//------------------------------//
// The Visit 
// Story: Encounters 
// by Dai Kirai 
//------------------------------//

        Twilight stared at the void as she prepared to step through it. Anthony had already stepped through to show them that it was safe, and now all that was left was for herself and Lyra to step through. She looked to the right to see a nervous Lyra looking right back at her. Twilight inhaled and let it out slowly, one small step for ponies, she thought as she walked up to the void and submerged her right hoof into its smooth white surface, breaking its tension and sending out ripples.
        The lavender mare had to struggle to keep from yanking her leg back out when the cold and shock entered her body where it intersected with the void. The humans made it through here and so can I. She stated to herself; slowly trotting forward and through the circular object that had so confused her; passing from the Equestrian side to the Earth side. She started to wonder what would have happened if Mystic hadn’t pulled her back from the void all those months ago. 
        Twilight had the distinct urge to shake out her coat after exiting the void; wanting to shake out the cold and the shock. Guess we can’t call it a void anymore, she thought. As Twilight looked about the room she heard the telltale clopping of another pony entering the small enclosed room they were in. The room seemed to be about ten feet across in either direction and twelve feet high. It was made of some sort of shiny moving fabric that the humans called a type of ‘plastic’. There were pipes running along the top of the room that just exited out the top of it. The far end of the room had a zipper down it that Twilight assumed was for exiting. Why is there no door? She pondered as the sound of Lyra’s hooves moving about the room was the only noise to be heard. 
        Twilight saw a basket in the corner with a white sleeve sticking out of it. Perfect opportunity to see how magic works here, she thought as her horn was enveloped in a purple glow. The sleeve was slowly lifted by the purple aura surrounding it; far enough for her to notice that it was a familiar looking long sleeved shirt. The drain on her magic was still three times more than it would normally take on this size object. So magic does still work here, she concluded as she felt her energy refilling at a much slower rate. 
        Then it hit her, where did those clothes come from, they looked familiar. Twilight scanned the room and her vision landed on Lyra, who was staring at something. Their guide, Anthony, was naked like a pony. Twilight had seen some pictures, but she had never seen a naked human, she hadn’t even been able to see their arms or legs unadorned in clothing. He had a lot less hair than she expected. Anthony had hair on his arms and legs and torso, his hands were covering the front of his body between his legs though. Why is he naked? It must be some sort of taboo to be naked or he wouldn’t be covering himself, her thoughts mirroring that of Lyra’s. 
        Anthony looked over at the two ponies and gave what Twilight had learned of as a nervous smile. As a disembodied voice echoed around the room, “Don’t be afraid, this is a normal safety precaution to prevent alien bacteria from taking hold. Remember, it’s just like smelly rain.” The voice ended with a click.
        Before Twilight could question what was going on, she heard the hiss of water through a tube and felt something cold hit her withers. Then she noticed the smell and started to gag as it soaked into her fur. She tried to charge a teleportation spell to get her out of it, but she couldn’t focus as her eyes started to tear-up and her breathing didn’t come as easy. Just as she was asking herself if this was an elaborate trap; the fluid stopped hitting her. A few seconds later, another stream of fluid hit her. She went to hold her breath, but the she realized it was just water, rinsing whatever that other fluid had been off of her coat and making it easier to breath. As the second stream of water slowly stopped, the zipper at the far end of the room slowly moved downward.         Twilight resisted the urge to run forward; instead she chose to regally trot and was met by a human, in another suit very much like the one Avery had originally been in, that handed her a towel. She grabbed the offered towel in her magic and started to dry her coat. She heard Lyra step up next to her and started to dry herself off with a similar towel. “I never want to do that again,” Lyra muttered to her in Equestrian; taking a deep breath of fresh air. “What could drive them to use such horrid things on themselves?”
        Twilight had no answer for her colleague; it confused her just as much. Twilight turned around to find her guide just as he stepped out of the tent. He had put on undergarments and was holding what looked like another suit. “Hope you two are ready for a small trip.” The translator stated as he started trying to dress while standing up; having to use the tent to prop himself up quite a few times. 
        “We’re waiting on you,” Lyra quipped to the human. “You know, if you were to just go like that we could leave now.” Lyra was grinning, egging the human on.
        Anthony didn’t seem to be playing along. “There is no way I am going to see the President dressed like this.” He said. The only thing he had left was to button up his jacket.
        Twilight looked over at Lyra, who was moving from hoof to hoof with pent up energy. Lyra had been getting more excited the last few weeks at the thought of seeing Earth. She could stay calm if she had something to do, but all she was currently doing was waiting for a human to dress himself. 
        Anthony was apparently oblivious as he finished making sure everything looked proper. A man that looked like the human version of Horse Power came over to their little group. “If you will follow me please. I will escort you to your waiting vehicle.” And the large human walked away. 
        As the hulking man led them past the computer workstations, Lyra kept looking around trying to see everything at once. Neither pony was paying attention as they passed through the door until they felt the salt flat crunching under their hooves. 
        Anthony stopped when he could no longer hear the sound of hooffalls behind him. He looked back to see Twilight staring at the ground, or more specifically the salt on the ground. 
        Twilight could smell the salt in the dry desert air, the sweetness of it. The smell of pure salt was mildly intoxicating. 
        “Twilight, you ok?” Twilight felt a nudge on her shoulder; the grip shook her slightly, breaking her out of the trance.
        Twilight blinked and looked up at the human a little sheepishly. “Yeah, I just wasn’t expecting to see this much salt.” She noticed that Anthony looked confused and decided to elaborate, using Equestrian so as not to be overheard by the other of his species. “Salt works like alcohol does in your species. We need little amounts to live, just like other organisms; but pure salt and in large quantities can be quite alluring for ponies.” 
        Anthony looked at her sympathetically. “Just don’t look down then. Once you get to the car you won’t have to see it again until you go back.” Twilight was thankful she had looked up the regions of Earth and knew that most of it wasn’t like this. “By the way, where is Lyra?” Twilight looked to where she had last noticed Lyra at; the mare was gone.
        Twilight began to twist her head around to find the xenobiologist. She spotted the giant human standing by a large black vehicle she recognized as a car. It was all black, from the tires to the windows. What’s the point of having windows if you can’t see through them? She questioned and trotted towards the car. 
As Twilight got closer a light green tail became visible from behind the car, it then quickly disappeared. “What is that pony doing now?” Twilight muttered to herself. They had an appointment with the president to keep, and from what she had seen, it was going to take a while to get to their capital. It’s over a 2000 mile trip and we need to be there tomorrow; that’s not a lot of time. Twilight thought, she knew how fast cars could travel, but that would mean being in an enclosed carriage for that amount of time.
The car was incredibly well polished; Twilight could see herself in the black finish. She saw a shape approaching her in the polish and turned to see Lyra grinning from ear to ear. “You know we do have someplace to be.” Twilight stated indignantly. Twilight Sparkle was shocked when your counterpart started laughing.
“We have a full day, that’s plenty of time here. We’ll probably be taking a plane and be there by the end of the day; if not this thing is plenty big for you to sleep in.” Lyra pointed to the car, excited to be seeing human technology up close, the thing they had instead of magic.
Anthony walked up to the car and started talking to the human just standing there. “Hello Agent Reed, nice to see you again. What’s the plan anyway? No one seems to tell me anything.” He smiled at the Secret Service Agent.
“We have a plane waiting on the tarmac just a few miles away.” Agent Reed opened one of the rear doors of the vehicle. “If you would like to get in we can head there now.”
Lyra quickly jumped into the car and disappeared, followed shortly by Anthony. Twilight followed behind them. The interior was of decent sizing with two rows of seats facing eachother. She heard the door close behind her and decided to take a seat to her left, next to Lyra. As Twilight climbed up onto the seat she started to feel what the material was and started to feel sick. “Is this leather?” She asked, horrified at the implications.
A voice came from a window at her back that was just as black as the others. “No ma’am, it’s not. It is a faux leather material designed to look like it. The President has ordered that no leather is to be used in your presence. Faux leather is still being used because it denotes class and rank. We all hope this is acceptable with you. If you can tell us what type of materials are preferred we can have it ready for your return trip.” 
Twilight swallowed, happy at the concession, but still not happy at what it looked like, nor the fact that it was somewhat comfortable. She would have to find some other material later. She heard some sort of growling sound and the car started to move. To take her mind off of the faux leather she decided to ask the local expert a question. “What exactly is an airplane?” She knew that they existed but not much else. It seemed that aircraft were used for war and that kind of thing she just she forwarded to Celestia’s military generals. 
Before Anthony can open his mouth, Lyra was already stating her answer. “Because humans can’t fly like a pegasi, they needed a way to travel the world faster.” Lyra just grinned as she spoke; enjoying the information and that Twilight didn’t know it. “They travel higher and faster than the standard pegasus, some even faster than your friend Rainbow Dash.” It was plain in her voice that Lyra really wanted to see the plane up close.
Twilight was still confused. “But how do they work?”
Anthony shrugged his shoulders; he just used them for transportation.
Lyra thought for a moment trying to remember what she had read on them. “They have giant engines that suck in air and shoot it out the back.”
Which really explains nothing, Twilight groaned. 
The car pulled to a stop after only a few minutes and Agent Reed opened the door for them. Twilight exited onto a rough black surface; she thought it was asphalt, and looked around her. The purple pony was perplexed; not realizing how fast they had moved, she couldn’t even see the building they had exited before. Then looking forward, she spotted the plane. It was a long tube on three little stick that attached to wheels, with horizontal angular fins on the side and one on the back pointed vertically. Looking for the engines; she spotted two on the tail, and they weren’t necessarily large, but a pony could comfortably stand inside one. The vehicle itself seemed rather small compared to some of the pictures in the books that were brought to Equestria; the plane was less than 60 feet long and 20 tall, she couldn’t tell from this angle what the possible wingspan could be. The color was a basic shiny white that humans seemed to like with blue lines down the side of the craft.
There was a small step ladder leading into the body of the craft that looked like it would just fold upward and be part of the basic cylinder shape. Anthony was walking towards it with a big grin on his face, happy about something. Twilight followed a practically bouncing Lyra up the steps and into the airplane. 
The interior had a row of plush looking seats; one row along each side of the tube separated by an aisle, for a total of eight chairs. The ones in the middle were situated towards each other and had a polished wooden table on either side off the walkway. The floor was a beige carpet, the seats a white material that looked nothing like the faux leather, and the walls were all white with polished wooden accents. 
Anthony was already sitting in one of the seats on the right side of the aisle, and Lyra had taken one on the left. Twilight decided to sit across from Lyra; Anthony was reclining in his chair and looked like he wanted to sleep. To her left she noticed a small black square and not knowing what it was for decided to leave it alone. 
A clear human voice sounded over the speakers, “This is your caption speaking, we are about to takeoff. For the ponies in the cabin, please enjoy. There are several movies on file that can be watched on the monitors at each table and there will be a hostess to answer or help you in any way possible.” The voice cut off and Twilight noticed a human female in the seat behind Lyra.
There was a hum and a slight vibration running through the cabin. Then the craft started to move forward and turned to the left slightly. As the plane traveled; it slowly picked up speed. The feeling of going fast and not feeling any wind was disconcerting. Then things got worse as the nose lifted up and the plane gained altitude. Twilight looked out the window and saw the ground slowly fade away. Then she started to freak out; this was really weird and there was no way this craft should be staying airborne without the aid of magic. 

Anthony was leaning back in his seat, arms behind his head and eyes closed. A Jetstream. I could get used to escorting ponies around if it means riding in private jets. He was happy; this was the farthest thing from coach seats on a commercial airline. The plane had reached cruising altitude; Lyra and Twilight were busy talking about the television screen and about what movie to put on, but neither could figure out how it worked.
The flight attendant walked up to the arguing ponies; she was wearing a white blouse with a black skirt. She asked, “Need help?” in a halfway decent Equestrian, but the ponies just looked at her.
Anthony just smirked. “They do speak pretty good English just try that.” He suggested while keeping his eyes closed.
The flight attendant took the hint and asked, “Would you two like some help with the monitor?”
Twilight looked over at flight attendant. “No, we figured it out; we were just discussing what kind of movie to watch. Thank you though.” She then turned back to her friend and tried to finish the movie talk but was interrupted by a question from Lyra.
“I’m surprised that a new mother is helping us out, shouldn’t she be taking care of her young?” Lyra asked. 
Anthony had to keep from coughing at the unexpected question, happy they were talking in Equestrian. That one always had the interesting questions.
“Do you mean the enlarged mammary glands?” Twilight asked, not having noticed it before.
“Yes. It seems a common feature on the female, but that should only happen when they birth young, that’s how all mammals we know of work, even the ones in their books.” Lyra sounded confused, and Anthony was trying to keep from laughing, wondering just how far Lyra would go. 
        That was when Lyra did the unexpected and jumped up on her seat to look over the back of it at the flight attendant. “Excuse me. How old is your baby?”
        The flight attendant just looked at her, confused. “I don’t have one, and I’m not pregnant.”
        “Then why do you have enlarged breasts?” Lyra asked.
        SMACK!!!
        Anthony jumped up to stop whatever was about to start. Crap, I’m supposed to avert international incidents. When he looked at the scene, it was more than a little surprising. The flight attendant looked shocked and Lyra was rubbing the back of her head with a hoof. But it wasn’t the flight attendant that hit her, Twilight was standing on the table separating, hoof upraised.
        “Why’d you hit me?” Lyra asked, startled at the sudden pain in her head.
        “That question. That was incredibly rude; you could see it on her face.” Twilight stated curtly. 
        “But I was curious.” Lyra whimpered. Her eyes were starting to water.
        Twilight huffed. “And that is why you aren’t being allowed to talk to the president with me.”
        “What?!” Shouted Lyra, shocked that she was just hearing about it know. 

        Lyra was sitting out in the waiting room with Anthony while Twilight Sparkle spoke with the President of the United States. The waiting room was rather large with several high backed sitting chairs that were wooden with red fabric padding. The room had a fireplace on the far wall and a dark wooden table in the middle of the room. There were still other chairs spread about the room.
The plane had arrived in only a few hours the day before, and they were picked up by another black car that took them to a very nice room in a local hotel. Lyra and Twilight had shared a room that was adjoined with Anthony’s room. The bed was rather big and plush, similar to that of Celestia’s. They had gone in through the back of the building and told it was a discrete hotel; they wouldn’t have to be worried about being seen. Lyra had loved the view though, it was like staying in Canterlot castle and looking down on the city below, only this one was filled with humans. 
        Lyra was surprised that on the way in that they spotted no other humans than the Secret Service Agents that were spread about the building. They had even been driven in a car with tinted windows, but these ones could be seen out of and the view of the White House had impressed Lyra. They build such interesting buildings. But there are so many of them; even the books couldn’t truly represent their numbers. So much for thinking they were nervous about numbers of ponies. 
        Lyra was starting to get antsy though; Twilight had been gone for almost an hour. 

        Twilight was being led by another suited human from the room where Anthony and Lyra had been requested to stay. She was lead through a few rooms and corridors then into another room with a desk and a young human female sitting at it. The woman at the desk nodded at them as they walked past her and her escort opened the door for her. 
        The room was somewhat circular with three floor-to-ceiling windows on the opposite wall with two flags between them. There were built in bookcases and dressers along the walls. The carpet had a pattern on it with the center being the picture of an eagle holding arrows and a branch. There was a coffee table with flowers on top of it. The coffee table was surrounded by two white couches, two high backed blue sitting chairs with an end table between each chair and each couch, and an old working desk by the windows.
        A red-haired woman in a black and red suit with red accents got up from the desk and walked over to greet Twilight. The woman extended a hand to Twilight and they shook hands. “Welcome to Earth Twilight Sparkle. I am President Margarette Tow and it is a pleasure to meet you. Would you like to sit?” The woman asked; pointing towards one of the couches. 
        Twilight nodded. “It would be my pleasure.” Twilight walked over to the offered couch; put her forelegs onto the cushion and lifted herself onto it. She turned around and sat to see the President on the other couch facing her. “I am here to represent Princess Celestia of Equestria and to extend an invitation to open up diplomatic relations with the citizens of Earth.”
        President Tow raised an eyebrow, clearly impressed. “I see Anthony wasn’t lying when he talked about your abilities in English.” Which in turn caused Twilight’s cheeks to redden imperceptibly. “But I’m afraid I don’t represent Earth as a whole, but I would be more than happy to extend diplomatic relations between the United States and Equestria.”
        Twilight knew about the division of their planet, but she needed to see how they would react. “Then I extend to you an invitation to discuss formal matters with Celestia herself in the Royal Palace at Canterlot, if you find that acceptable.”
        Chess Indeed, Tow thought, but this wasn’t unexpected. “It would be my pleasure. I am sure you understand that I will need a translator and some guards to travel with me.”
        “You’re safety has been guaranteed by Celestia herself.” Twilight replied diplomatically. “And seeing as you are the head of state; it would be an insult not to allow you an ‘honor guard’ to suit your position.” The unspoken agreement passed between them. 
        “That is acceptable.” President Tow agreed. “What transportation will there be to the Royal Castle?” she inquired.
        “You will be met by Royal Guards upon departing the portal,” Twilight stated, needing a better name than the ominous ‘void’. “They will then fly you and your retinue to the Royal Castle. All Celestia asks is that Mr. Marcus be allowed to join in some respect, she felt saddened at never having the chance to meet him.”
        “I will be bringing him as my official translator. Mr. Anwar and Mr. Sizemore will be used as ‘Honor Guard’ while there.” The president stated, getting ready for the surprise. “If it is alright with you; I would like to have one of my Agents show you around the city, you won’t be able to leave the car, but there are still plenty of sights and history to see. And, if it is acceptable you can stay here another night and I will travel back with you to Equestria.”
        “Thank you, Madam President.” Twilight bowed her head slightly. “It would be a privilege.”