A Warming Fire

by Randomizer77

Introductions

The next morning, I woke up to find all three of my new guests huddled together on the other end of the couch, fast asleep. I had finished breakfast when they woke, standing, stretching their legs and wings, and then lying back down.

As cute as that was, I had questions to answer.

"So..." I said while sitting back down. "What'd you like to know first?"

Raven was the first to speak.

"Where are we? And who are you?"

"I'm Zach, and you're on a planet called Earth, where things I'm guessing are far different from what you've seen." I responded. "What's next?"

"Yesterday, you said that we logically shouldn't exist here." The black bat pony continued. "What did you mean?"

"I mean you're not real life real here. Fact is, here, Equestria, as well as your entire world, is a fictional cartoon."

"... How much of it?" Raven continued.

"Mainly The Elements of Harmony being rediscovered and used to stop Nightmare Moon's second takeover attempt, then later the events of Discord's escape, King Sombra's defeat, Twilight Sparkle becoming a princess, and Tirek's attempted takeover, to name name a few." I named most of the big events covered in the show. "Of course we've got fictional stories written by fans that either cover past events that are only mentioned but never actually shown because the show's supposed to be appropriate for little kids, are darker takes on events that are covered, are set in a future Equestria, or just tell their own story with characters from the show, or their own characters that would be from the show."

"..."

"..."

"..."

All three of them were silent.

"There's more to it, but I'm not sure I'd be able to explain all of it." I continued. "So what's you're next question?"

"... What's the magic here like?" Pyra asked.

"Magic doesn't exist in this universe; we instead use technology to achieve things that otherwise would be impossible." I explained.

"Like?" She continued.

"Like the ability to travel 759 miles in about 16 hours, and that's by car. By airplane, that drops to about 2 hours." I responded.

The alicorn blinked a few times, clearly trying to process what I had just said.

"Technology can do some amazing things." I said with a smile.

"What exactly is a 'car', or an 'airplane'?" Sil asked curiously.

I Googled "airplane" on my iPhone and enlarged an image before showing it to them.

"This is an airplane." I said. "The first one that actually flew did so a little over 100 years ago. Today's planes are leaps and bounds ahead of that. They use specially-built engines that run on special combustible fuel to provide enough thrust to push their massive bulk to speeds in excess of 350 miles per hour, and clever aerodynamics to acheive flight and stay in the air. Most commonly, they provide a driving alternative that's much faster, albeit more expensive, because they can carry dozens of people at once."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Again, all three of them were struck silent.

"And cars?" Sil continued.

"They're even older, first appearing nearly 140 years ago as an alternative to horse-drawn carriages."

I was greeted with three blank stares.

"Here, humans are the only known species in existence with this level of cognitive ability. Before automobiles came around, people traveled either on foot, on boat, on horseback, or on horse-drawn carriages." I elaborated.

That appeared to answer that unasked question.

"Anyway, over the years they've become safer, quieter, more efficient, more comfortable, and much faster. The one that I own is actually still pretty new, but that hasn't stopped me from doing things with it that no ordinary car could."

"How do these cars work?" Raven asked.

"I can give you either the simple, complex, or semi-complex explanation. Which would you prefer?" I replied.

They briefly huddled and whispered before turning back to me.

"Semi-complex." Raven spoke for all three of them.

I pulled out a pencil and a sheet of blank paper.

"First, air is drawn through a tube here, which has a filter to prevent contaminants from getting into and potentially damaging the engine..."

---

[/hr]

"And finally the braking force is transferred through the tires to the ground, slowing the vehicle." I finished my semi-complex explanation of how a car goes and stops, once again being answered with silence.

"... Why doesn't our world have that?" Sil questioned.

"Because it would be pretty much pointless." I pointed out. "You can fly on your own, you can teleport, and enough strong earth ponies can do things that we use technology to do. And these things rely on combustion to generate power, so they pollute the air as a consequence, though there are a few vehicles that run either on hydrogen or far more commonly, pure electricity. Those vehicles have their compromises and they're rather pricey, but the electric ones demonstrate an effective alternative fuel."

"But then why are there so few of them compared to regular-fuel vehicles?" Pyra asked with genuine curiosity obvious in her voice.

"Because electric vehicles can't recharge as fast as a regular vehicle can be refueled, not to mention they typically have a much shorter range than traditional gasoline or diesel-powered vehicles. The latter is why they largely fell out of use between 90 and 100 years ago, not to mention you can't thrash 'em on a racetrack as long as you can a regular car."

"Racetrack?" Raven spoke up.

"It's like tracks pegasi use, only on entirely on the ground and used by motor vehicles, and without any crazy things like loop-de-loops."

"Because cars can't fly, right?" Sil asked.

"Exactly. There have been a few attempts at making a flying car in the past, but they all either didn't fly at all, or flew briefly before crashing, so I highly doubt they'll exist in my lifetime."

"Do you race?" Raven asked me.

"I do, but not professionally, like The Wonderbolts." I responded. "I instead go to autocross races, which are tight courses marked by cones set up in an open space that emphasize agility and traction over brute power, and track days, where a racetrack is open to the general public and you can run as many hot laps as you like, or as much as your ride can handle before it starts to experience some serious wear-related issues. You can drive whatever you want, and it's common for people there to race with their daily driver, the same ride they use to get to and from work, run errands in, take other people in, all of that stuff."

"Is your car fast?" Pyra asked.

"It's fast for what's basically a jumped-up econobox with dull performance in lower specs." I got up. "I can show it to you, if you'd like."

That really got them interested. I put on my jacket and boots, and lead them outside to my little green hatchback.

"This is my car," I announced, "a 2015 Ford Fiesta ST. Far from being the fastest of its kind, but you'd be hard pressed to find another front-wheel-drive car that can make you smile so much."

"What kind of engine does it have?" Pyra asked me while her brothers began to walk around the machine to get a closer look.

"A turbocharged 1.6-liter inline-four making 197 horsepower. Not really going to be winning many drag races with that kind of power, but it's a blast to drive, and still performs terrifically in the snow."

I checked my watch.

9:00 am

"Well, we've got about twelve-and-a-half hours to kill before I settle down for sleep, so what do wanna do next?" I spoke. "Just know that because you're logically not real, you can't let anyone else see you."

"Why not?" Pyra asked.

"I'd rather not find out the hard way, people tend to react badly to crazy things like this." I clarified. "However, I've got a lot of home entertainment options, so if you still wanna get settled in what I'm assuming is your long-term residence."

"... Ah the hay with it. I'm not in the mood to play in the snow anyway. And I generally don't like being outside when it's this cold." Raven said after pause.

"Well if you want to watch something, I've got what I consider to be a prime selection of options. Movies here have come a long way." I announced while walking back to my house.

"What've you got?" Sil asked as he and his two siblings followed.

"I've got multiple installments of a seven-installment movie series that has cars as a centerpoint. The first three are really about street racing with some action movie elements, and then 4 through 7 are more action movie with cars as the main weapons; basically vehicular warfare. I've also got one of the greatest action movies ever made, which is set in a post-apocalyptic version of another country. Or if you wanna watch something humorous, I've got a couple of comedies."

"... How about that street racing one?" Pyra requested.

"Comin' right up." I popped in my Blu-Ray copy of The Fast and The Furious, turned on my television, and sat down on the couch next to my new guests (or possibly housemates), who were almost in trance, watching the Blu-Ray screen before I started the actual movie.

---

[/hr]

"Dominic Toretto... You don't know me."

Behind him, the orange and black Mazda was engulfed in a ball of fire.

"... You're about to."

"And that leads into the seventh and final film in the series." I explained.

"So who we just saw is the main bad guy in the seventh one?" Raven asked.

"Bull's eye."

"That's quite an introduction." Pyra commented. "It really makes me want to see Furious 7."

"I've actually got that one too." I said. "I'll pop it in right now, unless you want to take the time to get better acquainted with your new home."

Again, they huddled.

"I guess we'd rather get to know our new home..." Raven finally said with surprising shyness.

Why he was suddenly so shy was beyond me, but I had no idea how long they would be here, and if they left at some point, I wanted to help them get as comfortable as possible.

---

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Author's Notes: Finally got this finished; writer's block and lack of interest dragged this out much longer than I would've liked. I know the ending seems rather abrupt, but I wanted to save the cuteness and feels for the next chapter... whose title will relate to the member of the trio it focuses on. I'm going to be doing this for each character, but the last one might be multiple chapters... I'll figure that one out when I reach it. I'm putting all of this right here because when I put it in the Author's Notes box, it refused to show up for some reason.