C.E. 1001 - The Kingdom
"And how is Thithu doing?" the white Alicorn Princess asked the nurse.
"Much better. It should be completely recovered in a few days. In fact, the other day, it asked what a syringe was. When I told it, it tried to tell me something, saying 'syringe' and 'outside' and 'water' over and over again. I filled a syringe with water, but is shook its head furiously and wouldn't take the syringe. So I asked some of the scientists examining the vessel, and they gave me some syringes they had found in the craft. Thithu took them and injected himself. He looked much better later."
"So he will be released soon? Good. I must arrange for the vessel to be taken to the Crystal Empire site for further study. As soon as you clear the 'Human' to go, I want to know. He will be accompanying me."
"As you command, your Majesty."
Titus Slater, or as the "Ngamahhashi amancane" called him, Thithu, sat in the hospital bed, going over what he had learned for the tenth time that day. He had seen many of the horse-aliens in the last few days, but none of them had spoken any language he recognized. So he figured he might as well learn their language, rather than get any of them to learn Earth languages. Soon, he could name every object in the room, and some more, and knew some basic verbs.
Isipetu he thought, looking at a syringe. Embhedeni, iwindi, emnyango, isitulo, kwesihenqo he thought, naming the bed, window, door, chair and curtain, respectively. He went through the whole room, naming everything. Eventually he stepped it up to the harder things: the verbs. That was where things got tricky. Vocabulary was easy, but verb conjugation? Hard. It had been over a week, and he still hadn't learned how to conjugate "walk" correctly. The unicorn nurse kept correcting him every time he said something.
Finally, unsure if he had the verbs right, he moved on to names. They were odd names too. Inkosazana Celestia was sometimes referred to as "umbusi wethu Celestia", "Inkosazana" or very rarely just "Celestia". It appeared to be a leader or director of sorts, as the large white alien often told the others what to do, and was always obeyed. "Inselo ezithambile" seemed to mean "Soft Hands" or something like that. It was odd, a nurse named Soft Hands. A horse that appeared to be made of crystal kept coming to Inkosazana Celestia with messages, and upon inquiry Titus found it was named "esiliva okusheshayo" which meant "Quick" something-that-had-to-do-with-utensils.
At best, Titus could keep up half a conversation, but mostly he pantomimed and spoke words relating to the concept he was trying to convey. He failed many times.
"Are you sure he's ready?" Princess Celestia asked Soft Hoof, the nurse who was in charge of nursing the Human, Thithu Slater, back to health.
"This is the best it'll ever be. The medicine it has been using has practically healed it on its own."
"But two weeks? Surely with a compound fracture..."
"I assure you Princess, it is well enough to travel."
"If you insist. I will take it to the Crystal Empire tomorrow." The Alicorn said as she left the room.
Inkosazana Celestia came to the room, asked if he could walk, and told him they would be walking to a "esiteshini isitimela", whatever that was. Apparently unesi (which meant nurse) Inselo had cleared Titus to leave.
"Baphi okungokwakhe zami?" Titus asked. Where are my things?
"Ngiye ngabhekana ososayensi ukuhambisa umkhumbi wakho kanye okungokwakhe zenu ukuba umbuso elicwebile. Sithatha isitimela kuze umbuso elicwebile. " said Inkosazana.
What did it just say? Something about moving my belongings? Titus looked at Inkosazana Celestia with a puzzled look.
Seeing his confusion, the winged unicorn repeated what it had said very slowly. "Ososayensi babe okungokwakhe zenu. Le okungokwakhe kukhona at umbuso elicwebile, kanye ngomkhumbi wakho. Sithatha isitimela. "
My somethings have your things. This is at 'umbuso elicwebile', and your boat. We- I give up. My stuff and my 'boat', probably the pod, are at 'umbuso elicwebile' which must be where we're walking. Titus stood, and with a few tentative paces, reached the door where Inkosazana Celestia waited.
"Come" said Celestia, careful to use small phrases. Though the creature called Thithu now knew many words, it was not skilled at forming sentences with them. "Follow me."
"Where we walk?" the creature said, as it followed Celestia out of the room and down the hall.
"The train station." Celestia said for the third time.
She glanced back at it to see the expression it had on its face when it didn't know what was said. Patience, Celestia. It will learn eventually.
They were staring at him. All the little horses were staring at him as he walked with Inkosazana Celestia. And there were quite a lot of aliens staring at him. It's almost like I'm the weird alien. Oh... I guess I am, to them. I'm the alien invader from Earth, and they are the normal little horse things who live here. Titus smiled at some of them, some turned away, others ran away, but just a few returned the smile. "Baphi nezinye Humans? Baphi nezinye ngemikhumbi?" he asked, feeling odd about the way he seemed to be the first human these creatures had seen. Surely the other lifeboats made it? There should be other humans on this planet!
"Yiziphi nezinye Humans? Nezinye Human Imikhumbi?" the large white horse-thing replied.
'What other humans? Other Human ships?' They don't know of the other vessels? Dread began to sink in to Titus' heart. If I'm the only survivor... I'm stuck here.
Soon, they arrived at a long wooden platform. There were many crates laying about, and ponies wearing lab coats loaded them onto a... train? Trains existed in human systems, of course, but this train looked almost like an ancient train, with a smokestack and wood-and-steel tracks. Certainly not like the super-magnetic trains used by the Earth United Planets. Inkosazana Celestia led Titus up a ramp into a rather comfortable-looking train car. There appeared to be very few other horses boarding the train: only the lab coat adorned ones and the "Roman soldiers" that seemed to frequently converse with Inkosazana Celestia. The rest of the small train seemed devoted to the crates.
When the train was loaded, a native who appeared to be the conductor called out "Ingabe zonke on ebhodini?", and then the train departed the station. Titus was left alone in the compartment with Inkosazana Celestia.
The Human Thithu did not appear to say much. Princess Celestia guessed that it was because it could not speak very well. It clearly could not tell what "train" was. This was to be expected. She, and indeed all other ponies, had never seen a being like this before, not in all the world. So to assume it spoke Equish was unreasonable. Nevertheless, as Guardian of the Sun, she was used to even foreign dignitaries speaking her native tongue. It would be insulting to not even have a translator on hand, and expect her, ruler of one of the most powerful nations, to bring her own translators. She did, of course, if only for them to check the translations to ensure correct communication. But even though she now had to contend with this beings foal-like grasp on the language, she quite enjoyed her time with it. She loved being a teacher, which is why she still taught students from her magic school, even though she had been doing it for over two thousand years.
"Crystal Empire." the Human said unexpectedly. "There, Crystal Empire?" it said, pointing back in the direction they had come.
Celestia smiled and shook her head. "No, that is the train station. We are going to the Crystal Empire."
"Esiteshini isitimela" must be the train station. But which word was which? Titus thought. He pointed at the train. "Isitimela?" he inquired, guessing it was correct, since Inkosazana Celestia had said they were "taking the isitimela" earlier.
The Human was learning! It could keep up a child's conversation;naming objects, asking simple questions, and explaining actions were becoming fairly easy for it. And it had learned this so quickly. Celestia was pleased: either she was an extraordinary teacher, or the Human had a knack for picking up languages.
It inquired as to all the locations along the route, and the Princess was only too happy to show off her kingdom: Neighagra Falls was quite an impressive sight, even seen far away from the train tracks. Just wait until it sees the Capital... or the Crystal Empire! Celestia thought.
They had just passed a small, dark town called "Nanezincazelo Okungenalutho", which was "Hollow something". It didn't look like a nice place to visit, so Titus was glad it was quickly passed up. He did wish they had stopped by that waterfall, however, as it was quite impressive. Not nearly as impressive as Titan Falls on Gallius 1, but still quite awe-inspiring.
He was not prepared for their first actual stop, however. The train approached a large mountain, the tallest he had yet seen in this land. It wasn't the mountain that was impressive, however. It was the city. It was built right on the side of the mountain, much like some curious buildings humans built overhanging cliffs, but this was an entire city suspended on the mountain side. Waterfalls, smaller but every bit impressive as the one they had passed earlier, flowed from some high-up mountain stream and cascaded down through the city. The city itself was impressive: towers everywhere gleamed in the sun, bridges spanning the gaps between them. The whole of the city rested on a massive platform, which appeared to be supported on the sides furthest from the mountain with some kind of anti-gravitic pylons.
Titus' view was temporarily cut off as the train passed through a tunnel in the mountain, ascending through the darkness till it reached the other side. Now closer to the city, he could see many other train tracks flowed from or into it, all from clefts in the mountain.
"Canterlot, komkhulu yesizwe sethu." the white winged horse said, nodding its head, and its horn, towards the city.
"Canterlot..." Titus said. He supposed there were many human settlements more grand than this, but not many, and perhaps none that were unique as this.
In a few minutes, they arrived at the station, or rather a station, but to his surprise Titus was told to "Stay here." by Inkosazana Celestia. He watched through a window as they conversed with several "Roman soldiers", these ones armed with spears. Spears? Steam engines? This is certainly not an advance sapient race. Titus noted the presence of many other "guards" around. Inkosazana was let through quickly, as once again the guards appeared to heed their every word. Perhaps Inkosazana Celestia is a military general, Titus hyptothesized which would make sense in the event of First Contact. The government always acts first, and it's the military that gets the aliens. Of course, humans had never encountered any aliens, so this conjecture was based entirely off fiction.
After a half hour or so, Inkosazana Celestia re-boarded the train, and it was on its way again.
The stop in Canterlot was necessary. Princess Celestia had kept the whole "Manehattan Incident" as quiet as possible, but news had inevitably been leaked of the "mysterious sea creature" that had "emerged from the ocean in a fiery explosion". It was quite humorous, really, if what the investigation teams had concluded was true. This creature may have been found drifting in the ocean, but the other vessel certainly hadn't been in any oceans. Rather, given the bizarre meteor shower, the crash at the crystal empire, and the arrival of this curious "Human", the investigators had concluded that this creature came from space. Exactly where, they had no answer. But at least one vessel, and probably many more, had been seen falling from the sky, and the vessel from the ocean had shown signs of scorch marks consistent with those on the crashed vessel and on meteorites that had been recovered in meteor showers. Leading scientists theorized it was from impacting the air at extremely high speeds, and lab tests had confirmed it.
Regardless, the public still had to be informed of the situation, so Celestia had to appear in Canterlot to break the news. She issued a short and direct statement saying that a creature from another world, and several ships, had been found, and that the creature was currently under examination. It did not appear hostile, and no other living creatures had been found. The ponies had taken it surprisingly well, though there were quite a lot of questions asked. Celestia handed the questions over to Princess Luna, who had been briefed before hand, and Celestia left to take the train to its next stop.
Titus felt this land was more and more curious the more of it he saw. Inkosazana Celestia speeding the rise of the sun was rather odd, and inexplicable, but Canterlot was nothing too unbelievable. The next town however, was flying. It was resting on clouds, hovering a mile above the ground, and what appeared to be liquid color flowed off it towards the ground, before disappearing into thin air. It was the most bizarre thing Titus had ever seen, seeming to defy the laws of physics. Titus supposed some anti-gravity technology was again at work, but he found this odd considering the lack of advanced weapons or transportation.
They did not stop to admire the scenery of Amafudale, as it was called, but rather continued on towards yet another mountain chain. This they climbed for several hours, before descending onto a field of ice and snow. Given that the train had traveled roughly North-West, judging from the sun, before turning North-East, Titus assumed they were now near the northern pole of the planet, where even in summer (or spring, he wasn't yet sure which it was), frost would remain on the ground. The train continued until it approached yet another sight that bewildered Titus. It was a city yet again, but this time it appeared to be made of crystal, and strangest of all: it was completely free of snow or frost, though the land all around was covered in it. It was as if that spot of all the region had forgotten it was in the far north, and thought itself a temperate region.
It was here the train stopped, and here Titus was allowed at last to leave the car. The crates and the lab coated horses (Titus assumed they were scientists) were loaded onto several carriages. Why on Earth, or wherever I am, do the sentient horses have horse-drawn carriages? Isn't that a little... pointless? Titus shrugged and boarded the carriage Inkosazana Celestia instructed him to.
They left the shining city behind, heading out North-West again, into the frozen wastes. Along the way, Titus learned that the place they had stopped was the "Umbuso elicwebile" of earlier. He also learned that he would soon see his belongings, and the "other Human belongings", which was rather ominous.
Presently they reached a large camp, populated by coated figures and more "guards". The carriages were unloaded, and Titus and Celestia departed the carriage depot and headed towards a very large central building. It looked as if it had been hastily constructed out of metal sheets. Inside it was quite warm, which was fortunate for Titus since his jumpsuit was not made for -10 Centigrade weather. There was also a site to behold: excavated in the middle of the floor, was the wreck of one of Enduring Spirit's lifeboats. It was smashed almost beyond recognition, but it appeared to have hit the ground at an angle and slid to this position, and landed in some heavy snow. The pilot had apparently tried to make the best of the landing. Unfortunately, it appeared not to have worked. While Titus wasn't quite sure what "efile" was, he could guess his fellow crew members' fate by the covered forms in one corner of the room, and the almost sad look on Inkosazana Celestia's face.
Titus knelt, and mourned.
It was a long time before he got up. There was no use lamenting what was past, they had met their fates, and he was still here living. Titus stood and asked "What next?" in Equish. No doubt they had not brought him here just to inform him of the crew's deaths, they could have done that back at the hospital. He was here for some reason.
Inkosazana Celestia said "Ukulandela". "Follow".
Titus followed the being down a small hall to the door of another room. Celestia entered, and he followed. Inside, there was some technical equipment which included a balance and a microscope, a table, and several items recovered from the crash arrayed on the table. They were being studied by a purple-ish small horse, who was unique in that they were the only other winged unicorn Titus had ever seen, besides Inkosazana Celestia.
Upon their entrance, the small horse looked up, bowed before Celestia, who said "Selisishonela, nangangokwazi...", and then the smaller horse got up and looked at Titus.
Instantly, it started jumping around, squealing: "Oh, Celestia, lokhu kufanele kube Human Ngibonga kakhulu ejabulile ukuhlangabezana it, ingabe a naye noma wakhe, angikwazi ukutshela, kufanele sibuze, kodwa mhlawumbe abazi ngisho ubulili efana senza, noma mhlawumbe banayo engaphezu kweyodwa ubulili, futhi alo owesithathu, noma ubulili sesine, Oh, imibuzo enginalo kwalokhu sidalwa!"
"Selisishonela!" Inkosazana Celestia said, somewhat more sternly than usual. It was clear this creature was a little too excited to meet an alien.
The smaller horse appeared to blush, and, sticking out its hoof, said quietly "Igama lami ngu 'Selisishonela Ukucwazimula', ubani igama lakho?"
It meant, "My name is Selisishonela Ukucwazimula, what is your name?". Titus responded: "Igama lami ngu Titus Andronicus Slater. Kuyinto ngijabulela ukukwazi". He then shook its extended hoof.
The purple creature then proceeded to barrage him with sentences he barely half understood, and his answers were so horrible, that the creature eventually gave up its interrogation. Celestia was shaking its head back and forth. Selisishonela Ukucwazimula gave Inkosazana Celestia a look, then promptly turned back towards Titus.
Why is it looking at me like that? Why is it's horn lighting up? The creature stepped closer to Titus, who stepped back against the door. Don't come closer! I don't know what you're doing! The creature stood on it's hind legs, and bent its glowing horn down to Titus' forehead. There was a zap, and Titus felt really weird. He didn't quite know what Twilight Sparkle had done to him, but clearly something had happened.
"Well, did it work?" Twilight Sparkle asked.
"Woah!" Titus said. It was still speaking in Equish, but he understood every word as clearly as if he were a native speaker. In fact, he could quickly call up the Equish phrase for anything he thought of. His grasp of the language was probably better than his grasp of French. "What did you just do to me?"
"Oh, a simple memory spell. I wasn't sure if it would work, our brains probably being different, and all, but it seems to have worked out fine. I hope there isn't any side effects." Twilight Sparkle said.
"Now Twilight, you've ruined it." Celestia said with a smile. "I was having fun teaching the Human Equish, and you had to go and use a memory spell!"
"Memory... spell?" Titus asked "Side effects?"
"Oh, I'm sure they'll be minor. And if not, I can probably use more magic to fix the brain damage. You'll be fine." Twilight said nonchalantly.
Titus fainted.
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I like where this is going!
5040174
Thanks. I hope you enjoy it.
I'll give this a shot, I'd like to point out that at the very least ponies have no problem with Fish being eaten(see fluttershy feeding it to several of her animal friends), also eggs(which are high in cholestorol but also very high in protein). Neither of these are plants yet they are efficient ways of getting much of the protein requirement that humans have(otherwise he would have to eat mostly nuts and legumes to get his nutrient requirements).
5040344
Is eating eggs canon?
I don't really think horses would eat eggs, but science must yield to canon, I guess.
And just because the ponies are okay with feeding carnivores fish doesn't mean they would have some ready to be eaten. If they don't eat the fish themselves, I don't think they'd have a lot of fisherponies, and therefore they wouldn't have a lot of fish.
5040375 them eating eggs is in fact canon, they eat cakes, which have as a prerequisite ingredient eggs, as well as cupcakes, brownies, and most other pastries Pinkie Pie also mentions Quiche in one episode which is another egg dish. also Rarity made sunny side up eggs for her and sweetie belle. and while they might not have them readily availabe, saying that he would be "required" to eat a fully vegetative diet would be ridiculous. Pinkie pie mentioned hot dogs in Fall Weather Friends, here's a link to the wiki page with food shown and mentioned in the show.
5040462
You can make all of those dishes except quiche (and the actual eggs Rarity makes) without eggs. It won't be the same, but you can still do it. I've seen vegan versions of all those foods.
A Hotdog doesn't have to be meat either. Ever heard of a soydog?
That bitch!
5040525
I had a temporary moment of insanity when I wrote that. But I assume you liked the chapter?
5040534 Yes it was good.
5040504 it also has a list of the ingredients for Pinkie's Muffins(which Applejack messed up), eggs, sugar, flour, Wheat Germ, baking soda, and chocolate chips. which implies that all of her baked goods are the regular versions rather than vegan versions(not to mention the fact that they use cows milk, or at the very least export it to other places as is evidenced by Twilight's episode with the Ursa Minor) and tofu dogs and soy are most commonly referred to as such with hot dogs referring exclusively to the varieties made from actual meat.
5040550
I remember Pinkie listing Chocolate chips, flour, and Wheat germ (which AJ mistakes as potato chips, soda, and "wheat worms"), but not eggs.
And while milk isn't vegan, it is something that all mammals drink, so ponies drinking cow milk is perfectly acceptable.
As for "hotdogs" versus soydogs, you have to remember that we live in an omnivore dominated society, where hotdogs are traditionally made with meat. But ponies live in an herbivore dominated society, where perhaps hotdogs are traditionally made with tofu. There is no reason to assume their hotdogs are meat just because ours are.
5040546
Did you check out the "Easter Eggs"?
Surely Earth government would launch rescue mission...?
5044893
The ship was at least a light year from the nearest human planet when it blew up. It's taken six years to get where it is, and it's been in uninhabited space the whole time.
Even a distress signal moving at light speed would take a year to get picked up, and even if the government launched a rescue ship as soon as they received the message, it would take six years to get to Equus. So we're looking at seven years before help arrives.
It's been two weeks.
Is it just me or did my Brain just died off from the Jibber jabber that's been going around in the story
5097836
If you are referring to the Zulu, then no, it isn't just you. Just imagine me writing that. But that is at an end, all dialogue will be in English from now on.
5117543 YAY
5117543
and thus, my only complaint with the story so far is fixed.
magic really is THE shit isn't it?
I forgot to say when you had just posted this, but the 'super-magnetic trains used by the Earth United Planets' would either be called a Maglev or Vactrain.