The Heavenly Descent
A number of questions cropped up as Pinkie's words reverberated in my mind: did she say humans? As in, the mythological race of bipeds, of which much was unknown besides their magical inertness and technological prowess? And was she referring to the pinkish taint as a barrier of sorts? Any one of these would have been a solid basis to make a response.
That is, if I weren't so distracted by the mare's antics.
“Barrier... humans—wha?”
“Pinkie, dear,” interjected the white unicorn of the group, “if you don't start from the beginning, you'll just confuse the poor girl even more.”
“But that would be so normal!” the pink pony moaned childishly. “It's like what they say: abnormal times call for abnormal behavior!” Her grin fell slightly. “Or something like that.”
An irritated sigh echoed in the group. “That’s Pinkie for ya,” a certain rainbow-maned pegasus commented dryly with a roll of the eyes.
I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply to collect myself. “Alright.” I exhaled. “Let’s start with this: what was that blinding light and tremors that we all saw and felt?”
To this, the majestic presence of Princess Celestia grew all the more prominent, along with that of her younger sibling Luna. “I believe that that,” she responded, a knowing smile on her muzzle, “is something that I can explain.”
I automatically bowed my head, but the regal alicorn waved a hoof to that. “Please, there’s no need to follow formalities in times like these.” Looking up at her, I only then noticed that she looked remarkably tired: her normally splendid ethereal mane appeared notably still with some individual hairs standing out rebelliously and her weary eyes bore dark bags underneath them. Luna as well appeared as exhausted as her sister with similar symptoms. Yet despite these worrying signs of stress, they both maintained a nonchalant disposition.
“As for the event,” the Sun Princess began, “while we’re still unsure as to its cause, we can safely say that we have been moved. Those lights and tremors were a consequence of that process.”
My brow furrowed—moved?
The midnight-blue alicorn picked up on my expression and clarified: “Our veritable Principality of Equestria has shifted into a different reality. A large portion of the continent is now in an entirely different world.”
It took a few moments to process the royal mare’s words before my knees shook in horrified revelation and my eyes became as wide as saucers. It was only by sheer will that I didn’t simply fall on my haunches, reduced to a hyperventilating mess. “D-di-different world?” I croaked.
Both princesses nodded in unison. “B-but, what about everypony else?” I weakly asked, “what about Gryphony? Or-or Saddle Arabia? Or the Crystal–”
As my words fell, looks on everyone’s faces and their silence proved to be enough of an answer. We are alone, they wordlessly communicated.
And all of the peoples —Ponies, Zebras, Dragons, Griffons, and many more— from our world, without either princess to control the day and night cycles they were all...
...doomed to a horrid death, a thought grimly finished for me.
My body quivered and my breath quickened - I would have collapsed right there and then had it not been for the timely embrace on Twilight’s part. She said nothing, no reassuring whispers were made to coo me. They proved to be unnecessary; all it took to calm me was the comfort that the hug provided.
After a few deep, albeit shaky, breaths, I returned the hug to my foalhood friend. “Thanks.”
“What are friends for?” she said encouragingly, cracking an affable smile. “I know how it feels.” The lavender mare gestured to her friends and the regal alicorns. “We all were devastated when it became clear what happened to everypony back home. But we need to focus on what is happening now, as the rules have changed.”
I nodded anxiously, taking in the mood of those around me. “Okay, what about the...” I paused as I searched for the word, “‘barrier’, was it?”
Quite suddenly, Celestia’s visage grew unusually cold, her violet eyes hard with a certain animosity in previously unseen quantities. “It’s magical,” she said with a deadpan tone, “but we cannot manipulate it, let alone control it.
“We are not yet sure as to how it came to be, however,” her eyes fell on the Bearers, “we have a fair idea as to who was responsible for it.”
At the mention of a perpetrator, the pink-maned pegasus of the group looked dejectedly towards the floor with teary eyes. In a quiet voice, she mumbled to herself.
Applejack patted her in a show of support. “It’s not yer fault,” she stated firmly to her winged friend, “who could’a guessed what he’d have done once we caught ‘im?”
What he would have done? Just who was the farmer referring to?
Fluttershy’s gaze remained downcast, the tears slowly rolling down her canary-yellow muzzle. “But he promised,” she whispered audibly, her voice wavering with distraught. “He promised that he wouldn’t do it for evil. He promised me—he promised you, princess!”
The sun diarch’s expression grew solemn. “He did,” she said softly. “I had made a mistake in placing faith in Disord.”
“Discord?” My eyes shot open in alarm. “What happened?”
“Discord happened,” Rainbow Dash replied sourly. “That no-good spirit bucked us when we least expected it.”
Seeing my puzzled eyes, Princess Celestia clarified: “You might recall the day he returned to Ponyville.” After I nodded apprehensively, she said, “He made us a promise: he would never again create chaos for the sake of it. While we were wary of it, Fluttershy convinced us that he would have kept his word.But—”
She stopped short when the faint sounds of whimpering were heard. Tears were shed anew from Fluttershy’s eyes. Almost immediately came the soft reassurances from Rarity and Applejack. The Cloudsdale pony shook her head in self-deprecation, muttering and murmuring something repeatedly. All I managed to understand was one word: sorry.
Despite the clamour from outside, the throne room felt very still. I had to repress a shudder. “It’s not your fault,” I said thoughtlessly. That caught the pink-maned pegasus’ attention. Uh, oh, what should I say? “I, ah, don’t know Discord like you obviously do, but from what I’ve seen,” —and experienced, I mentally added— “he’s devious. He would make fake promises seem convincing.” I gestured to the entire group. “I mean, if everypony here gave him the benefit of the doubt, it only really speaks his charms. Everypony was duped, not just you. Don’t beat yourself up for it.”
The other pegasus scowled, probably offended by the thought that she was duped by Discord—I was afraid of that; I really hadn’t thought through my little encouragement speech there. Just another thing that my Cutie Mark could never represent.
Everyone else, however, smiled gratefully when their friend’s sniffling diminished. “Th-thank you, Lyra,” Fluttershy managed. She breathed deeply before looking at Princess Celestia. “Um, sorry if I interrupted,” she said diminutively. “Go on. That is...” She reverted back to mumbling again, but at least she wasn’t crying anymore.
Celestia only beamed warmly. “It’s alright, Fluttershy. But yes,” she turned back to me. “As I was saying—he began channeling something, here in the gardens. I summoned the Elements, but—” The alicorn turned her head away.
The hairs of my coat tingled. “But?” I prodded, gulping.
“We were too late, that’s what,” piped up the cowpony, grimacing. “Discord went an’ did his channelin’ doo-hickey.”
“And we were ‘moved’, right?” A collection of agreements—that’s the whole and short of it. “What about Discord?”
“That demon has been sealed away.” The night princess snorted. “For good, this time.” I did wonder how they had achieved that, but I said nothing; no point in asking about that now.
“And we’re in a world of humans?” I asked with a certain amount of apprehension in my voice. The possibility of this whole day being just a dream was unlikely, but it was still a possibility.
“Yep!” Pinkie replied cheerily. “We’re surrounded! Humies everywhere!”
Twilight shot a chastising stare at her pink friend. “We’re not ‘surrounded’,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone (she used that tone a lot), “Manehattan is a stone throw away from land, and we’ve seen what appear to be humans.” She gestured towards Presumptive, who had been quiet the entire time. “Show her.”
The stallion wrinkled his snout as he went over to a desk—a makeshift table in the throne room? How did I not notice it before? He beckoned me over. I obliged, walking, almost trotting really, over to the table littered in a mess of papers, scrolls and photographs. My eyes followed Presumptive’s indicating hoof and fell upon a photograph.
It was monochromatic and incredibly fuzzy, probably taken from a long distance. It showed a sailboat of alien make, light in colour with a great triangular sail and a smaller one on the—what was it called? A mast? It wasn’t huge, but it was definitely larger than the Equestriani equivalents that I’ve seen. Then I saw the occupants: two humans.
Actually, it was kind of difficult to tell if they were humans. They didn’t seem as muscular as they were usually depicted, though perhaps the vests over their chests hid the muscles. What struck me was their heads. Though unfocused and lacking in the finer detail, I could make out their eyes and general facial structure. From the angle this picture was taken, the humans were facing towards the photographer, but it was unclear if they were looking at him specifically.
Their eyes, small and comparable to a minotaur’s, were wide open, with tufts of dark hair arching parallel with their eyes. One of them had its mouth open as it pointed towards me with an appendage —a hand, I had to remind myself— even though it wasn’t doing so. The other had its lips slightly parted. If expressions carried across universes, then these two humans emoted in a manner startlingly similar to a pony.
Their expression aside, they looked very much alien: their foreheads were tall; their faces appeared long; they had a jutting chin and nose; their ears were diminutive things on the side of their heads as opposed to being on top; their faces looked considerably flat, but the angle didn’t make that very clear. And speaking of their faces, they lacked much in the way of hair. The one on the right, the one who was gaping, had hair growing along its jaw, and they both had tufts of hair (manes?) on top of their heads. Otherwise, they appeared much more ape-like than what I expected.
“This was taken from Statue Island in Manehattan,” Presumptive provided. “A professional photographer happened to be doing a photoshoot there when Equestria was moved.”
“These are humans?” He nodded. “But they look nothing like what I’ve read from your work.”
Presumptive’s neutral mask faltered, as he grimaced slightly. “Cryptozoology isn’t an exact science like magic or other fields, Miss Heartstrings,” he said with a sharp voice that only a lecturer would use, “assumptions must be made when dealing with extinct or mythical beings. My artistic renderings are based on descriptions found in—”
“...an ancient Minoatian script,” I finished for him, reciting the particular addendum which he was referring to. “I know, professor. But still, I expected different.” I turned back to the picture. “How can you be sure that these are humans? They could be something completely different.”
The professor shrugged. “I can’t,” he stated plainly. “However, if you look at this other photograph,” he pulled out another picture, “I think you’ll understand why I think that they are.”
This one was in colour, and the first thing that I thought was that a colour filter had been added as there was an abundance of purple-pink; it was indubitably the barrier. A white hoof was pointing towards the horizon, where a long, sleek looking…
What was it? It looked to be a good distance away, and the profile reminded me a bit that of a shark’s, sans dorsal fin or tail fins, with a protrusion on one of its ends. It was above the sea level, and had what looked to be many large boxes on the… back, I suppose? It took me a long moment to realize what it was.
“This is a ship?” I asked incredulously. “But it has no sails!”
Presumptive nodded again. “Nothing like you’ve ever seen before, hmm? And consider the distance and relative size of it. Witnesses say it was at least three leagues away.”
Three lea– that meant that the ship was several yards long! And those boxes on the back were no small thing either. To think that such a thing could move without the power of wind, that either meant there was an incredibly powerful spell propelling it, or it was powered by…
Machinery unlike anything we know, I realized. Humans were described as innovative engineers and mechanics. They might have looked different, but if this ship was a human invention, then the visual and physical differences were negligible: these were humans.
“Oh Celestia,” I muttered, almost quaking in my hooves. “I see your point, professor.” I looked back to the black-and-white photo. “This sailboat… it mustn’t have been far from the barrier. Did they try to cross over?”
Dead silence. I felt eyes from every single pony in the room on me. My ears folded back automatically—my tail flicked to one side nervously. “What?”
Nopony seemed to be able to speak, as if lumps had suddenly formed in their throats. Only the princesses did not carry that look. In its stead, their expressions were dark. “They did,” Celestia spoke slowly, drawing out the second word. “They… did not make it.”
“They were repulsed?” Made sense, most magic barriers were selectively permeable, allowing only certain things in and out while blocking everything else. But that’s clearly not the case, is it, Lyra? If it was, there wouldn’t be this air of deathly silence, of disgust, really. My eyes hardened with worry as I fixed a stare on Celestia. “They weren’t repulsed,” I said, more of a statement of fact than a question. A nod confirmed my suspicion. “Then what happened?”
Again, the princess spoke slowly: “They were… erased.” My heightened eyebrow made her add, “Erased from existence.”
My heart must have skipped a beat. They were killed? No barrier I knew of did that. But then why didn’t she simply say that it killed them?
As if she read my mind, Luna provided, “Their bodies broke as they made contact with the barrier. Nothing of them, or their boat, is left.”
My jaw slackened, as I stared agape at the Night Princess, disbelieving. I almost shook my head in denial. “N-nothing?” I asked meekly.
“Nothing,” Luna repeated firmly. She didn’t beat around the bush, unlike her sister. In a way, such forthrightness was admirable. In this case, I wasn’t sure if it was. “Discord’s deadly creation is unlike anything we know of.”
Her sister nodded in agreement. “Such properties have only been theorized, but never has anypony thought nor approved of applying them.”
“It’s despicable!” Twilight said with conviction, stamping a hoof for emphasis, “a crime against Magic itself!” Even in my horrified state, it was of no real surprise that she would think it so: she was the embodiment of Magic after all.
But the revelation as to the nature of the barrier compounded a question I had asked before: what good am I here? “Princess,” I began, “why did you summon me? I’m just a musician, and what I know of humans won’t do you much good if we cannot go to their world.”
“We could still observe from afar,” Presumptive offered, “but like Miss Heartstrings says, we would not be able garner much about them.”
Our considerations visibly sullied the princess, as she put on a thoughtful mask. To the side, Fluttershy had been tearing up again—probably since the mention of the humans’ demise. Rarity and Pinkie tried to cheer her up (especially Pinkie), but to no avail. Rainbow looked as if she wanted to do something. What exactly that something was, I suspected that even the pegasus was unsure of. Applejack kept a watchful eye on Dash, as if worried that that something would have gotten her friend into unnecessary trouble. Twilight appeared unsure of what to say, and looked to her mentor. She always did that when at a loss, ever since she was a filly.
A burst of noise: a courier barged into the throne room, her eyes wide and wings shaking from exhaustion. “Princess!” she breathed, adding a bow almost as an afterthought, “news from Commander Pyre!” At Celestia’s acknowledgement and after a quick breather, she said, “Metal islands have been spotted from the shore near the village of Hoofington, and ponies were trying to investigate them.”
That got everyone’s attention. Celestia’s coat somehow grew paler. “Didn’t the garrison commander receive my instructions to quarter off the shore?” she asked with an edge to her voice. Was that anger that I heard?
The magenta pegasus’ cheeks flushed. “I– the message arrived before Commander Pyre could do anything about it. Two earth ponies got out.”
Again, that turned heads, though not for the reason that anypony expected. “Got out?” Twilight parroted, confused.
The messenger nodded. “Yes. They were on a fishing boat, but they’ve been brought back into the safe zone. All fishing vessels from the village are in the harbour and accounted for.” Glances traded around in the group: this was a very revealing bit of news. But the courier added, “A wing or something, from the metal islands flew towards the barrier with great speed, only for it to disintegrate in front of our very eyes!”
I grimaced. Looking at the others, they all grimaced as well. “Those must be human ships,” Presumptive hypothesized, his tone worrisome, “and that flying thing must have been a machine of theirs. They must have wanted to explore Equestria or possibly greet us.”
“Ah hope none of ‘em were in that flyin’ machine...” Applejack shuddered. She wasn’t the only one.
In Celestia’s eyes, however, I spotted a glimmer. Looking over to Twilight, her eyes were lit up as well. “Are the ponies who went through the barrier well?”
The pegasus nodded again. “Yes, Princess. The two earth ponies are safe and healthy. The only thing that they felt was a tingling sensation when crossing over.”
“Very well, Express,” the alicorn said. “You’re dismissed.” The pegasus curtsied and briskly left. Celestia turned to both me and Presumptive. “There you have it,” she said with a smile, “an opportunity to prove yourselves.”
Presumptive said nothing, though he did frown slightly. I fumbled for an intelligible response. “What? But I’m—”
“A musician,” she said for me, “yes, and you have a skillset that may help us.” Celestia tilted her head and offered a mischievous smile. “How do you know when it is the best time to perform?”
“I gauge my audience,” I answered automatically. “If they are recep—” My eyes widened as I realized what she just did. Oh, clever. “I see,” I said, nodding in understanding.
Twilight’s frown, and her quick back-and-forths between me and Celestia, was telling. “Lyra as a...?” Her words hung. The doubt in her voice hurt, whether she did so inadvertently or otherwise. “But, I thought I would go.”
“Twilight, you know that if I could, I would bring you along as well,” Celestia explained, “if the Elements worked without you, I would not bat an eye. But you know as well as I, that you are needed here. The situation here is still very much uncertain. And,” she added in a playfully scolding tone, “don’t you want to make sure that your brother and Cadance are well?”
Twilight blinked, and made an o with her mouth, as if she had forgotten about that. “Well, yes, Princess,” she admitted bashfully, “I suppose I can stay here while we wait. Just...” she looked down dejectedly on the floor, unable to finish her thought.
Celestia nuzzled her student not unlike a mother nuzzling her child. “Don’t worry, Twilight, I’ll be back.” She looked to me and Presumptive. “We’ll all be back.”
Her tone and voice was full of confidence. Whether it was for show or not didn’t really matter, since I felt my heart in my throat. But at least you’ll get to see some humans, won’t you, Lyra?
I nodded in spite of myself. That would be an opportunity of a lifetime. Hopefully it wasn’t one to die for, though.
“We are ready, Princess,” a guard pronounced. He stood to attention by the pulling team, all looking forwards, paying no attention to the barrier out in the ocean or the shapes in the distance.
Hoofington reminded me much of Ponyville, albeit with an ocean at its doorstep. In another time I would have to consider revisiting the fishing village to appreciate it. But the matter on hoof made us all rush towards the pier rather than the village proper. Presumptive was looking out beyond the barrier, seeing the grey ships. It was difficult for me to take my eyes off them as well: they looked huge. To think that they were of that size without using sails was mindboggling. One even seemed larger than all of the others—a flagship, the stallion had guessed.
“Do you really think that they’re made out of metal?” I whispered to him.
He nodded. “I’m almost convinced of it.” He sounded convinced. “Metal’s far more resistant than wood or bark that we use, and it makes them fire-proof. The only question is how they’ve managed to build ships so large without the weight bringing them down.”
It was a good question, one to which I had no clue as to its answer. I barely knew anything about boats or sea vessels.
“Gather round, my little ponies,” Celestia announced, prompting us to approach the princess. “Are you both ready?”
Presumptive nodded in the same way as he did with me just then. I also nodded, but with much less certainty behind it. “Princess, are you sure that we’ll be safe?” I asked for what must have been the fifth time.
Celestia, showing no lack of patience, answered, “I shall not let any harm come upon either one of you; you’ll be safe under my wing.”
I hope so, I muttered in my head. I was actually scared of meeting humans. A part of me found that funny, seeing how interested I was in the mythos of humans. The rest of me cared little whether it was funny or not, and more concerned with not botching up the first meeting with a new species.
I needed a juice.
The alicorn smiled encouragingly. “This is a day for the history books,” she said in an unwavering voice, “the actions we play out today will forever be remembered.”
Celestia had said that twice already. I frowned inwardly; it was no less true, but I very much doubted that this day would be remembered as an exclusively positive light as her tone implied. We did, after all, lost an entire world. Perhaps she was repeating that to convince herself? The princess did look better —her hair no longer seemed dull and lifeless— but that didn’t really mean anything. Did it?
Whatever reservations she had, the mare showed none when she boarded the chariot. Presumptive waved ahead. “Ladies first, Miss Heartstrings.” I couldn’t tell if he was being sincerely polite or had reservations himself. Suppressing a gulp, I walked up on the chariot, feeling the wooden bed-floor bending ever so slightly to my weight. It did not groan when the stallion took his seat. With a nod and a yell, the lead puller set the whole craft rolling before it took to the skies.
My stomach lurched, protesting with the change in gravity, but it settled down after the forces stabilized and we had gained altitude. Fortunately, I wasn’t one of those non-pegasi who suffered from air sickness. It wasn’t too common, but there were a good amount who couldn’t even go on a balloon.
Why am I thinking about air sickness? I shrugged. Maybe I was trying to distract myself. But what good would it do? It was simply a delaying tactic, and I knew it only too well.
“Princess,” the professor piped up, “how does the translation spell work?”
“Simple enough: assuming that humans are not too different in thought patterns, the words we say will be directly translated in their head. The same thing will happen in reverse.” Celestia’s hair bobbed when the chariot hit slight turbulence. “It should work. I’ve used this when we first came upon the Minotaurs and Griffons.”
I frowned at the mention of the two races. Just another reminder that what few of them were in Equestria was transported to here would be the last of their kind. Celestia continued, “It will likely be an imperfect translation, however—depends how their language is constructed.”
Presumptive nodded and focused his gaze at the oncoming barrier. Looking beyond it, I could make out the ships. There were several different looking ones, all big and cloud-grey. They did look as if they were of metal. But their design… confused me.
They were ugly, long things, similar but at the same time different from the one I’ve seen in the picture. Most looked like platforms that held buildings on them, with poles or somesuch reaching up. On the —what’s the term? Bow? Stern?— ends, there were these structures that had long barrels that must have been at least a yard long. They very much reminded me of cannons, but impossibly large. Others looked like the first ones, varying in the ‘buildings’ on the platform, and their size. But there was one that was completely different from the others and much wider and longer: instead of a building, it looked as if somepony had slapped on a pegasi airstrip on the platform with a smaller tower on one of its side (Starboard? Port?), complete with white and yellow landing strips and weird characters on them. On it, I could make out weird metal things on it, and figures moving about. Were those humans?
The barrier was upon us now. The pulling team did not slow down. I gulped. I heard Presumptive murmuring something under his breath. Celestia looked determined. “Hang on,” she said above the rush of air.
The first two guards passed. Nothing seemed to happen.
The second pair passed. They and the first pair sagged.
When the third and final pulling pair crossed, the chariot lurched downwards.
I couldn’t tell how it felt crossing the barrier. All I felt was the sensation of falling into empty air, and the next thing I saw was the dark blue waters rising rapidly to greet me. A shriek filled my ears.
It took a moment to realize that the piercing shriek was my scream.
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*Blows away cobwebs*
Well, I promised you that I would get back to this. And here it is!
...why do I feel like a dick?
Spot the hidden reference!
Special thanks to Velkaden and RK_Striker_JK_5 for taking a look at this.
As always, comments are very much appreciated.
Innnnteresting.
I await more, and suspect Celestia be lying about things here. 
1652443 And here we go again.
Don't get me wrong, GIULIO: I am extremely glad you've updated, now that I once again remember the existence of this story. But be that as it may, it will be very depressing if you've revived it just to let it go dormant again, only this time on a much worse cliffhanger than the last.
What I'm trying to get at is this: is it an accident that you have not removed the ON HIATUS tag, or is it back on hiatus already?
3345686
It's never truly dead. It can come close to death, but I've got defibrulators at the ready.
3345704
Celestia lying? Hm, what's your reasoning? Not denying or admitting anything, just curious as to what made you suspect her of doing that.
More is on the way!
3345765
It's not gonna go dormant. I'm planning to do at least one more chapter before working on another story of mine.
The only reason that the HIATUS tag is on there is because I don't trust myself to keep a regular writing schedule, what with real life and the occasional distractions.
Don't worry, work on the next chapter is being worked on.
Graztis on the featured box.
Shame how its not dubs thou.
I noticed one discrepancy in the Princess's description of what happened that no pony responded to, and I'm presuming that this is plot-relevant: At the time of the incident that shifted Equestria, only Discord and Princess Celestia were present, and Discord was gone by the time somepony else was on the scene.
Did Princess Celestia cause the shift herself, lay the blame on Discord, and then banish him permanently to prevent him from telling anypony else?
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Featured?
*Checks*
Oh, wow. That's awesome! Thanks everyone!
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Perhaps. Perhaps it is as you say. Perhaps it's simply a discrepancy. I wonder...
Good to see this updated. I almost forgot about this fic but I hope to see more as time goes on.
Anyways, I was wondering about your use of the word yard. Was one or more uses of it in this chapter a typo? Or is there another meaning of yard I'm not familiar with at hand? Either way I still am happy to see this update.
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It's not a typo, it's the actual name of what the ponies use as a means of measurement: hooves, yards and leagues.
I don't get the measurement she's using. It doesn't make sense unless one of their yards is equivalent to something like 20 or 30 of our yards. She seemed impressed by the ships that were "several yards long", but that's more like a rowboat than a large ship. What gives?
The way the barrier works in this story is very different from how I've imagined it. (I may actually post a message in the TCB group with my whole theory about this.) The idea that the world they left behind is doomed without the princesses really hit me like a slap in the face. I've never liked the idea that they control day and night for their entire world. I always assumed they control only only the sun and moon over Equestria proper, and that different regions of their world have their own different methods.
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Call it an odd hunch, but the way she was talking just didn't seem right in this chapter.
Damn, this story's good. Not only because it's a fresh look on an Alternate TCB (and let's face it, we could use more of that and less of the same old same old), but because I haven't the slightest idea what the conclusion to the story could be. I don't really see humanity being somehow revived as a species, yet I also don't see this ending on a "humans are gone, oh well" note, either. It's a complete mystery that I can't even come close to predicting, and that makes it all the more exciting.
3346500
Just because they call a unit of measurement 'yards' doesn't mean that it's our 'yards'. Hooves aren't equivalent to feet, nor are yards to yards, nor leagues to miles.
As for the idea of the sun and moon cycle, it doesn't really make sense the way you proposed it: unless there are multiple suns and moons (nigh impossible), it's hard to imagine different nations doing a sort of tug of war in trying to control the sun and moon. Hours and timezones will always be different, so it doesn't make sense for each and every race being able to control the sun and moon as well.
3346614
Just because Lyra didn't ask about that to the others doesn't mean that the others haven't. Lyra is a main character, but the world doesn't revolve around her. It can very well keep on going without her (as evidenced by her death).
3346710
*Scribbles note*
Hunch, eh? I need to look into this...
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If you find this a mystery, then that means that I've done something right. *Fist-pump* But yeah, I'm hoping that the conclusion that I've got in store will be a surprise.
3346933
I don't see any problem with having multiple suns and moons in Equis (i.e. FiM World). It's not a scientific world, it doesn't work like ours. It's a fairy tale world, and fairy tales contain many examples of Enchanted Kingdoms where day and night are controlled by magic, or where time passes at wildly different rates, etc. We have no reason to assume their sun and moon are anything remotely like ours. They're just lights in the sky! They could be anything.
However.... If we take what this story describes, that Equestria's sun and moon were transported to our world along with the princesses (thus leaving Equis to freeze in the dark), that gives you two suns and two moons over Earth: the original ones and the new, magical ones!
I have a complaint about what they did to Discord.
Like Why seal him away for good?
Or better yet maybe he was trying something and they interrupted him before he can finish.
Other than that, it seems magic doesn't really work aswell as it should outside the barrier
Great to see this back. :D And hmm, I wonder if those left behind are truly as doomed as they're thought to be?
Also, love the descriptions of the human ships. And now I'm wondering if 3345704 is right about her lying like that. *Ponders*
3347037
Okay... but then why don't we seen multiple suns/moons? Those things are pretty big, and unless their planet is huge (as in, huge) and the different kingdoms are very far apart from one another, then why don't we see more than one sun at a time?
And as for them being transported to Earth... no, that's not what happened. Their moon and sun didn't come along and are still back in their world, but with no control. That means that on one side of the world there is never-ending, blistering, scorching days. On the other, endless, freezing, dark nights. Life cannot adapt to such a massive change. Might have had to explained that more, but that could be explored at a later point.
3347185
Twilight, Celestia and co. have their reasons. They just haven't told Lyra why yet, nor has she thought of asking them about it.
And yes, you nailed on something there. That's an important detail.
3347621
They sort of are. See above to get what I mean.
And yeah, interesting to try to describe something utterly alien from the PoV of a pony who doesn't even know much about boats and ships. Nice little writing challenge there.
And who knows? Is Celestia lying? Well, I know, but I won't spoil it.
3347763 Eh
I try.
Read between the lines, or make an estimation guesswork from the story.
3347763
There was a time when unicorns controlled the Sun and the Moon. I know this is not the point of the story, but could have been any possibility of a group of spellcasters (maybe not all of them ponies) finding eventually a way to regain that knowledge?
So...........Celestis isn't the cause.....
So did she create the conversion potion to 'ACTUALLY' save us from the barrier if I'm predicting right?