“Was that really Princess Celestia?” Scootaloo asked, not touching her dinner of mashed potatoes and green beans. “Like, the real Princess Celestia? Standing in our house?”
“She’s just taking Asher to get checked up on,” Lofty explained for what felt like the fiftieth time in the past hour. Not that she believed it herself. Sure, the filly was sick and had caused a little bit of a scare in Ponyville, one that wouldn’t be over until after the holiday, but she didn’t really believe the Princess of Equestria herself would come all the way down to Ponyville just because she was sick. No, it was much more likely that Asher was telling the truth about herself, that that was the reason Celestia came down to take her to Canterlot. Not that she was going to tell the two fillies at the table that.
“She should be back tomorrow or Sunday, like the princess said,'' Holiday added, “and then you girls can go back to listening to her tell stories and playing pretend. Now please eat your food. It won’t taste very good cold.”
“Do you think she’s friendly?” Sweetie Belle asked, then gasped. “Maybe she’s trying to take over the world! That’s why she wanted to know about the Summer Sun Celebration!”
“Maybe she’s-”
“Hush now, girls,” Lofty scolded them. “Those aren’t very nice things to say about your friend, especially when she’s not here.”
“We’re sorry…” the two girls apologized at the same time.
“When she comes back, we expect you to tell her that, too,” Holiday added.
“Wait a minute,” Scootaloo started, suddenly thinking of something. “She told us that she was a boy, so shouldn’t we call her ‘him’?”
“We… will talk about that later. Now eat your dinner, please.”
“Didn’t she say she was some creature called a human?” Scootaloo asked Sweetie Belle once the two were alone in their room. “And was turned into a pony?” she continued. “Maybe that’s why she didn’t know what cutie marks were!”
“Now we have to be extra sure to teach her about being a pony! What if she messes something up and people figure out she’s not one?”
“What if she’s here because her parents were mean to her and turned her into a pony for misbehaving, and so she ran away from them? And that’s why she said her parents weren’t here?”
“What if she killed them and now she’s hiding and trying to blend in as a pony so nopony finds out?”
The two fillies gave each other a serious look for a second before breaking into a fit of laughter at the absurdity of the situation they were able to come up with. They laughed for a few minutes to themselves before Sweetie Belle spoke again.
“Wait, she also said she used to be a colt, which means we need to teach her about being a girl, too!”
“Okay!” Scootaloo agreed. “But, um, not a froo froo girl like your sister, Rarity. She should be more awesome, like Rainbow Dash.”
“But also a little bit fashionable like Rarity, too, so nopony is mean to her.”
“And we can teach her how to get her cutie mark!” the orange pegasus added excitedly. “She said she didn’t even know what it was!”
“We have so much to help her with. This is going to be fun!”
“You don’t really think she- erm, he- is… some creature else, do you?” Lofty asked as she and her wife washed the dishes. “I mean, the Princess of Equestria did show up in our home just this evening to speak to her, and took her to Canterlot…”
“Well…” Holiday responded tentatively, “I mean, it never sounded like she was lying to us… I mean, he, but I guess it is possible that the princess really did get news that quickly, seeing as they have to make restrictions on the Summer Sun Celebration because Asher is sick…”
“What do you think Celestia will do with her? I mean, if she’s telling the truth… or, I mean, if he is, then… what?”
“I mean, I don’t know,” the mare answered. “I’m not sure. I assume Celestia would… send him back to wherever they came from then? I don’t know…”
“Well, I’m sure the princess knows what’s best… although I have to admit, she was a very nice filly… or, um, colt… is it weird that I almost want her to bring Asher back?”
“You know we can’t take care of a foal in the long term, Lofty,” Holiday reminded her.
“I know that, but it would still be nice to take care of Asher until the Summer Sun Celebration was over, anyway, but I guess that would be pretty selfish on our part. Only taking care of him until we had to abandon him.”
“It’s not selfish to want to take care of a foal,” Holiday told her as she moved over to nuzzle her. “Besides, we’re assuming that Princess Celestia is doing more than just making sure she gets better. She said she’d return in a couple of days, didn’t she? I don’t think the princess would lie to us, and if she was mistaken, she would tell us.”
“You’re right,” the pegasus agreed, giving her a quick kiss. “We’re probably getting worked up over nothing. It's probably just because Asher is sick that she's in Canterlot.”
“Don’t get yourself worked up, Celestia,” the princess told herself as she paced around the library. She found herself getting increasingly nervous at the idea that such a being as the one Asher described could exist. She said it with complete confidence, as though there was no way to argue against it, and still with more confidence in her voice. The way she spoke of this deity, it was as though she heard countless times that they didn’t exist, so many times in fact that she didn’t even bother to argue that greatly. The princess knew she was ready to drop the argument anyway, completely indifferent to what Celestia’s opinion was. That was what made her nervous.
She didn’t want such a being to exist. If a deity like that existed, it meant that she wouldn’t be in control of… well, anything. She had a plan set out for her student, Twilight Sparkle, and the introduction of such a creature could mess that up. She already didn’t like that one stranger had landed in her kingdom, and she didn’t know what she would do if more just came flying out of the sky to cause disharmony. It was a frightening prospect, once that Celestia had to take deep breaths to calm herself down from.
“Omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent,” Celestia thought as she walked past the shelves in the library, heading into one of the forbidden sections. “That’s what he said. Such a being cannot exist. Perhaps each of those things individually are possible for some creature to achieve, but not all three at the same time. No being can truly claim to be all-powerful.”
She made her way further until she stopped in front of a book containing a list of worlds that were accessible through the mirrors before they were destroyed, as well as a short description of each one. She only had a few pieces of information, but she could use those few pieces of information to her advantage. With that in mind, she quickly flipped to the couple of pages she had on the world ‘Earth’ and read.
Earth: Age: Unknown. Year: Roughly four hundred days. Day: Roughly twenty-five hours. Climate: Mostly temperate, with tropical and polar regions. Magic: extremely limited and dispersed. Dominant creatures: Minotaur-like apes. Status: Forbidden, known for extreme violence and hostility to other creatures. Do not visit for any reason.
The description continued from there, going over what she and Star Swirl had detailed, among other things, but she didn’t really need the rest. The main thing she wanted to know was how long each year was. About four hundred days. Celestia already knew how old the filly looked, which was around eight to ten years old. All she would need to do was ask her what her age was and then…
“And then he would simply say that this being translated his age correctly among worlds and shrug it off. And if it doesn’t match up, they would shrug it off anyway, and it would be proof that a worldgate wasn’t in play… impossible to prove that this deity doesn’t exist, but quite easy to prove that it does… do I really want to know?”
She thought for a moment before laughing at herself. What kind of question was that? Of course, she wanted to know! It was always better to know that it was to not know. Isn’t that what her faithful student taught her? Sure, knowing might be scary, but if a mere filly could handle knowing that there was an all-powerful deity out there, then surely she could, too. She was the ruler of Equestria for heaven's sakes! It was her job to know, and know she would. Or, at least, she would attempt to.
Before she knew it, she was off to bed and waking up again, raising the sun as she always did and waking up the sleeping filly as well. She couldn’t help but notice how peaceful she looked with her eyes closed, a little less so however once she saw the sweat on her forehead, causing her to quickly head to the infirmary to get more medication for her to take before waking her.
“Huh?” Asher asked sleepily as she groggily opened her eyes. “Where… where am I?” she got out, before gasping as she caught sight of Celestia, taking a second to remember where she was.
“I’m sorry, I did not mean to startle you,” the princess apologized as she gave her a glass of water with a tablet of medicine floating in it. “Your sheets are quite wet from your sweat, and you look a bit worse off this morning,” she explained as the filly took it in her hooves. “This should help to make you get better, or at least to keep your symptoms to a minimum.”
“Thank you,” she responded as she downed the drink, Celestia taking the opportunity to speak to her.
“I must ask, sir,” she said, “how old are you? I don’t believe you’ve told me.”
“I’m going to be twenty-five in a few months,” she responded, pausing to finish the glass, already feeling a bit better. “I’m actually in college, almost finished with my degree.”
“Twenty-five in a few months…” Celestia trailed off as she did some quick math in her head. “That puts you at about… ten thousand days old?”
“Uhhh… let me think…” she got out tiredly, not completely awake as she tried to do some mental math. “Umm… uh…. I- think it’s about nine thousand? Maybe a couple hundred short of that?”
Celestia put on a wide grin at that news, breathing an internal sigh of relief as she commented, “That’s perfect. Everything lines up perfectly.”
“Uhh, what does?”
“You being the age you are,” she explained. “Your body was nine thousand days old in the place you are from, Earth, and so as well, the worldgate you traveled through made your body nine thousand days old here.”
“What? I don’t… what? Are you saying that I’m supposed to- wait, how long is a year here?”
“One thousand days,” Celestia told her. It caused the filly to squint, her tired brain trying to work where she was going with this, not even stopping to consider yet just how long of a life that would entail.
“Oh, I see what you're saying,” Asher responded as she finally realized where she was going with the conversation. “This is about that thing you were talking about yesterday, right? Cause you think some portal brought me here?”
“Well, it seems likely to me based on-”
She interrupted her with a sigh, automatically explaining it away, saying, “God brought me here and made me a filly, so I’m pretty sure He wouldn’t have any trouble making sure I was the correct amount of days old in the place he brought me to.”
The princess sighed at that and opened her mouth to continue before deciding against it. Arguing with her right then wouldn’t have been the right thing to do, so instead, she opted to drop it. She would just have to accept that her position was a losing one and unprovable, not that it really mattered in the end. If such a being existed, then what was she going to do? Yell at it?
“Just go with it, Celestia,” she told herself. “There’s nothing you can do about the cause of his being here. The best you can do is try to send her back. If the deity exists, it exists. If it doesn't, it doesn't. Although, the conversation of his being a filly will have to be discussed eventually, whether because of a worldgate or a deity or some other reason. I’m sure it’s quite uncomfortable for him, however, I still have my own theories as to why...”
10760785
Asher said they specifically went out of their way to not have to associate with trans people and would mock them in their head
10760785
It's not about whether it's morally wrong to be trans or about how that happens culturally or biologically. It's about the guilt Asher feels about "not loving thy neighbor" and "not casting stones."
im not shur what celestia is trying to prove here, her info is inaccurate anyway
10760785
Being respectful definitely looks the exact same as parroting stale "talking points" on a subject the writer is trying to handle more delicately.
10766287
All she really proved was that Asher wasn't lying when he said he was from Earth. The information also failed to remove worldgates as a possibility as the transport preserved the age.
I find it interesting that Starswirl would rate us as that dangerous. Starswirl's time is over a thousand equestrian years ago. If this maps to our time as over two thousand five hundred years ago, they would have been dealing with greece, pre-rome. At that point we had very little to threaten Equestria with.
Know any others?
That's why some gods have three aspects (In this case, Father, Son and Holy Spirit).
In order:
Still in the air.
approximately 365.25.
Close enough.
True.
That's putting it lightly.
Sounds about right.
It's called Xenophobia. Not our most positive (or even prevalent) feature, but it's a thing.
Probably a wise decision.
Brilliant!
If I'm calculating correctly, that would make me approximately... 13 years old there, give or take?
10766312
Very little to threaten Equestria with? They've had some pretty large armies even back then.
For simplicity, Starswirl wrote that 1000 years ago. 1000 x 1000 is 1 million days. Divide by earth's 365.242199 days per year to get ~2737.91 years. 737 bc.
Also, Starswirl notes days as nearly 25 hours? how long is their day? or hour?
10766312
If Starswirl popped his head over and saw ancient Greece, he had every reason to be scared. He probably saw a bunch of strong, buff dudes in togas who were more culturally prone towards homosexuality, who have multiple stories of humans falling in love with animals and fathering mystical half-human creatures such as minotaurs, satyrs, and especially centaurs.
10766312
At that time was some of our most barbaric. If he landed near Sparta which, due to scarcity, had some really inhumane practices. The 300 movie may of had exaggerated combat but their society really was like that. Slavery was also commo throughout the known world.
It may of also been a time of philosophers but it was still bloody.
Ah, Celestia has realized how it is impossible to disprove God's existence to a believer. Asher is so devoted to the faith, the only way it would break is if God himself came to him personally and said He wasn't real.
The CMC are kinda missing the point here I think. I doubt that if they were turned into non-ponues they'd want to stay that way and never get a cutie mark.
This other author is copying you! He did the same thing with the thousand day year in his fic.
One other odd thing about how the worldgates work. If any adult pony were to go through to Earth, they'd end up decrepit at best, soon to be dead of old age at worst on the other side.
10766802
Luckily both Celestia and Star Swirl are immortal and it's a banned world
Oh God!!! Not more calendar math!!!
Actually, both of their arguments are unprovable. She is unable to disprove god's existence and he is unable to prove such a deity exists in the first place.
What it really boils down to is, until God manifests measurable action, there's nothing that needs saying or doing with regards to returning Ashley home, at least in the sense of involving Him. There's (currently) no benefit of belief or disbelief, and thus needs no more actual further consideration.
It's a bit like trying to factor in Discord's involvement in any particular event, but worse because nothing has been proven yet. You can't prepare for things you don't know, only for what you think is possible and probable.
Nice to see someone else consider the possibility that Equestria's days & years don't match up with Earth's!
It does imply that he came from another world--for Asher to come up with such a value for his age that a simple transformation would keep him in the same actual age in the new world, he'd either have had to have accessed those FORBIDDEN BOOKS, or randomly coughed up that number with the kind of luck that would be needed to win the Lottery 10 times in a row, or he's telling the truth.
Doesn't discount the possibility of God tossing Asher there. ALSO doesn't discount the possible involvement of another agent tossing him there. However, given God's relatively hands-off approach in dealing with local Terran matters, the likelyhood that it was another entity is MUCH GREATER.
I'm looking at YOU, Boopy Doopy!
10766349
10766412
Legomanjk is correct to consider the 25 hr day comparison is significant. That puts Equestria days ~ 0.96 our our days or a little over 23 of our hours, which makes the Terran year ~380.46333 Equestrian days. Not quite 400, but closer, and we can also assume a bit of error in Starswirl's measurements, especially if Earth was so hostile that they might have needed to beat a hasty retreat.
Factor those into Legomanjk's estimation of 737BC, it can push the esitmate as far back as 2851.99 years ago or around 851BC, give or take, so a strong possibility be anything between those two dates, with a little less possibility that it's 20yrs beyond either side.
I shall tell my main point of not being religious here. An infinitely complex, all powerful God having existed from nothing, or being the definition of existence, has an equal chance of being the beginning of creation, as creation having existed without God.
Who am I to guess if God is real, if so then which one?
This is an interesting exploration of what a religious person would do in an hie. Unfortunately accurate in their refusal to entertain any other options.
I have no idea why Celestia would be so bothered by the concept, I wonder what conclusion she'll come too. I'm assuming she'll mark it down to 'plausible' and go about her life
10766461
I don't think you can blame Sparta's being jerks on scarcity. Maybe the other way around.
10766751
Now that I found this story, I'm reading it side-by-side, so I don't remember which one of you wrote it into the story first.
10767748
It's all gonna depend which one has a better theory on everything the protagonist endured before the story started