked where um... uh... where all the humans were. Ah ain't heard of them critters before.” “Did he still think he was in a dream?” “For a lil bit ya, but went believin' it was not a dream a lil after livin' with us. We learn he had no home, no family, no friends in Equestria. So we let him stay with us till he got his life up again. That ain't the end of it though, he still don't act like a regular pony. He act all weird like. He sat weird, he talk weird, he ate weird. There was somethin' 'bout him that we did not understand.” “So you think he had something to so with the magical surge that happened?” “Ah cannot know for sure, he said he was huntin' in the woods with somethin' called a rifle, and then he was here and finds me and mah friend at the edge of Canterlot. That's about it.” “So he was displaced from somewhere. You think it's this place called London? Surely I never heard of such town, or of theses... humans.” “Ya,” replied Granny Smith. “That definitely explains a lot, but how does it relate to yesterday's event?” “Ah don't know exactly, but he was convinced he was called here by a mysterious force. Said it was fate or somethin' like that. Ah don't know. Ah reckon he was right 'cause the time he was in Equestria, ah believe things got a lot better. You big sister been havin' a bit of issues with some issues, ah a lot of which was forgotten. Over them days and weeks that went by, Equestria had some confidence to enter a social boom if ya know what I mean.” Luna didn't really know what she meant, but it sounded like a good thing. All this time, only pony who knew reason for the radical changes in Equestria that mysteriously happened a long time ago, was Granny Smith herself. She must have had an interesting experience with this other worldly pony. If it was a pony at all. Her story made a little sense to Princess Luna, but wondered what happened to the poor fellow they encountered. “Do you know what happened to this unicorn?” “Sure do. After several years in Equestria, he was one of the founders of Ponyville after mah family and ah moved out here to start a new life and where we found the zap apples. He wasn't much for growin' apples, but he helped with buildin' the town startin' with the train station we have today. He spent the rest of his days in Ponyville. Ah think he settled down with a special somepony, but that's all I know of him. Ah heard there is still a descendant of his livin' in Ponyville.” “Do you know who?” “There are a lot of young ponies in town, ah can't even name one pony. All mah friends have gone and mah family is all ah have. Y'all can try and find this livin' pony. That unicorn long ago was a minty green color with a light blue and white mane. Maybe the descendant is the same color.” “I hope you're right. I have somepony in mind.” After Granny Smith was finished with her story of the past event in her own life that was apparently the reason that caused a sprawl of improvement in Equestria. Luna read about it in her room in one of the history books, but never really paid much attention on the main reason for Equestria's temporary turmoil to be flipped upside down. She had wondered why her sister had trouble with Equestrian society back then. Maybe if she was there to help out her sister, it would have turned out so much better. “That was really wonderful story, Miss Smith. Just what I needed to hear. I'm wondering if this is all going to happen again.” “I guess we wait and see my Princess.” “Why is that?” “Cuz the reason mah friend and ah went to the edge of Canterlot was 'cause we heard a loud bang and a bright light in the distance, right at the place where we found the stallion unicorn, lying on the ground.” Elsewhere... *ZAP!* "Whoa..." "Whoa..." *THUD* “Oof!” “Oof!” The teen and the unicorn were thrown backward as the impact knocked them off their feet. Fortunately, they landed on something soft and they did not make that loud of a sound. Dale was fazed by the bright light and the trauma of hitting the ground. Andrew, too, could not see a thing. All they could see was white blurs from the inside of their eyes due to sudden exposure of blinding light. Dale rolled around on his back, rubbing his eyes. He groaned and laughed at the same time, wishing whatever happened is as bad as he imagined. He feared his bedroom door was smashed and Andrew's brother Alex was either crushed behind the door or completely shocked to have watched the carnage. Either way, he did not like what he was going to find. He was so tired and in pain, he gave no effort into helping himself up and just lay on the ground until he can see again. Andrew landed within arm's length from his friend. He suffered the same pain and lack of sight for a while. Unlike Dale, he tried getting up on his hooves and inspecting the damage, but found it very difficult to do both. Instead he sat upright to stretch his bones and his neck. For a second there, Andrew clearly forgot of his own form that he attempted to rub his forehead, but ended up punching himself in the face with his right hoof. “Ow!” He apparently made himself dizzy again as he was half a minute ago. He grunted in displeasure. “Thanks a lot bro,” Dale said with obvious concern and natural sarcasm. “What? Blame it on me will ya,” said Andrew returning the favor. It has been over a minute and Dale was wondering what the consequences were for breaking a door. He also wondered if Alex either way saw it coming he would have helped them up by now. “Dude, my mom is gonna kill me! What the hell was that?” “I don't know. I didn't hear anything that sounded like a cracking door.” Dale's vision was no quite up to full health, still visually impaired. All he could see was blue patches of sky and white clouds. “Wait!” he squinted his eyes. “Am I blind, or am I looking at the sky?” “You're kidding right? I mean we can't be outs-” “We are outside!” shouted Dale. Andrew's vision was also returning to normal but details were still out of focus. He looked around to confirm his friend's suspicion. Then his eyes widened. “Whoa... … … that's new.” He could hardly see a thing, but it was enough to notice that they were not inside Dale's house anymore. He shuffled around, still in his large clothes, and stood up, shaking his head in the process. Dale did the same, but was less successful than Andrew. “Whaaat? Where are we then?” Dale whined. “Um. I don't know yet.” Andrew felt a soft, cold, and prickly surface beneath his hooves. With improving vision, he could make out the shades of the vibrant color green. It was grass alright. Though not the fancy, well maintained, prefect grass you find in front of expensive houses or on golf courses. This was more of the typical park field grass or an ordinary neighborhood lawn. A few seconds later, he had the full use of his large eyes. Andrew scanned the area for anything he might recognize. He didn't have to look for very long as he sighted a familiar tree and a Stargate poster on a second floor window. He sighed. “Oh hey, we're in my backyard.” “But how-” Dale stopped himself from arguing. “Okay.” Dale did not want to believe it, but after all the unexplainable things that have happened today, he was still able to maintain what was left of his sanity. Even though everything around his friend Andrew was basically impossible. He just wanted all of it to end and go back to bed. “Why would we be brought here?” Andrew asked himself out loud. “I don't know dude, we can just... … well I don't know. I just don't know what to think anymore. You try to prank me this morning, turns out you are a UNICORN which is STILL unreal, you can't eat meat, weird things fall in my room, your HORN glows, your mother calls, your brother shows up, and now this? What other things are going to happen today you think?” Dale attempted to make it sound as simple as possible with emphasis of a few key words. It usually works when the situation is normal. It gets more difficult the stranger the situation gets. This takes first place on the list of strange things Dale has tried to simplify. Nothing will ever beat today's experience, probably. He hoped his displaced friend understood where he was going with his little speech. Andrew, a bit unamused, thought his friend was either too lazy to help, or afraid that something terrible will happen to him. “You point is?” “Well, you know, none of us knows what to do and we aren't making any progress into solving your mystery. Let's just go and call it a day.” “Okay mister lazy, what do you have that is more important then right now?” “I uh... I uh, um... … I uh-” “Yeah I thought so.” “Okay fine, but like I said, we don't even know what were are supposed to be doing.” “What ARE we supposed to be doing?” “I don't know, getting to the bottom of this maybe.” “And how do you suppose we do that?” “Let me think.” Dale did not have much time to think, if any at all, since his friend showed up in his backyard. He knew there was nothing he could do for him but be a trusting person. For one thing, unicorns weren't even supposed to exist, and even if they did, they did not look quite like Andrew did. With Andrew's clothes still on, he could not deny that he was not human anymore. He did not look like any kind of pony, or horse, he has ever seen before. What gave it away was those large, yellow eyes of his. At first impression, he believed Andrew was just playing a trick on him with a homemade, mechanical unicorn, but after a close realization of a non-robotic voice, an organic fur coat to the touch, and that horn on his forehead, it was just as real as the any regular living being. Out of all the most bizarre things that were untrue, he had his best friend as proof. Not sure what to think about the situation they were suddenly thrown into (quite literally), the best option was find out more about Andrew's form. “Why don't we just sneak in your house and go on from there?” “Fine,” replied his equine friend. “So come on, lets chill in your room for a bit.” By then the both of them can see perfectly fine and they were in Andrew's backyard for sure. This was definitely no illusion. The warm spring air was perfect and the sky was cloudless. It illuminated their surroundings very brightly that Andrew felt foolish for not wearing the sunglasses he had in his bag. At least he was back home, for now. Andrew had more trouble with his duffel bag that took a beating when it hit the floor. He hoped nothing broke inside, especially his music player, aka iPod Touch. He opened the bag's top with his teeth and stuck his hoof inside the bag. He could not tell what was what. Everything felt the same to him, possibly because of his toe on his hoof had not sense of touch. He sighed. “Um, I think I let you do the things I can't. You mind?” said Andrew pointing at the duffel bag. “Like I said, only because you're impaired.” “I'm not-” “I get it dude, you don't like to be called a cripple. Don't worry about it, I'll help.” Dale helped by sifting through his friend's bag to find the keys. He felt a whole bunch of objects in the bag that all didn't seem necessary. “Why did you bring all this stuff anyways?” “I always bring stuff everywhere I go, in case I need it.” Dale pulled out a silver cylinder. “A flashlight?” “Yeah, that's um, for when it gets dark or something.” He pulled out another object. “A deck of cards? Okay maybe that makes sense, but still.” “Can we just get on with it.” “I'm just kidding bro. Here they are.” Dale pulled out a clip with six different keys hanging from it. They were all slightly the same color with different shapes for the heads. “Which one?” “The circular one.” Once he fiddled around with the tangled mess of metal, he slid the correct key in the slot and opened the sliding glass door. They carefully made their way through the narrow hallway that led to the front of the house. It appeared that nobody was home. Andrew gave a loud call to anyone who might be home, which was a huge mistake to begin with. Several seconds went by and no answer. Assuming the coast was clear, they rushed up the stairs and into Andrew's bedroom. With better understanding between the two investigating unicorns, they had wondered how much time they've wasted while settling their differences. “Oh my, what time is it?” asked Twilight. “Uh, about one thirty,” Lyra replied. “Princess Celestia should have been back by now.” “Do you think we should tell her everything when she gets back?” “Of course.” “But I think we shou-” “We should what? Keeping all this from the Princess, defying the whole purpose of why we are here. She asked us to investigate for her, and we did that. She needs information, we have it.” “I mean don't tell her about my notepad. Let's keep that between us, okay?” “If you really want. Okay.” “Shake on it?” “Why do you keep saying that?” “Because never mind.” Seconds afterward, the door swung open and Princess Celestia entered the building. To Lyra and Twilight, she looked like she's been through a lot lately. It took her long enough to check up on her sister, but wondered why she didn't just teleport over there. Maybe she just felt like walking. Celestia tried her best to hide her shakiness from encountering the weird tremor. It did not make sense for somepony like her to bottle up fear of anything, other than Discord. She casually made her way back to the busy unicorns on the other side of the room. As she got to them, they looked at her like something was wrong. “Everything alright Princess?” “Yes, everything is fine, Twilight. I just had some other errands to take care of. Have you found anything regarding this case?” Princess Celestia sounded really desperate as she spoke. Both the concerned mares knew something bothered her more than the last she was here. They wanted to ask, but it seemed like it was personal. Beside, they really did make some progress over the last hour. “Oh yes. Um, Lyra found... I mean, we found this book full of recorded mysteries. I think you'll find that there is more than I expected.” Twilight levitated the hard covered black book up to her mentor. Celestia's expression grew with interest, and was anxious to know what information they've uncovered so far. She took the book with her own aura of magic and opened it to the bookmarked page. Twilight began explaining everything that Lyra told her before. She mentioned the occurrence of a similar event a long time ago, the lack of other records that event, UMPs, and the involvement of Starswirl the Bearded. She did not mention the word 'human' to keep her promise to Lyra. As Celestia scanned the words of the correct pages, her protégé's voice mumbled on and began to get muffled. Her mind was so buried in the book that all things seemed to blur out. Then she heard nothing. Almost like she lost her hearing or got temporarily deaf from a sudden impulse. For a few seconds, she stood motionless staring at the words of an apparently secret document and wondering where it came from. Her mind went blank and her vision went fuzzy. “Pmrimmnmcesmsmm?” … “Prinmmcemmsss?” … The muffled voice cleared up. “Princess?” Celestia snapped out of her trance by shaking her head rapidly, then looked down at the purple pony. “Yes?” “Are you okay?” “Yes, I'm fine. I just... dozed off for a second there.” “You just look a little tired,” said Lyra. “Maybe so Ms. Heartstrings, but I believe we may have almost solved this case. This is some great work girls.” “Thank you Princess,” said both unicorns. The sun goddess, the bookworm pony, and the informed mint green mare all smiled. Spike, on the other hoof, was asleep the entire time. At least he is well rested and refreshed enough to make himself more useful later on, what ever that may be. With so many uncertainties of the mysterious magic over Canterlot and the same situation in Ponyville, it was difficult to tell if they were truly related.