//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: Sweet Reunion // Story: My Equine Adventure // by YoungQuillMaster //------------------------------// Chapter 6: Sweet Reunion We rounded the last corner according to Spike and soon came in sight of the gigantic store’s sign. I quickly noticed a pony that had a coat only a few shades lighter than mine and a tail and mane that were the color brown. With these characteristics I was sure it was my old friend, not to mention the fact that his Cutiemark was a bubbling test tube on a heater with a coil that swirled to a smaller one on the side. We all stopped a little distance away and Spike pointed breathlessly at the pony that I had noticed. “That… is the pony... that is looking for you...” I smiled at Spike and nodded. I trotted off with Twilight at a light pace towards the lab coat clad pony. “Excuse me.. Sir and madam… have you two fine chaps seen a man named Johann Webster? I’m looking for him with the utmost level of importance.” “Why y…” Twilight began only for me to hip check her for silence. Baedeker looked at this awkwardly, but past it off as a social quirk. “Dear Sir, would you be so kind as to follow us to my abode, there we can talk without the ears of the rest of the public.” Baedeker slowly nodded as I set off, followed by Twilight and him. As we walked down the path towards my house, Twilight sped up her pace to catch up with me. “Why don’t you just tell him that you are you?” She said in a whisper. “Social preference, imagine him reacting to finding me in this form after ten long months of searching, the reaction would draw to much attention from the populace of Ponyville.” “I’m going to say it right now; this might serve as a test if you truly are a human or just acting to be one transformed.” “I would think that his reaction to the other ponies might be counted as a point for my case.” At any rate, we soon arrived at my home after a stroll through the forest. I opened the door and allowed my two guests to enter before me. I quickly slipped in and out of the pantry. I entered the room with a tray of NON-alcoholic apple cider, being as Sweet Apple Acres does NOT manufacture the vileness of such beverage. I know, such things are personal preference of self preservation, but as long as I live the only way I would feel right to drink something alcoholic would be either ‘Cold or Flu Relief Sleeping Aid’ or when no other consumable drink nearby, and in the second instance I still would be hard pressed. To continue, I brought into the room a tray of apple cider and chocolate covered apple slices, something that since my arrival had become a personal favorite of mine. I laid down into my big, red, high backed chair, chuckling to myself on how comical Baedeker looked as he sat in the normal human way. “Now sir, let us start with this, what is your full name?” I said trying to at least slightly disguise my voice. “My name is William Carter Baedeker. Please, if you have seen Johann please say so now, and if you haven’t say so, so that I may return to my search.” “Well Dr. Baedeker, look no further than your most gracious host. Good to see old pal.” I said with a smile, extending my hoof for a shake. Baedeker stared at my blankly, although it didn’t take long to see his jaw drop. “Johann, is that… really you?” “Well if you don’t like this form than you could have just said so.” I said, taking on the posture of having been offended. “No-no-no-no, it’s quite alright, it just.. I just thought that… you know… you would be at least… in a way slightly… uh… human.” “Don’t worry, Bill, I understand completely, although I would think if we teleported in far enough from the planet we would retain our usual forms, but that is a theory to test another time. Tell me, have you secured safe passage back to Earth?” “Let me give the boys back home a call and see what we’re doing statistically. But while my inter-universal communications device locks on to their signal, would you mind telling me who this is, Johann?” He motioned towards Twilight with his hoof, who all this time had looked rather dumbfounded at how we talked to each other. “Well this is the local librarian, Twilight Sparkle, who is none other than the personal pupil of one of the monarchs, Princess Celestia, the ruler of the sun.” “Alright, I got the name and title but you lost me at the local form of government.” “Well this land has a form of monarchy in that the two sisters, Celestia ad Luna, reign together with the equal title of princess. Under them are several other minor princes and princesses who rule their own sections, such as it would fall upon Dukes and Duchesses in our form of monarchy. Celestia is the ruler of the day and raises and sets the sun each day, while Luna raises and sets her moon each night.” “Well that is interesting, does the fact that the two sisters raise and set their own celestial bodies mean that the planet is unmoving in its orbit?” “Quite so, the planet does not move even slightly, only the sun and moon, and it is their relation in distance and angle that makes the different seasons instead of the planets relation to the two bodies, the same goes for tides and all effects that the two bodies would have on our world is the same in this world except how it is achieved. For instance, all weather is free roaming in our world and is made by the water cycle while in this world it is manufactured by weather pegasi in several different locals.” “Well this is certainly very interesting.” Suddenly a buzz came from the box that Baedeker had placed on the table. “Baedeker, did you call? What’s your status? Have you found Johann yet?” Twilight jumped at the sound of a voice coming from the box. “Yeah, I alright, the teleport was successful and I found Johann. Are you guys set to give us a ride home?” “Aye, sir, we are ready to go on this end, just set up the beacon and we’ll have you sent back.” “Alright, see you guys soon enough, this is Baedeker out.” He said as he released the button on the side that kept the channel open on our end. “Well, Twilight, are you convinced quite yet?” She just stared at me with her jaw hanging loose. “I’ll take that as a yes and get on with life. Baedeker, you got the beacon?” “Aye, sir, here you go, I think you know this place well enough to select a suitable place to go back from.” I nodded and went out the door, and after Baedeker and Twilight were out I locked the door and hid the key behind a block of stone in the stairway up to the door. Even though I was leaving, I knew that I would return someday, and when that day came I wanted to have my house ready for me. After a few minutes of trotting down the road and off into the infrequently walk part of the fields, we soon came to the spot where I had been when I first had come into Equestria ten months ago. I planted the beacon and tapped the blue button on the top, which turned red when I hit it. I looked over to Twilight, who was standing a little distance off as I had instructed her to. “I will return Twilight, but until then you might wish to tell Celestia of my presence. Stay strong in your beliefs and walk the path of life you wish, but keep it in mind that one day I will return, and that time I might bring my family along, but until I do I want you to walk your life as you would otherwise.” I gave her one last smile as I finished my climatic speech. Suddenly the sensation I had achieved during my coming to Equestria came back. Again it started as if it were just the usual breeze for the time of year, then it turned into a hurricane of wind rushing by me. Suddenly there was a flash of light and then darkness. Slowly I came to my senses and found my figure to be once again bipedal. I touched my leg to make sure I was completely dressed, and I was. I slowly stood up with Baedeker beside me smiling. We looked in front of us and saw a room filled with scientist applauding us for a job well done. I was home, Equestria was behind me, but I could help but feel that I had left something behind. Not a physical item but the feeling of wishing to already be back where I was not a second ago. And so came ‘My Equine Adventure’ to a close, but as I had said to Twilight, some day I might take it back up again, to enjoy the splendor of Equestria and all the ponies I had left behind. I woke up suddenly by the sound of a loud bang. I looked around the room. Strange, the whole place was lit up by some light, yet it was fading. I pulled the cord on my bedside lamp, hoping Ruth wouldn’t care too much about the disturbance, and I also grabbed by glasses and put them on quickly to see what had happened. I looked at the foot of my bed and saw a scroll slowly losing its aura of bright light. I grabbed it and turned off the lamp and snuck out of my room to my small office across the hall. I opened the scroll and found a strange writing on it… Equestrian! I quickly took out a small piece of paper I had in a small cup that otherwise was filled with pencils, and fed both pieces of paper into a machine that started translating it and typing it across the computer screen. ‘Dear Johann Webster, After months of trying to form this spell I have succeeded to send you a message by locking onto your life force and sending this to you. In this letter is contained the events that happened directly after your departure to Earth. Sincerely Yours, Twilight Sparkle’ Well at least she had made a spell to get me a message; I was kind of wandering beforehand how my disappearance had been explained to others and how she had dealt with Celestia. ‘Fjkgisjhfusbsuudhdbfsibahv’ Wait… that can’t be right. I looked at the scroll and saw a sizable burn mark and only a few letters showing here and there and some of the ink from the other letters blending with the papers burnt areas. Eventually I found a part that wasn’t burnt and where letters and words were able to be distinguished. ‘Dear Princess Celestia,’ Ah, this must be where she sent a letter, this part is definitely one that I want above all else. ‘You may have been unaware that for the past few months Equestria has been home to a foreign creature, a creature that does not even belong to this universe, a traveler of sort if you will. To continue, this visitor was in the form of a pony, although in his world he is not equine at all. For the months he was here he helped us ponies in Ponyville. He helped harvest apples with Applejack, he helped tend to some animals with Fluttershy, he help Pinkie get a few new tricks, he helped almost everypony if not everypony in Ponyville, and he helped me twice. He installed a bell, that I decided to remove and keep safe in his memory, and he helped me gain a better grasp of our worlds. He showed me that even a people forged in violence can make peace and bring happiness. His people, known as humans, at one time did come to Equestria and settle. They left records of themselves and how they came to our world and why. What catastrophe they ran from, and what they decided to face after meeting a special somepony. After some research I found records, ancient scrolls and tomes locked away in the deepest parts of the Royal libraries that staid that Luna herself found these creatures. They were frightened and lonely in this world with no other humans except the measly two hundred that still lived from the original ten thousand that came to our world all those years ago. The records said that Luna was on the brink of becoming Nightmare Moon when she found them. They trembled at her voice, and coward into the corners of their homes, even though they possessed the power to… dispatch of her. Eventually a young girl came out and looked at her. Luna’s voice lowered and asked the child why the others coward in the darkness while she came out. The girl didn’t answer a thing to her, but just stared at her and reached out and touched her mane lightly before retracting her hand and falling into a little ball before her, crying. It was said that some humans came out and told her the story of sadness and why they had left. This experience had an effect on both peoples. The humans returned because that one little girl showed the courage that no other human had, and this experience of fear and genuine innocence took hold on Luna and is said to have work at her while she sat long years on the moon. I believe it is that event that made her not kill me the moment she saw me and my friends. She saw that fear in my eyes and the small size I had bunched myself in earlier on, I think it was that that made her softer; I think it was that that made her easier to be converted even though she might have denied it as Nightmare Moon. I also read some books on human history that they gave over to Luna the day they left. These books depict lives of agony and war, day after day it seems a new war came up, but the visitor that came to our lands was different. He didn’t bring conflict; instead he brought happiness to us all. When he left, the only thing he left for us ponies here in Ponyville was good memories and wishes for a swift return. When he was here he said he had a family and friends he wished to return to. Some here in Equestria and maybe some there on Earth might think our two kinds our so vastly different that our kinds could not sustain a relationship for too long before friction was caused, but by what his man showed me, I think our two people were meant to walk together, to live together. He said before he left back to his home that he would return with his family someday, I can truly say I look forward to this visit with eagerness. Celestia, if I was offered to go to Earth before I knew Johann, and with the knowledge of their past I now have, I frankly would have said no. I would say my reasons were friends and family and the love of harmony and not of chaos and war that reigns on Earth. But now, if I was asked to go with the knowledge of all that and the knowledge of the human who visited us, I most definitely would say yes. This man, Johann Webster, showed me that behind the haze of war that looms ever above humanity’s name, there is a haven of peace and happiness and through all the wars and conflicts, there is always a safe haven with our friends. I know this report is long, but with the visit of such an important figure of inter-universal travel, there is much to be said. Your Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle’ I looked away from the screen. Truly Twilight was a master at writing beautiful things, at least in how I saw it. The words did the justice and far more for humans than we could ever deserve. In my time of reading books, most depicted human and equestrian relation as very strained, yet I had had a very peaceful and unstrained relation with many ponies. If anything, I think the majority would say that the way I acted with ponies was realistic, that somehow ponies would hate me for coming to their world, and that the ponies would wish me gone for the joke I played that one winter. But strained or happy moments and come together for a peaceful relationship. Besides, I should know better than a few… I’ve lived through it. ‘My Equine Adventure’ seemed to have ended, but having left Equestria doesn’t mean it’s over yet, no, it just means it’s on a slight hold. With all this in mind, it only seemed right to do one thing, write. It was then and there I started to write down my tale and publish it on ‘FiM Fiction’ that lonely day of October 12, 2012. And now my writing draws to a close after the failed attempt of National Novel Writing Month and other obstacles to write. As I write these last few lines I can say that I promise that one day, Ruth, Jason, and I will all go back to Equestria, to relive the wanders of that land, for when I promise, I mean it, and when I mean it, nothing is going to stop me. So as I jot down these last few words, expecting all haters to attack me on points of incorrect scenarios, just remember all of you, I should know how it all happened, remember, I lived through it all, and I have come to the end of writing it all.