//------------------------------// // Their Arrival // Story: Trials of an Alicorn // by Electron15 //------------------------------// The dark purple unicorn woke up groaning. He rolled over on his back, where a small rock lodged its way in. He yelled out on pain. “AAAHHH, MY BACK!!” he screamed. His eyes shot right open as he quickly rolled off the rock. He looked around, finding himself in a dark forest. Foliage grew all around; multiple colorful plants were spread like a canvas. He looked at the rock that had cracked his back. “Dumb rock.” He flicked it away. The unicorn froze. He looked back to where his hoof was. His irises shrunk to about the size of a pebble. A combo of horror, surprise, and utter confusion showed on his face. “WHERE THE HECK IS MY HAND?!” his voice echoed through the entire forest, scaring some critters in the process. Meanwhile… A small Pegasus colt lied snoring on the ground. His glasses had slipped off his face sometime during sleep. A twig snapped in the forest surrounding him, his reaction to this was an inaudible grumble. A small ray of sunlight had made it through the canopy to his face, where he squinted and blocked his face. He realized he didn’t have his glasses on, so he reached for them. When he had reached them, he attempted to grab them, with complete failure. His eyes opened slowly, revealing his deep brown eyes, and he looked to his glasses, then to his hoof. Words could not express the fear in his eyes. He quickly threw himself away, in an attempt to escape this nightmare. He landed near a small pond. He got up slowly, dragging himself toward it. When he looked into the pond, complete and total rage overtook him. “AARON!! YOUR BEHIND THIS, AREN’T YOU?!” the colt yelled with a feral look on his face. Also meanwhile… Two ponies slept next to each other. One was a dark blue Pegasus, and the other a bright red unicorn. When the angry scream ripped through the forest around them, the unicorn began to mumble. “Check on the boys, Matt…” she said. “They’re 16 and 13, they don’t need me there to break up the fight, said the Pegasus, but he thought for a moment, “On second thought, I’ll go.” The Pegasus lifted himself up, and when he turned to see his wife, he hopped away. “AAHH! Sarah, is that you?” the Pegasus yelled. The unicorn became alarmed by her husband’s reaction, “Matthew, it’s me, what are you-,” she looked at her hooves. Her reaction was just as bad. Her high pitched scream ripped through the forest, which could be heard by the young unicorn stallion and pegasus colt. They recognized their mother’s scream and wobbled toward it. The unicorn got a better hang of moving on all fours, but the small colt had one too many encounters of his face with the ground. When they saw the small clearing, they dashed ahead. When the two broke into the clearing, the red unicorn gave another deafening scream. All three males gripped their ears. The purple unicorn raised his own voice. “QUIEEEETTTT!!” The red unicorn stopped, with her mouth gaping, “Aaron?” Shock overtook each one of them, “Mom?” They looked to the blue pegasus, “Matthew?” He nodded slowly, and turned to the small colt, “Ike?” The bewildered colt gave a nod. The 4 ponies sat staring at each other for what seemed like hours. Ike was the first to speak up. “This is your fault, Aaron!” he pointed his hoof to the purple unicorn. Aaron gave a resentful look, “How the heck is this my fault?!” “We’re ponies… and you like ponies!” Ike responded, “What other reason is there?” “Is that your only answer?” Aaron yelled back, “that’s the stupidest excuse I’ve ever heard.” The two continued to bicker until their mother couldn’t stand it anymore. “Enough!” she screamed. The two stopped, but not without giving each other hateful looks. Sarahi gave them a stern look, which forced them to surrender. By her sat a very confused Matthew. “Aaron, I told you that you didn’t like ponies anymore!” she looked at the purple unicorn. “Yeah, but you never gave it a chance,” Aaron tried to defend him, “you saw one photo and you said it brainwashed me-,” “Shut your mouth, don’t talk to me like that!” said Sarahi, “Now fix this!” “I don’t know how, and I didn’t even do it in the first place,” Aaron attempted to reason with his paranoid mother. “Everyone SHUT UP!” the shout came from Matt, who had kept quiet during the argument. “Now, Aaron, explain to me what this is all about.” He said looking toward his son. “Now wait a minute, I’ll tell-,” started Sarahi. “Sarah, stay quiet, I asked Aaron,” he put his hoof to his wife’s mouth. Aaron let out a sigh and gave the dreaded Brony Confession. He explained the fandom, and why he personally liked ponies. Matthew listened intently, nodding throughout the confession. He had to continuously silence Ike and Sarahi. Aaron explained how his mother had seen the “You will join the herd” meme with Pinkie Pie giving swirly eyes, and concluded he was brainwashed. When it was all over and done, Matt took a moment to contemplate. He came to a small conclusion. “Ok,” he said as he shrugged. The three other ponies stood dumbfounded. Matt was panicking, but was doing his best to stay calm. “Aaron, do you or do you not know why we are ponies?” he asked. “No,” Aaron responded flatly, “and I’m definitely not brainwashed.” “Your still gay-,” BAM! Aaron smacked his brother in the face with a monotone expression. “Ike!” yelled Sarah. “He deserved it,” said Aaron. Ike lifted himself from the ground, rubbing his face, still freaked out by the fact that he no longer had any fingers. His anger quickly changed to fear as a roar ripped through the forest. All 4 ponies fell silent. They all turned their heads toward the darker part of the forest. The leaves rustled, and large footsteps echoed. Then an ominous silence took hold. Aaron chuckled sheepishly, “I guess it was a false-,” he spoke too soon. Out of the trees leaped a creature with the body of a lion, tail of a scorpion, and bat wings. “MANTICORE!” Aaron screamed in his falsetto. The manticore gave a loud roar and slammed the ground. It looked toward the 4 ponies and raised its claws. “RUN!” commanded Aaron as he shot back into the forest with the others in tow. The manticore gave a confused look as the 4 ponies darted away. Behind him approached a yellow and pink Pegasus holding a large thorn. “Now Fuzzy, I did tell you it would sting a little,” said the soft voiced pegasus pony, “you really should watch where you sit in the future.” Fuzzy the Manticore gave a sheepish smile, and looked back toward the direction where the ponies had run. The pegasus noticed this and looked over to where the manticore had directed his attention, she saw some hoof prints in the dirt. “Aw, Fuzzy, did you scare off some ponies?” she felt guilty for whatever trouble Fuzzy may have caused. Fuzzy whimpered, and slouched. The pegasus flew up to him and began petting his mane. “Don’t worry, Fuzzy, Mama Fluttershy will cook you up some noodle soup,” Fluttershy directed the manticore back into the forest. Meanwhile once again… Aaron and his family had been running through the woods for who knew how long. When they had finally reached the edge, the sunlight momentarily blinded them. As Aaron rubbed his eyes, he heard his mother gasp, when he finally opened his eyes, before him was a landscape so beautiful, an artist would have had a heart-attack. He came to a shocking realization as a smile crept onto his face. “I… I’m in…,” the name couldn’t leave his lips, but it soon came out, “Equestria.” His parents and brother stared at him with gaping mouths. “What was that?” asked Ike in a still very much shaken voice. “We’re in Equestria,” Aaron was holding back an upcoming fangirl scream. His family looked across the landscape, overtaken with its sheer beauty. All around them were hills of almost indescribable green, mountains that reached to the sky, plants that looked as healthy as anything, the sky bluer than anything they had seen before. Aaron was jumping around taking in everything he could, from the smell, to the fresh air, to even the taste of the grass (which wasn’t half bad). His mom and his brother were the most dumbfounded of the four. “How in the- but that means-,” started Aaron’s mother. “It’s REAL, ‘just a cartoon’ is no longer an excuse!” He happily responded. In the distance, sat a little village, Aaron looked closely, and when he figured out what it was, he went absolutely brain-dead. It took a moment to reboot, and when he did, he sat back on his flank and clapped his hooves together with a giddy smile. “Umm, so what just happened, how did we get here, and how do we get back?” said an ignorant Ike. Aaron stopped and turned toward his family, he’d always wanted to do this. He cleared his throat, and gave a big smile. “We are in Equestria, I don’t know how we got here, but I suspect some form of inter-dimensional travel device, and why would you want to go back?” “Because we have lives back home, we’re not supposed be here,” said Matt. Aaron’s expression dropped, he had believed his dad was on his side. But he knew his dad was right. “Well, I don’t know what to tell you, I don’t know enough about inter-dimensional travel to come up with a conclusion,” Aaron shrugged. His brother became enraged, “How do you not know about inter-dimensional trave!? You know all these crazy time-space theories, but you can’t even narrow it down to one?” “Well, I could think a lot more clearly if a certain hater wasn’t screaming in my ear every 5 minutes, and furthermore, even if I figured it out, how in the world would I be able to send us back?” Aaron always felt that all the intellectual jobs were given to him. Aaron was struck with an idea, it was so good it was hard not to smile, “Maybe we could go down to that village and ask for help.” They weren’t buying it, but Aaron expected this. “Look, in Equestria, magic is theoretically dominant to science, if we bide our time, I could figure out something, but right now I’m just overtaken by this,” He spread his arms, directing them to Equestria. His dad sighed, “All right, lead the way,” “Matthew, you can’t be serious-,” “Honey, Aaron seems to know what he’s talking about… besides, I trust my own son, whether we’re ponies or not,” he gave Aaron a nod. Aaron didn’t know what to say, his dad really was on his side. Sarah and Ike gave each other worried looks. “Thank you, dad, your common sense is but one your many talents… second to sarcasm,” Aaron gave a smile. “I wasn’t being sarcas-,” “I know, dad,” Aaron facehoofed, his jokes weren’t the best, “I know.” They began trotting down the hill; they were headed to what Aaron called “Ponyville”. Ike rolled his eyes as Aaron explained the known history of Equestria, the fact that certain physics didn’t apply at all times, and the 4 species of pony. Occasionally, one of them would interject for a question. “This seriously all happened 1000 years ago?” “So science and magic work together here?” “How do we go to the bathroom?” Ike and Matt perked up when Aaron mentioned they were capable of flight. His mom seemed quite intrigued when he mentioned all the things that magic could do. Aaron stopped talking to examine himself and the others. His mother, Sarahi, was a bright red unicorn. She had a long brown mane and tail with pale red streaks. But what really threw him off were her eyes, previously brown, they were now a bright, light purple-blue. His brother was like a shrunken version of his mother with the difference of gender. His mane was pushed back like he’d been through a wind tunnel, and his eyes were still deep brown. Despite just turning 13, he seemed rather tiny. His glasses also seemed to have joined them on the trip. His father was deep blue… just blue. His eyes were blue, his coat, his mane was black with clue streaks running through. His glasses were also here. When Aaron looked at himself, he felt rather satisfied, a nice dark purple coat, his mane was a dark navy blue, along with the ends being dark blue. He crossed his eyes together as he saw his horn. He tapped it, which made him feel weird. “One more question,” Ike spoke up, “I remember all the little toys having little designs on their butts.” Aaron facehoofed at the comment, but then realized Ike was right. He looked at his own flank… blank, how he missed that, he didn’t know. He then noticed the others; their flanks were blank as well. “Oh no, this changes everything,” Aaron began pacing nervously. “How does this change everything?” asked Matt. “Do you not understand… no, wait, you don’t,” Aaron looked irritated. “What is the problem? Spit it out!” Sarahi demanded. “We don’t have our Cutie Marks!” Aaron said in a panic. Ike cocked an eyebrow, “And this is bad… how?” Aaron growled in frustration, but calmed down and explained Cutie Marks, their symbolism in the pony society, and whatever else he could think of. “I still don’t see the problem,” Sarah shrugged, “we’ll just say we never got them.” Aaron had just explained the concept, so he was ticked, “We can’t do that… okay, maybe Ike can, but we’re fully grown.” “We can just say we never found our special talent,” Aaron’s dad concluded. Aaron was tired of facehoofing, it was becoming an unhealthy habit. He fell onto his back and gave up on reasoning with his family. When they entered town, he made a final effort with them. “If you see a completely pink pony, do not, I repeat, do noOOF!” Aaron had slammed into some kind of immovable object. “HIYA!” an optimistic sounding voice said. When Aaron looked up, he felt an incredible amount of joy rise, and then incredible horror. This is because before him, stood little Miss Pinkamena Diane Pie. Another Meanwhile at Canterlot Castle… Celestia paced her personal quarters, reading scroll after scroll, book after book, trying to figure a way out of her dilemma. A whole day had almost gone by since Accord’s little visit, and she hadn’t stopped reading. She also was plagued constantly by recurring memories of the Trials. She had only been 12 at the time, and little Luna was only 3 1/2. Luna didn’t remember anything, she believed her whole life that she’d been an alicorn. Little did she know that she was born a unicorn, as well as Celestia. Celestia, gripped her hear, trying to shake it off. “Luna is big pony now,” Celestia said attempting remain calm, “She can handle the Trials…” A knock came at the door, Celestia gave a small shriek. A voice came in through the door. “Sister… is everything all right?” It was Luna, which did not help Celestia’s jumpiness. “Oh, uh, yes… come in, Luna,” she called out. Luna entered, her mane flowing with the power of night. She walked up to Celestia. She levitated a small platter toward her. “Sister, I felt so good today that I went ahead and brought you some sweets,” she revealed an assortment of cupcakes on the platter. Celestia was speechless, “Oh my, um, thank you, Luna… come here a moment, sit with me.” Luna happily placed the cupcakes on the table, and approached her sister. When she had nuzzled closely to her, Celestia put her wing around Luna. “You know that I love you, right?” Celestia asked. Luna looked confused, “Of course, why would I not know?” “No reason.” Celestia held Luna close, constantly repeating through her head, nothing will go wrong nothing will go wrong nothing will go wrong nothing will go wrong- “Tia?” Celestia snapped back to reality. “You’re holding me quite tightly, and I need to continue making preparations for my appearance at Nightmare Night next month,” Luna said. Celestia felt sheepish, “So sorry, don’t worry about a thing.” “Don’t worry?” Luna gave Celestia more confused looks. “Nothing,” Celestia made a close save. Luna left, leaving Celestia alone. Celestia didn’t like alone, not after a thousand years. She looked out on her balcony toward Ponyville, having the strangest feeling she had ever felt, like something was happening that would mess with her plans. She brushed off the feeling. It wasn’t like aliens had entered Equestria. A/N: … well that was absolute chaos to write. Sorry if the first part was a little crazy, but I have yet to see a fanfic where the Brony’s family is ponified so I had almost no foundation to write on. I based them off of me and my family, with the names changed of course. And just to take initiative, Aaron does not become an alicorn… don’t ask. Once they have their pony names they will be referred to them as such. Favorite, like, or follow if you’d like. Till next update, Onwards and Upwards!