An old stallion recounts his life, and the accident that brought him to Equestria.
On old stallion recounts his life to his grandchildren on Hearth's Warming Eve.
Their request for a story becomes much more than that when one of them asks about Humans, and the stallion goes into a description of the human race that leads to a startling realization for his grandchildren, and even more, the story that goes with that realization.
The snow on the ground reveals that it’s Hearths Warming Eve, and the location of the sun tells us that the day is over, and ponies have finished the pageants and are now spending time with their families, which brings us to an assuming cottage in Ponyville, where the tale will be told to those who are willing to listen… An old unicorn stallion is sitting in front of a fire, his family surrounding him, some of the adults are busying themselves in making a dinner, and still others are talking to each other, clearly catching up as they have not seen each other in months. The foals are playing, rough housing around, some with dolls, and others with a board game with a title of “Canteropoly.” The stallion himself has a smile on his face, looking at the large family that he has been so blessed with in his old age. His mane is grey with age, though some of his old brown shines through. His cutie mark, a shield embossed with a book, sits upon his grey flank.
His grin grows wider as he notices his youngest granddaughter walking towards him, a little green pegasus filly with a blue mane, and calls out to her, “Cloud Chaser! Come over here and give your grandpa a hug!” Her face perks up, and she picks up the pace and jumps into his arms, giving him the biggest hug that a filly can give to her grandfather.
Cloud Chaser looks up at her grandpa with big pleading eyes, “Grandpa, can you… can you tell me a story?”
With the mention of a story, all the rough housing stopped, and colts and fillies alike clambered over each other to get the best seat for one of their grandfather’s legendary stories, “Yeah!” “A story!” “Make it awesome!!!!!” “Can it be about the Princesses?” and such other sentences filled the area around him, and he smiled big as his descendants
“Well, since you’re the one that asked Cloud, you’re the one that gets to choose!” The old stallion said, looking at his granddaughter to a collective sigh of disappointment from the impromptu crowd.
Cloud looked up at her grandpa, eyes pleading, “Well... I was wondering if you could tell us something about the Humans grandpa?”
“Hmmmm. I guess I could, what about an Indiana Jones story?”
“No!!! That’s just Daring Do as a human!” Shouted one of the colts in the back.
“Well, what about Sherlock Holmes then?
“Grandpa, you’ve already told us most of his stories! I want to hear something new; I just want to hear about the humans!” Cloud said, with a slight huff at the game that her grandfather was playing with her.
“Well then, in that case everypony get comfortable, it’s going to be a long tale then.” The stallion said, settling down into a more comfortable position and watching while everypony else did the same.
“Now, where to begin, I know, we’ll start with the human towns and cities and work our way from there, shall we? Human towns are not much larger than most of our towns here in Equestria, they hold anywhere from a couple hundred to several thousands of humans in one area. Their buildings are larger than ours, due to the fact that they are about a foot taller than most ponies, bar the princesses of course. Their homes are much like our homes, but with many more things, and because of a lack of magic they use something called electricity.”
“Humans don’t have magic!? How can they do all those things that you’ve talked about in your other stories then grandpa?” Interrupted a wide eyed Cloud Chaser.
“Well, they used their hands, their feet, and their minds mostly. Humans are really good about creating unique and different solutions to problems. They can’t use magic to create a light, so they created a way to make a metal burn hot and show light. They don’t have to rely on candles, and they don’t have to worry about growing tired from making the light. Electricity is how they power that light; it’s created in these massive factories that exist just for the purpose of making this portable lightning. This electricity is not only used for their lights though, it’s used for heating, cooling, keeping their food fresh, and even for getting from one place to another! Electricity is so essential to human’s that you might as well call it their magic.
“Now, back to their cities, they’re much much larger than anything in Equestria, some of them holding over ten million people! And part of the way that they can get away with having so many people in such a small place is that they have these large buildings called apartment buildings, where you have hundreds of people in a small city block, all living there! And then you have the skyscrapers, each one as tall as a small mountain, gleaming things of metal and glass that you can see for miles around. The humans know how to build big, and they don’t care if it doesn’t work well or not, they’ll keep trying until they get it right. “
One of the older fillies raised a hoof, “Grandpa? How do so many humans get around in such a small area then? It must be really cramped to walk anywhere with that many people!”
“Well Crystal Dream, that’s a good question. Humans use a type of cart that can move itself, they call it an automobile. The automobile, or car as most humans call them, can hold anywhere from 2 to 100 people for the biggest ones, and they use them to transport just about everything from people, to food, to furniture, and many humans have them! Then they have the subways, they’re like our trains, but underground and propelled by electricity.
“All of these machines work together in a system of roads and rails to get a person from place to place, which, to any human, makes them incredibly useful. Then they have aircraft, great flying machines that hold dozens of humans at once, and fly at speeds almost unmatched by most pegasi! These magnificent metal machines fly constantly between cities, carrying millions of people at any given time.” Cloud’s eyes went wide at the thought of the speed, and the number of humans in the air, but the grandfather continued on without a pause, “The humans need these fantastic flying fortresses in order to travel the great distances between their cities, sometimes ranging in the thousands of miles in distance, and oftentimes they will continue their travels after these long flights.
“I can tell by your faces that you don’t like the idea of working that much, especially you Apple Blossom.” The grandfather said with a chuckle, looking at one of his granddaughters, who had a grimace on her face matching her well known penchant for procrastination. He laughed at Apple’s face before continuing with his description, “But to those humans, work was to them as breathing is to us, if they stopped working they thought that they would die. It’s just who they are, not everyone was as loving as work as them, Apple, some liked to be lazy and smell the flowers every day, all day, as much as you!” He said with a wink at his now blushing granddaughter.
“If everypony hasn’t figured out by now, humans really are not that different from ponies, they have lazy people, workaholics, studious, not so studious, smart, dumb, silly, serious, shy, and everything in between. They have their own methods of going about things, once again thanks to their lack of magic, but they refuse to let that get in their way. Humans are innovative, if nothing else. If they cannot do something on their own, or if they think that it takes far too long for them to do it, then they figure out a machine or device or a better way to do it! They had inventions for just about everything, lighting, reading, communicating, and even, if you could believe it, backscratching! Anything they wanted to figure out, and given the time, and they’d have it built or solved before you knew there was a problem in the first place.
“And all of this was because of something they called ‘science,’ which to me was just an excuse for their inherently inquisitive natures. Science is many fields of study, all of them relating to advancing everything, medicine, technology, farming, even the humans themselves. Science, on its own, does not have much of a purpose, but when combined with the inquisitive nature of humans, nothing would stand in their way.” The stallion said, taking a break to grab a drink.
“Grandpa, how did they do this? I mean, we’re inquisitive, and earth ponies and pegasi can’t work magic for a lot of things like unicorns can, shouldn’t we have created just as many things as the humans?” One very disgruntled looking colt with a light pink coat with a shockingly bright orange mane, and a cutie mark of a beaker said to his grandfather.
The grandfather just gave a smile at this point, as he had been waiting for such a question since his tale had begun, “Well you see Bunsen, unlike Equestria, where we have control over the weather, and the animals are usually quite nice outside of the Everfree Forest, Earth is pretty wild. No control over the weather, as there are no pegasi with pegasi magic to manipulate it, no control over the animals, other than ones that they’ve bred to be domesticated. So, to the humans, every day, up until their modern times, has been a struggle to survive and adapt, forcing them to be more innovative than Equestrians and other ponies have been.”
“Grandpa!” Shouted one filly in the back of the crowd that he couldn’t quite see, “What about schools? They must have schools to learn all about these things that they do, right?”
“Well of course they do! And many schools they have, even though they didn’t want to admit it to themselves, their schools were the best that they have ever had, with so many being educated that it was nearly unfathomable how many had gone through their systems. The schools were set up in a 3 school system, you have your primary, or grade school, that would be for the kids, the fillies and colts as it is. And then they have a secondary school, or as the Americans called it, high school, which was for their teenagers, those usually between the ages of 14 and 18 or so. And then you had their post-secondary schools, things like colleges and universities, the grandest education systems in the history of Earth. I can remember my time at university, so much knowledge, such a grand library… It was almost enough to make a person pause if they really thought about it too much.” “Grandpa… you said ‘I,’ why would you say ‘I remember my time at university?’” Cloud Chaser said, with a look that was both questioning and worrying.
“Well Cloud Chaser, I wasn’t always a pony.”
Author's Note: Well, I hope you ponies are enjoying this, I'll be uploading these as I finish them, and as my wonderful editors finish them as well. I don't know how long each chapter is going to be all told, nor how long the story is going to be. This is my first story, so feel free to tear things apart as much as you want, in fact I encourage you to. I think that I got the formatting down for FIM as well, but here's to me guessing things correctly!
There was a collective gasp of astonishment from all of the foals as the revelation hit them, their grandfather hadn’t been a pony their entire lives? Inconceivable!
Cloud Chaser was the first pony to speak up, “But, grandpa, how can that be? You’re a pony, we’re your grandfoals! It doesn’t make any sense!”
The grandfather just smiled and got up, he walked over to a cabinet and levitated a key out of its hiding place and opened the door, pulling out a slightly faded picture in an old frame and levitated it over to Cloud Chaser, before settling back into his seat.
There was another gasp from the group as they saw what was in the photo, it was a human! His brown hair neatly done and a big smile on his face, his arms wrapped around a purple unicorn with a purple mane and a pink stripe going through the middle, and his other around a cyan pegasus with a rainbow main. Huddled around them were a white unicorn with a styled purple mane, a pink earth pony with a crazy pink mane, who seemed to be vibrating despite it only being a photograph, a yellow pegasus with a pink mane, her eyes hiding behind her mane, and an orange earth pony with a tied up blonde mane and a Stetson perched on her head. Their smiles all matched the one radiating from the man in the middle, though none quite approaching that of the pink pony’s smile.
“Grandpa, you never said that you were friends with the Elements of Harmony!” Cloud Chaser says with surprisingly more wonder than before, looking at her grandfather as though she hadn’t seen him before.
“I could swear that I had mentioned it before, oh well, now you all know who I was. And to be honest, I wouldn’t be where I am today if it weren’t for those six ponies, they taught me a lot about friendship, I never would have stayed if they hadn’t helped me, nor would I have met your grandmother!” The stallion says, with a big smile on his face from the memories, and the reactions from his grandfoals.
“Grandpa! Can you tell us that story instead then? Pretty please? Please? With sugar on top!” Cloud said, jumping up and down in excitement.
The stallion rubbed his chin he said, “Well, I don’t know, I mean, I guess I could if you really want it. Sure, I’ll tell it to you.” He relented with a smile, “I guess that if you really want to hear it I’ll tell you. You all remember how I told you about humanity’s biggest passion being science, right?” After a flurry of nods he continued, “Well, I used to be a scientist, it was close to 50 years ago when…”
A hand jetted out from under the covers and smacked off the alarm before the tenth sounding of the alarm, and the owner rolled over into a sitting position to take a look around the room. It was a bit cluttered, but nothing too messy, the desk near the window was covered in several books on quantum mechanics, with notes jutting out of the side, and strewn with papers covered with even more notes, a computer monitor hiding behind the books, turned off. The floor was a stark contrast to the desk, devoid of any mess it was completely clear, allowing for full mobility through the room. The walls were blank, save for a calendar and some sticky notes with different meetings and appointments scrawled on them in a legible script. A disgruntled black cat jumped off of his bed, and looked at him indignantly, before walking away into the kitchen to get food.
As the man stood up out of bed to his full height of just under 6 feet, he stretched out his arms and legs to get the blood flowing through them as he walked out of his room and into his bathroom, grabbing a clean shirt from his dresser and tossing it on as he left. Not expecting anything to exciting at the lab for the day, he did his morning routine without too much speed, brushing his teeth, tossing on his workout clothes, the whole nine yards. As he was about to leave for his run, he glanced at his phone and noted a voice message from the lead researcher on the project, and decided to give it a listen before leaving.
“Hey John, it’s Joe,” The message began, a soft female voice on the line, “Listen, I know it’s a Wednesday, but we got approval to run the test! They want us to do it today, I need to you to be in here by 11 so we can start prepping the experiment, I’ve got the generators running already, but I’ll need you in by 11, like I said. We’ll get it this time, I just know it!”
John glanced up at the clock; it was only 8:30. “Well, looks like I’ve still got a little bit of time on my hands then.” And then it was out the door, his run was only a short one, he only ran long enough to get into his pace, and then he had to turn around and go back, due to the limited amount of time he had to get ready and get to work.
Upon arrival back at his home, John took a quick shower, made a cup of tea, poured a bowl of cereal, and sat down to flick through the television to see if there was anything worth melting his brain over.
“Today on Jersey Shore!”
~click~
“In this episode of Mythbusters, we blow everything up!”
~click~
“Duh duh duh duh duh Dora!”
~click~
“Following yesterday’s election, President Elect – “
~click~
“You’re going to LOVE ME!”
~click~
“Well, no surprise there, nothing to watch as usual, might as well start making my way to the university to get things set up then.” John said with a shake of his head as he put his dishes in the dishwasher, checking the food and water for his cat before he grabbed his bag and leather jacket and went out the door.
John jumped on his bike and started riding to the university, thinking about all that had happened to get them to this point. Their theory was something that was a little controversial, and needed a lot of clout and arguing to get them to just the point of testing the equipment that they were now at had been a maze of bureaucratic red tape, begging, and political maneuvering. It wasn’t even that the project was politically objectionable either, no political objectives or ties with any of the researchers, it was simply that it wasn’t something that was going to jump out in the headlines. If the project was successful, no news agencies were going to jump on it quickly, and it would be several more years after that before any truly useable technology came out of their discoveries.
The experiment wasn’t even inherently dangerous, though there were the dangers that came from being around high-voltage equipment, and accidents can happen anywhere and anytime, Murphy had a habit of being like that. The basic plan of the experiment was to use their equipment, and an exorbitantly large amount of energy, to create a small enough portal, theoretically, in order to prove the existence of parallel universes, and potentially open a method of extra-solar transportation, at least that was one of the wishes for John, who read a little too much science fiction for Joe’s liking. Over the past several months, using grants, begging, and just good old fashioned hard work and ingenuity, they had managed to build up their equipment to the stage where it would be possible for the first phase of the experiment to take place, that is the opening of a stable enough portal, no more than a few nanometers wide at the most, to prove their theory correct. After that was accomplished, they would be able to get more than a few grants and investors in order to really test out their additional theories and plans, but they first had to take that first crucial step.
If they approved this first test, on the conditions that we complete it today, they’re probably hoping that we don’t have the equipment ready for any sort of test, John mused as he came upon the final mile to the university, that would certainly explain why Joe wanted me out here as soon as I could, even though she said 11.
He parked his bike outside of his research building, double checking the lock to ensure that no one would take it if they were running late, and then walked in through the side doors. Several floors and two security locks later (high voltage equipment and wandering undergrads do not mix), John arrived at the lab. Entering, he shrugged off his jacket and put it on one of the conveniently located coat hooks, exchanging it for his lab coat and grabbing some notes out of his bag, he went over and started double checking many of the connections in the system, not expecting to find anything out of place.
“John! Good, you made it on time, and you’re already checking the connections on the accelerator, perfect.” Dr. Josephine Schueller said, poking her head up from behind one of the computer interfaces. Just one look at her would reveal a woman who is lost in her work, skinny, with little fat on her bones, and the type of muscles that one gets just from moving machinery; she looks like a person who only eats when her body reminds her to. Her brown hair is tied back in a bun, but with strands sticking out here and there showing her disregard to looking perfect and her obsession with her work. Joe’s green eyes held an intelligence that belied her disheveled looks however, as did her PhD and track record of published theories in physics.
“Of course I made it on time Doc, I’m 30 minutes early! I know how important this opportunity is, and if they want it today then by God we’ll do it today.” John said as he finished the last check on the complicated piece of equipment, before checking all the power cables and the several of the instruments to ensure that they are properly calibrated and sealed, before finishing up the checks with the final and most important piece of the puzzle, the portal generator.
“Just make sure that you don’t mess up any of those connections John, we only get one chance at this one. Don’t mess it up.” Joe said, looking at him again with a very serious look in her eyes. “Anyways, you remember where you’re supposed to be during the experiment, right? You’re in charge of monitoring the energy input, get settled in and we’ll get started .“ Joe concluded as she walked over to a different part of the lab, and sat behind her own terminal.
John just shook his head as he walked over, She’s really worried about this going perfectly. He mused as he got situated and pulled up the various programs that they had written for the experiment, The issues behind why we’re doing it today must be a lot larger than I had originally thought. John started typing into the terminal and a countdown clock started in the top right-hand corner of the screen, “Okay Doc, I’m ready over here for when you are. Timer shows 30 seconds, I’ll start it when you’re ready.”
Typing on her keyboard to do some last minute checks, and to get her station ready to receive the data, Joe nodded and then replied to John, “Alright, go ahead and start the clock. Generators are showing that we’ll have the power we need, and all lights are green.”
“Okay, clock is starting…. Now.” John typed out a command, and the clock started to tick inexorably to zero. “All input is looking good, the power increase is moving at the optimal rate. We might just have this perfect Joe.”
“Good, everything’s still green on my end. Starting the process itself in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. The primary accelerator is activated, and we’re starting to get good readings on the particles needed to create the portal.” Joe said, her tone shifting from one of annoyance and apprehension, to one of pure business.
“Clock says 10 seconds, input is still perfect.” John said, watching the numbers climb to the necessary height, “Okay, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. If it works the portal should be opening about no-“
There was a bright flash of light, and then nothing, only the sound of falling plaster from the walls where the plaster had not been stripped clean. The door was gone, as was several sections of the walls, in a perfectly spherical shape from where the portal was to have been created. The only sign that something had been there were the severed power cables leading to where the machinery had been.
“John? John! John!” Joe said as she jumped up after her eyes had cleared from the flash, and she looked up to see nothing there, before blacking out from the shock of what she had just seen.
“We have an urgent report from the University that a major accident has occurred, we have a very small amount of information to go on, but from what we have learned there was a high-energy physics experiment in one of the labs. Ambulances arrived and quickly took away one Dr. Joe Schueller, though some sources say that there was another person in the lab, all saying that he, and much of the equipment in the lab vanished without a trace. The questions that everyone seems to be asking is, what was going on in that lab, what happened, and what happened to John Q. Blake? This is Sandra Simpson, on location with Channel 10 news, signing out.”
Author's Note: A day later than I thought it was going to be, but oh well. I still got it out, and that's what counts right? For those of you wondering, yes, I'm a big science fiction nerd, that's partially why I decided to toss that in here, another thing is that I didn't want magic involved in getting our, now named, character John into Equestria. It's a silly trope and happens far too often. Now, for those of you who are actually familiar with such things, ignore it, I'd rather not have to deal with people shouting at me for being completely wrong on scientific matters, because it's for the purposes of the story, and I feel that I was vague enough for it to work.
Now, the second part of this, It may be a week or two until the next installment is out, and for that I apologize, but only a little, for my time will be really taken up this week by various things.
And, once again, feel free to note anything you find that looks strange or silly, and leave them in the comments! I'd rather have criticism than have people not like my story for no reason at all. - Icer
“Wow Grandpa! That’s way cool, you worked in a lab as a scientist!” Bunsen said with a look of pure awe on his face.
“That I did Bunsen, that I did. I wasn’t paid for it, as I was working on what was known as a ‘Master’s Degree,’ I was working in the lab to help the Doc out, and to get a bit of research to back up my own theories on the matter. I guess that being here though really proves those to me at least.” The stallion said with a smirk on his face. “At that time I truly believed that I could unlock the very secrets of the universe, that everything could be known just because of science and knowledge.”
All of his grandchildren were looking upon the stallion like he was some sort of new person that they have never seen before, and to some extent that was true. They had never known this much of his past before, they only really knew him as the grandfather that he had been for the past 20 years, and before that they knew that he worked for several of the universities as a researcher for magic, always letting the knowledge that he gained to be used for good purposes and yet more research.
“Grandpa, did you really do all of those things like work at the universities and all that research then? Or… Or was it all made up?” Said one shy little unicorn filly, hiding behind a larger colt who was obviously her older brother.
“Of course I did. All of those happened after this story silly filly!” The stallion said with a smile at his granddaughter, “I can’t really blame you for asking though, this is a completely new story for you all.”
“Grandpa, what happened next though? I mean, you vanished from that lab right? So, where did you go?” Cloud Chaser said with a large amount of excitement, clearly getting more into the story than her cousins were.
“Well, there was a bright light, and I don’t remember much after that because the portal really took a lot out of me, and the next thing that I remember was…”
The first thing that John was aware of upon waking up was the sheets that he was covered in, quickly followed by the fact that he had a lovely headache and was completely parched, the realization of which caused him to audibly groan from the pain.
That groan then elicited a response from something else in the room, which made a noise not unlike two coconuts being banged together, and that very same thing saying, “Quickly, go fetch the princess, our guest is beginning to stir.” Which was quickly followed by the coconut style noise vanishing and the sound of a door closing with a very audible click.
Princess? That’s weird. There’s no princess in the US, and I can’t think of how I could have gotten to anywhere that would speak English and have a princess this quickly. Could just be a local title or inside joke. John thought as he slowly opened his eyes, giving them time to adjust to the bright light in the room. Well, I’m not anywhere that I can imagine having seen before.
The room that he was looking at was very plush looking, much more than the room that he was used to staying in back at his apartment anyways. It was quite large, more akin in size to a suite than a bedroom, with fittings fit for a princess. The furniture all looked hand carved, with elaborate designs depicting what looked to John to be small horses, more like ponies than horses, of various types, unicorns, pegasi, regular ponies, and even the occasional third type that he could not seem to name. John sat up in the bed, and noticed for the first time how large it was in proportion to his own, it was easily capable of holding three to four of him comfortably. There was a large carpet of clearly at least as high of a quality as the furniture, to say nothing of the chandelier hanging from the ceiling.
“Well that’s something different.” John muttered to himself after observing the various furnishings of the room, especially the decorations of the various types of pony on the room’s furniture.
Well, ponies everywhere, expensive furnishings, big bed…”I must not be in Kansas anymore Toto.” John said with a smirk on his face, finally having a true reason to use that phrase for something other than a joke with his friends.
Taking another look around the room revealed to John that whoever, Or possibly whatever, he thought with a smile, had brought him to the room had taken his lab coat and placed it on the bed end bench, and next to it was, Huh, my leather jacket. Wonder where they found that, I thought I hung that up on the wall in the lab... He then quickly checked his pockets, and found to his relief that his leatherman tool, phone, wallet, and keys were still all there, which told him that they had not thought him to be a threat, or a danger to himself, when he arrived there.
He was about to get up and stretch when the door opened with a click, and he looked over to the opening door which revealed a…
Big blue pony with a horn and wings, wearing a black crown and a, Is that mane literally flowing with stars in it? John stared, flabbergasted that such a creature could truly be in front of him, a look and feeling of incredulity washing over him. No, that’s impossible, a flowing mane doesn’t make any sense. Next thing that I know it’s going to start to…
“Hello, my name is Princess Luna, and welcome to Canterlot Castle, are you… are you feeling alright?” Luna said as she moved closer to him, lowering her head and raising her left foreleg with a look of worry on her face.
Talk. Well that’s fantastic. And is it worrying? How can a pony show worry on its face? How can it speak English? How… How is it even talking to me? John’s mind started to go a little haywire, though it was still connecting the dots between what had gone on all the while. It was clear that something had gone strange with the experiment, and he was either in a dream, coma, an insane hallucination, or the possibility was there, something whispered in the back of his head, that the experiment had worked perfectly, just with some unintended consequences, and that this was reality. To test that theory, John took the time to pinch himself, and was not surprised by the fact that he felt pain, having already ruled out the other options. I guess this is reality, but… how is that pony speaking to me?
Luna watched him carefully, she saw the emotions flying over his face as the changed from incredulity, to fear, to thought, and then finally settling on resignation. She decided to try to speak to him again, to see if he could understand her and maybe if he wasn’t in shock and just couldn’t answer, “Um, can you understand me? Are you okay? Do you need any help, I can send for some doctors if you need them!” She concluded with more worry than before, and took another step towards him.
That action brought John out of his reverie and back to the matters in front of his own eyes. He couldn’t deny that the being in front of him was speaking to him, and in English for that matter. Well, I might as well be courteous to her, how do I know she’s a her anyways? Must be her voice. Anyways, might as well reply to her.
His mind snapped back, again, to the matter at hand and he stood up and took a couple steps towards the speaker and extended his right hand for a handshake, “Yes…. Yes I can understand you Princess. And my name is John, John Blake.” John finished with what he hoped was a disarming smile.
Luna extended her right foreleg to meet his handshake, a little confused by this greeting from a creature who just a moment ago was unmoving and pensive, though at the same time her ears perked up and a smile crept onto her face, “So you can understand us! We…. I. I am very pleased by this! Do you know how? Do you study Equestrian where you’re from? Do you know of us? How did you get here?” Luna immediately launched into the questions that had been bubbling in her mind in the hours since her new guest had arrived.
Startled by the sudden change in behavior being exhibited by the princess, John took a step back, almost falling down onto the bed end bench that was holding his coat and jacket. “Um, what? Equestrian? I’m speaking English. Uh… what? What? What what? What?”
Luna blushed at his reaction, with a little bit of a laugh, “Sorry about that. It’s just that we’ve… I’ve never met a being from another world before, and you were unconscious for so long, the questions just started bubbling up and then they just burst!”
Smiling at her reaction John just nodded, before returning to his previous thoughtful expression, “A couple of hours? What… what happened exactly?”
“Yes, well, you see it was all quite strange I was presiding over the Night Court when…”
“You see Princess, if we were just to take the middle bracket for the tax income, and separate it further into 5 more brackets…”
How did such a pony as ignorant as this one of the tax code, or even taxes in general, ever get an accountancy related cutie mark? The Night Princess wondered to herself, listening to the paper-brown stallion’s pointless dribble relating to some barely imperceptible increase that he thought, through his brilliant, in his mind at least, would cause the princess who wrote the tax codes and understands them better than anypony else in Equestria to change them.
“This will of course bring the tax receipts to the treasury up by a further .01%.” The accountancy earth pony finished with an almost audible period.
Luna almost let out a sigh of relief, the extremely long winded and very pointless rant by this fool who would dare question the intricacies and perfection of her tax code had finally finished! “Mr. Sea, while we do appreciate that you took so much time to go through our tax code and create a new and incredibly complex system that would increase the income to the treasury by .01%, we must say that we are perfectly happy with the way that our tax code is set up, and that we do not wish to change it. We must say before you leave that we may ponder the changes that you have proposed, but there are more pressing matters to attend to at the moment. We wish you to have a good night, and if you manage to get the increase up to 5%, we would like to hear from you again. Good Night Mr. Account Sea.” Luna completed with a barely perceptible amount of annoyance, nothing showing in either her tone or face, apart from the royal ‘we’ that Twilight Sparkle had managed to get her out of the habit of using back on Nightmare Night.
Account Sea gave a very flustered looking bow, and spun around on his rear legs and left the court room in a bit of a huff, much to the pleasure of Princess Luna, who loved nothing more than to see some self-important pony get what she believes they deserve, a bit of annoyance and a laugh for her.
“Ordered Quill, you may send in the next petitioner now if they are ready.” Luna said after she got a drink from the glass on the small table next to her.
Ordered Quill, a small dark green unicorn with a checklist and a quill for a cutie mark, nodded his head, pushed his glasses back onto his nose with his magic, and then turned to the door to call in the next petitioner when there was an unexpected bright flash of light behind him, followed by the falling of large pieces of metal, machinery, and the distinctive sound of broken glass and plaster.
Ordered Quill spun around on the spot to the source of the noise, “Princess! Are you oka….” And he trailed off as his eyes beheld a sight seen by only one other pony in all of Equestria, the sight of a mass of… something sitting in an ordered fashion in the middle of the throne room, bits of plaster fallen around and on top of it. The Princess stood behind it, at the foot of her throne, staring at the mass of machinery that had appeared in her throne room out of nowhere, with not even a buildup of magical energy to explain a possible teleport. Their eyes wandered to something even stranger than the equipment suddenly in the throne room, a being that had never before been seen on that world, slumped over a piece of machinery that was on a desk.
“ORDERED QUILL! QUICKLY, GO GET THE GUARDS AND SOMEPONIES TO HELP CLEAN THIS UP!” Luna shouted as she flew down the stairs with a speed befitting that of an immortal princess, “We shall see to this creature and see that it is not terribly injured! Move, quickly!” Pausing as she got closer to the creature that was sitting in front of her, another thought crossed her mind, “Ordered Quill! Before you get too far, tell the ponies waiting outside that the rest of tonight’s court shall be canceled! DO NOT TELL THEM WHY!” A rather frazzled looking green unicorn nodded once more at his princess’s orders, before running out of the room to do what she had ordered as five guards came running into the room.
“You three, I want all of this… Equipment stored away in the secure vault number 15, no pony but myself or Celestia, unless given permission by either of us, is to enter the vault.” Luna said, pointing with her left hoof at the three closest to her. “You two, for now I want you to clear the way for them so that no pony, not even the regular castle staff, see what happened in here and what is being moved.”
As the pegasi guards nodded their heads and went about their business with the equipment that had appeared in the throne room without notice, Luna took a step closer to her charge and examined it. Well, it’s certainly not a pony, that’s for sure. Furless but for a short patch on its head, it doesn’t look to be too damaged. And it’s wearing clothes! This is certainly a strange thing, it’s not too unlike the Diamond Dogs, but it is certainly much cleaner looking and not as… gangly, that’s the word. A quick spell revealed to her that it was not in any danger from any injuries; the only thing wrong with it was that it was unconscious.
“Ma’am,” One of the guards attempting to move the equipment said as he approached with a salute, “We cannot lift this equipment; it is far too heavy for any pegasus to lift alone, or in a group. We require unicorn help.”
“Very well, get 3 or 4 from the night barracks and have them help you, but impress upon them my wish for secrecy in this matter, if they break it they’ll have to deal with my wrath.” The Night Princess finished with an exasperated sigh.
Three more pegasi guards filtered in as the leader of the first group left, “Good. You three, come with me. We’re going to move this creature to one of the more secluded guest rooms. One of the ones overlooking the inner garden will be perfect, I want you two to clear the passage ways ahead of me, and you are going to come with me to help in case this creature wakes up.” Luna concluded before turning around and using her magic to levitate the creature and started moving at a slow trot while the two guards she had pointed out earlier moved at a more brisk pace to clear the passages ahead.
The trip to the guest room was entirely uneventful, while several guards came to her on the way to report that the equipment had been moved without any problems to the specified vault. Luna carefully laid the creature out on the bed, after first removing what was obviously a coat from the way it was draped, and putting it on the bed end bench, folded neatly.
At that, Ordered Quill entered the room and nodded to the guards before approaching the Princess, “Princess Luna, everything has been completed as you requested, and the mess in the throne room has been cleaned. Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“Yes Quill, I need you to get me a piece of parchment and a quill. I need to take some notes on this creature.” Luna said without once looking away from her examination of the creature on the bed, and Ordered Quill nodded without saying a word, and produced the required items and floated them over to the Princess, who took them and immediately set to work writing her observations.
Let’s just see what it is going on with this thing. Luna thought as she immediately jumped into her little-used researcher mode. Appears to be about 6 hooves tall, give or take a couple of inches. Brown mane, eyes undetermined. Subject is clearly bipedal, and utilizes hands that are smaller and much more fine-tuned for fine manipulation of small objects it would seem. Opposable thumbs, that’s something you don’t see every day. It is wearing clothes; multiple layers show that it was cooler there as the lack of fur would necessitate clothing. Luna glanced over at the white coat that she had taken off of the creature, noting that it looked a bit like a lab coat that they would have in Equestria.
“Ordered Quill, was there perhaps another thing that looked like a coat or a jacket with the objects taken down to Vault 15? If there was, I want it brought up here, folded, and left next to his coat. The creature may wish to have what is clearly its personal affects.” Luna finished as she went back to her observations of the creature for several hours, not noticing as Ordered Quill returned the item that she had asked for.
“Princess, it is getting near dawn. Do you not think that it is time for you to take some rest? You have been at this since nearly midnight; I would think that you would need to take a break. If you wish, I can have one of the guards remain in the room and come and wake you if the creature stirs. As well as you need to lower the moon so that your sister can raise the sun, we can’t have both celestial bodies in the sky at once you know!” Ordered Quill said to his ruler, hoping to break her out of her obsession, and glanced over at the stack of notes that she had already taken on the creature, before looking back to his princess.
“I suppose that you’re right, it is getting about that time… Make sure that the guard comes to me first! We can’t have him disturbing my sister now can we? I’ll leave a message for her that she need not be worried about this creature, and that I’ll be taking care of him.” Barely stifling a yawn, Luna left the room with her notes on the creature following her, and lowered the moon before turning in for the day, until the creature woke up that is.
“And that’s how you happened to get to where you are now, 12 hours later, satisfied?” A slightly breathless and exasperated Luna finished as she looked at John once again.
John nodded, thinking that information through before responding, “Well, if what you say is true, then… then the experiment worked! Just, not how it should…”
Luna’s eye’s brightened up at this revelation, “So it was an experiment! You do know what caused you to get here! What were you trying to do?”
He smiled at her enthusiasm and walked over to one of the windows, and drew a breath while glancing out at the garden, and turned back around to lean against the wall. “Well, in short we were trying to make a small portal to another universe in order to prove that it could be done. It was only supposed to be big enough for us to get a reading on the particles being emitted, but that obviously didn’t happen. It must have become large enough to drag me and a bunch of the equipment through to this world, only logical explanation for the action.” John looked back at Luna, and turned a little red as his stomach growled, “Say, you wouldn’t happen to have anything to eat would you? It’s been quite a while since I’ve had anything to eat, yesterday morning in fact.” He trailed off with a bit of a hopeful expression on his face.
“Of course! Let me have someone bring it in, I had something prepared for you, but I didn’t have any idea what you would eat so we just had the cooks throw together a little bit of everything. I hope you don’t mind…” Luna quickly moved over to the closed door, opened it and said something to somepony outside of the room, and the door opened wider to reveal a white earth pony with a black bow tie pushing in a cart covered in plates with different types of food.
John couldn’t help but snicker at the bow tie, A pony with a bow-tie? Who would have thunk it. On the cart itself there were various different types of fruits and veggies, ranging from the more commonplace apples and bananas, to more exotic types like dragon fruit. The veggies were even more varied than what he could have expected to see in any human spread, Hay. They eat hay. Of course they eat hay, they’re equines aren’t they? It’s only natural for them to eat hay.
“Well, I can eat just about anything that’s edible, as I’m an omnivore, so long as it’s not too starchy, things like hay’s and grasses don’t really digest well. Or at all really.” John said as his eyes lit up at the food before him, and he walked over and grabbed the first thing that really caught his eye, the biggest strawberry he had ever seen, taking a bite out of it, his eyes lit up with joy, “Is all the food here this great? Or is it just the food here in the castle that is this good?”
“Well, for the most part the food is pretty good here I’d imagine… though it’s been quite some time since I’ve not eaten here. As for being an omnivore, it would make sense that you could be able to eat a large variety of things, but other things you wouldn’t be able to eat due to the nature of their calories. I guess that since we’ve got time on our hooves, would you mind telling me more about yourself John?” Luna asked as she watched him eat with his hands, taking as many mental notes on how he stood, walked, used his hands, and many others, as she could remember.
“Well, you already know my name, it’s John. I’m 25, and I have a bachelor’s degree in physics, and I’m working on my master’s in a similar field. I have 2 brothers and a sister, and my parents are both still alive, though they live out in the country far away from any cities. Um…” He paused as he took a bite from an apple this time and leaned back onto the desk in the room, “I have a cat and I live in an apartment about a mile or two from my university’s campus, where I work part time in a lab, the lab that sent me here, and I have been known to devour books and video games alike…. Wait, who’s going to take care of Boris?!”
“Boris? What is a… Boris?” Luna asked, suddenly confused by his change in tone.
“Oh… he’s my cat, a Russian blue. He looks just like a Boris, so that’s what I named him. Um… Boris is a joking name for a big Russian guy? Russians are a nation where I’m from? Oh, whatever. I’ll explain it some other time.” John finished as he saw the look Luna had on her face go from confused, to even more confused, and ending with flabbergasted. “Cultural references, got it. Stepping away from those would probably be a good idea for now at least. See, I’m new to this dimensional traveler thing! I wasn’t really expecting the experiment to work that well.”
Their afternoon continued in such a matter, with most if not all of the focus being on John’s history, family, and questions about Earth and Humanity in general. Every once in a while something would come up that would make Luna take them on a completely different tangent than the one they were currently on, but they would eventually return to the topic. Luna, it appeared to John anyways, had an insatiable appetite for knowledge, at least knowledge about his world, and she never game him a single chance to counter her questions with questions of his own about Equestria.
Celestia’s sun was beginning to lower itself beyond the horizon, coupled with the tired look that John had on his face, when Luna finally realized what time it was and decided to end their session for the day. “John, I apologize for taking up so much of your time with these questions! Though, I must say your world is really interesting, I’m just sorry that I’ve been focusing so much on what I wanted to learn that I didn’t really think much about your feelings on the matter.” She said with a blush again, “It’s just that it’s not that often that I get to learn about something so completely new that I just lost myself in it, without being a proper host or helping you along!”
John inwardly smiled at the blushing alicorn and her seeming insecurities, “Think nothing of it Luna, you’ve really helped me a lot more than you think you have, and I have to say that I was not expecting this when I woke up yesterday, or even today for that matter. You’ve really been very gracious to me, when you could have easily gotten rid of me without anyone knowing any better. And, if our situations had been reversed, I imagine that I would have spent much of my time in your shoes!” He finished with a laugh that quickly turned into a yawn.
“Well, I shall leave you to your night John, if you need anything I’ll leave a guard outside of your room, he will be more than willing to help you out. Ordered Quill!” She shouted at the green unicorn who was dozing off in a corner out of the way, “We need to get going, we have our duties to attend to for the night! And to leave our guest to his rest.”
Walking out of the room, Luna paused as if thinking about something, then turned back to John, “I think that tomorrow I will introduce you to my older sister, she was busy all day today with matters of state and was unable to meet with you.” John went white as a sheet at the mention of meeting another princess, having all but forgotten that Luna was one throughout their conversation in the afternoon. Luna, seeing her guest’s face turn white as a sheet, decided to ease his fears, “Have no worry John! I’m sure that she’ll like you well enough, and I’ll make sure that she knows that it will be informal, and you know that I’ll try to keep it from turning into one of those disgusting affairs.” She concluded as she wrinkled her nose at the thought, before leaving the room and wishing John a good night.
John, for his part, was more or less looking forward to meeting more ponies than he had on that day, he only really met a couple of the guards, who’s stoic expressions and attitudes left much to be desired as they hardly spoke at all, even when spoken to, and one or two of the servants, who really didn’t say anything at all and bowed out of the room as fast as they entered. This certainly has been an interesting day, meeting royalty, essentially boiling down humanity into a concentrate… I wonder what else this world holds for me. John continued to ponder his day as he went about utilizing the room’s attached bathroom, having acquired something to clean his teeth with from a servant who was passing by, and cleaned up as best he could, before he settled down into the bed’s sheets for what looked to be a night full of interesting and restful dreams.
Author's Note: Sorry for taking so long on this chapter everyone! About two and a half days longer than I had originally expected it to take me, but considering it's length I'm sure you can forgive me, right?
Well, John is now in Equestria, Luna is obsessed with humanity, and Ordered Quill is clearly overworked by his lovely Princess.
I hope that you are all enjoying this story, I know that I'm thoroughly enjoying writing it, not to mention putting it out there for all to read!
From the personal journal of Ordered Quill, personal assistant to the Princess Luna, on his thoughts and reaction to the arrival of John Q. Blake:
What an exciting night! This was certainly not something that I was expecting to happen during the Princess’ court tonight, a new creature! Something that nopony has ever seen before, and dare I say that he is quite the alien. I would say that the best description of him would be a Diamond Dog, however that would be fairly inaccurate as well. He was (yes, I say a he, it was quite easy to tell from the way that he looked, as well as from the beard on his face.) much taller than any diamond dog, and not as gangly. His arms… his arms were thin, and looked to be rather fragile, though I’d wager a guess to say that looks can be deceiving, especially in this case!
His legs were much longer than any diamond dogs as well, it looked like he would be able to stand up on two hooves quite easily. And the lack of fur! It was as though someone has sheered it all off! But, that isn’t to say that he was bald. There was definitely fur there, even on his arms! It just wasn’t as though there was no hair; just that the hair that was there was very thin and roughly distributed.
And his clothing! I have never seen such an interesting assortment of clothing ever, and that jacket that came through the portal that he was wearing? Such a strange texture and color, I must say that I have never seen or felt anything like that before. All the seams, stitching, and even the weaving was so uniform and perfect, I’d say that even many unicorn seamstresses would have trouble replicating it!
Still, despite all of that… he is rather off-putting if I may say so myself. There’s something about him that has got me on edge whenever I’m looking at him, around him, or am thinking about him. It’s probably nothing, but something about this… creature has got me scared, even though he doesn’t seem to bother Princess Luna at all.
The movement of the things that came with him down to the vault went well, even though the Princess was very demanding and requested utmost secrecy in the matter. I don’t really see why, as word will get around about this thing quick enough, especially as it happened during the night court! I don’t think that this veil of secrecy that she has attempted to create will last more than a week, if that.
This is going to bring about some interesting changes, I just know it. Even if he’s the only one, even if it’s only small things. Equestria will be changed forever.
Author's Note: Yes, I realize that this is pretty small, but it's an idea that I've been toying around with in my head for a little bit, and I think that I may do more. Or I may remove this one and not do anymore depending on the reception to it. I need your input on this matter!
Secondly, I apologize again for my slow performance in getting the next official chapter out, I've been having some issues with the writing of the chapter and I refuse to put out a shoddy product, hopefully when I finish it you will all enjoy that chapter!
Thank you your time, and I apologize for the briefness of this segment.
“Dad, I didn’t know that you were acquainted with the princesses!” One of the stallion’s sons, a unicorn stallion with a red coat and a brown mane with a hourglass cutie mark said, having settled into listen not much sooner.
The old stallion just face-hooved at his son, “Really Magnus? You’re asking that question, after all the times that you’ve seen the letter’s piled up? Heck, she was even at your wedding! For however brief a time she was able to be there anyways.”
Magnus’s face and neck managed to turn an even darker red in embarrassment, “Well… I sort of… I… ah… Well… I got caught up in the story, dad!”
“No worries Magnus, I’m just giving you a good ribbing. You deserve things like that every once in a while!” The stallion said with a bit of a smile, before turning back to his grandchildren, “Anypony else have any more questions before I continue?”
A brown earth pony colt started waving his right foreleg in the air, “Grandpa! I do!”
“Calm down Acorn, you’re not in a classroom, you don’t have to vie for my attentions! You all have my attention.”
Acorn just looked around at his cousins, before shrinking back a little and asking, “What was it like waking up here? You must’ve been really scared!”
The stallion gave an impressed smile to his grandson, “Scared? I was absolutely terrified! I was in a place where I knew no one, I didn’t even know the name of the nation or castle or anything of that sort. I was in a complete unknown, and the only reasonable reaction for me was to be terrified! But if there’s one thing that I had learned in all my times of reading silly books, watching movies, and dealing with politicians and people it’s that being panicked and screaming about every little thing never helps, it just causes more issues than you had in the first place. So, I stopped, slowed down, and looked at everything as though I were just seeing it through a looking glass. By acting as an observer, I was able to save myself from the panic that would have easily overwhelmed me if I had permitted it to. That is what I sounded and acted so calm, whereas inside of my own mind I was in a panicked fury trying to piece everything together without going insane.”
“Woah. Grandpa. That is so awesome! I never knew that you could do something like that! Were you like that the next day?”
“No Acorn, I was not. Sleeping the night through had helped me calm down quite a bit, letting me sort through what had happened and letting me get to know, in my head at least, what was going on and getting a better grasp of the situation, but you see when I woke up…”
The light slowly crept into the room where John was sleeping, the sun increasing its brilliance ever so slightly as it was raised into the sky. John rolled over with a grunt as the sun peeked over the window’s frame shining into his eyes and causing some mild discomfort in his sleep. A knocking sound on the door to the room caused even more annoyance for the sleeping human male, making him roll over onto his stomach and stuff his face into the pillow unconsciously to attempt to drown out the noise, to no avail. The knocking sound persisted however, and slowly and steadily managed to awaken John from his slumber, much to his disappointment.
Upon awakening, there was a moment of confusion for John as he sat up and looked around the room at the slightly unfamiliar furnishings before the memories of his previous day set in, and with them John was jolted firmly awake as they came crashing in over his mind. Well, it would seem that I’m really here, and that the device really did work! In a manner of speaking anyways.
The knocking sound became even more insistent, and John looked up in annoyance before replying to it, “Alright alright! I’m up! Just give me a minute…”
With that statement, John threw the covers off of his body, and rolled over into a sitting position with his feet hanging off the side of the bed.
And it was that moment that Luna, with a bedraggled Ordered Quill in tow, decided to burst into the room with a big grin on her face, “John! Good news, my sister has agreed to meet with you…. Why are you looking at me that way and hiding back under the covers…?” Luna said as she paused to look at the human scientist inquisitively.
John’s face by this time had turned to a very close approximation of a tomato, with a bit of anger and embarrassment seeping through his features, having just jumped back under the covers to hide his nearly completely nude form, “You just came in! I’m not exactly decent! It’s just, you don’t do that!” He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, took a deep breath, and then continued while putting his hand down, “Well, we humans have a bit of a modesty thing with clothes, from years of living in climates where our bodies aren’t adjusted to the cold climates we found ourselves in, as well as… Other reasons. Particularly those that have to do with the location of our reproductive organs. So, if you could just turn around, or better yet, leave the room while I’m getting dressed, and come back in when I call you… That would be great.”
Luna’s face turned an even deeper shade of purple in embarrassment once she had a better grasp of the situation, with Ordered Quill’s reaction being nothing more than a hoof smacking his lowered forehead. Seemingly as one they slowly backed out of the room and closed the door behind them, leaving John to sigh and get ready for his day.
First ensuring that they had indeed closed the door behind them, John stood up and grabbed his clothes from the chair that he had thrown them over the night before, taking a quick whiff to check for unsavory scents, and grimaced at the smell that he was awarded with. “I guess I’m not too surprised, I mean I did wear these for two days in a row… I wonder if I can get them washed… I’ll definitely need new clothes soon though.” He mused as he walked into the bathroom and quickly refreshed himself.
John walked over to the door, opened it with a bit of a flourish, and said “Okay, now you may come in. Just make sure that in the future I’m not such a disheveled wreck, please?”
“I’m so sorry John! I just didn’t know, it didn’t even occur to me! Can you forgive me?” Luna pleaded with a bit of a frown on her face.
“I’m not angry, I was just really really surprised is all.”
“Very well, John Q. Blake, are you ready for this meeting?” Said Luna with a bit of a mischievous grin.
“Which meeting are you talking about? I don’t remember any meeting.” John said with an arched eyebrow.
“Well, the one with my co-ruler, my sister of course! I can’t believe that you forgot about it, I told you about it yesterday.” She said with a barely contained snicker.
John’s face went a little white at that, “That’s right… You’re princesses aren’t you… Well, um… Princess. I hope that I haven’t been too rude to you? I mean, I don’t know the protocol at all and I’ve never even met a princess before and…” He fished with a shrug.
“Oh nonsense John! You’re new here, you don’t understand our ways… plus we… I like the fact that you’re not acting like a subject, bowing before me all the time and showing far too much deference for my position... instead of just seeing me for me.” Luna said with a bit of hesitation, and a blush, “I know I’ve been interrogating you pretty much since you woke up yesterday, but I wanted to let you know that you’re the first pony… person that has treated me as another pony since I came back. We… I want to thank you for this.”
“Oh, it’s no problem Princess. A person. Errr… Pony, no matter who they are, deserve to be treated the same as all the others, just because you’re a princess doesn’t mean that I can’t treat you like a friend.” The human said as he motioned to the door and started to move towards it, “Shall we on then? I mean, your sister is waiting for us right?”
“Yes! Yes we should!” Luna said as she snapped out of her emotional state. As John passed her, she couldn’t help but wrinkle her nose at the smell that invaded her nostrils, “John… What is that smell!? You do bathe do you not?”
“Yes! Of course I bathe. But I’ve been forced to wear these same clothes for three days running now, you don’t think that they wouldn’t start smelling would you?” John said with an incredulous smile and a shake of his head.
“Oh! In that case, that is very easy to fix. Just stand still for a moment.” Luna nodded as John stopped moving, and her horn glowed a dark blue as John’s clothing glowed as well for about half a second, the glow receding just as quickly as it had appeared, leaving much cleaner looking and smelling garments hanging from his body.
John jumped back in surprise as the light faded from Luna’s horn and his clothes, “What… What just happened? What was that!? How did you… Why are my clothes not smelling anymore?”
Luna couldn’t help but to laugh at his shock and surprise, she knew that his world did not have magic, from the descriptions that he gave of his world they were an entirely technologically based society. “It’s simple magic John. I used a common household spell to clean your clothes, straighten them up, and leave them smelling much fresher than they were earlier.”
John looked at the regent of the night with one eyebrow raised, “Magic?”
“Magic.”
“Magic doesn’t exist, Luna. It’s just superstition, card tricks, and sleight of hand.”
“Magic may not exist on your world John, but I can assure you that here, in Equestria and on this planet, even in this realm or universe, it is quite real. You cannot doubt that which is right in front of your eyes can you?” Luna’s eyes twinkled with mischief as she levitated the flowerpot that was standing on a side table in the hallway.
“But… How? How does it work? What makes the glow?”
“Well, there are spells that do various things, from basic levitation, to the most advanced forms like teleportation and cloud walking. You have to focus your will around the energy and picture what you wish to do for basic things, but the more advanced ones require… Wait. Glow? What glow?” Luna said as her face suddenly caught what he said last, confusing washing over her and Ordered Quills faces almost immediately.
“There was a glow. Around your horn, and around my clothes for however brief a second, and there’s still a glow on those plants that you’re holding. You… can’t see it?”
“No…. We… I don’t see anything of the sort, John.” Confusion seemed to set into her features even further as she tried to figure out what he was seeing, It can’t be magic? Nopony has ever been able to see magic. It just isn’t possible.
“Well, John. Look at the time, we better get going! Celestia is going to be late.” Luna said with a bit of haste, wishing to change the subject so that she could ponder the problem longer, and to perhaps consult her sister on the matter in the future. She turned and started to trot down the corridor, attempting to lead John to the more secluded dining that she and Celestia preferred to use when not hosing a dinner, only stopping when she realized that she could not hear the distinctive footsteps of the biped behind her.
“John, are you going to come along, or are we just going to have this meal without you? One that, I may remind you, you were invited to by two princesses.” Luna said with a bit of a mischievous wink.
With a shake of his head to jump him out of his reverie, John replied with a blank tone, “Well, yes. Of course. Let’s get going then.” He quickly caught up with the lunar princess, and the two, shadowed by Ordered Quill, continued on their way to the breakfast with the solar princess.
As they continued down the hallway to the more private areas of the castle, John couldn’t help but gawk at the extravagance that the building had. It seemed that every alcove had some statue or piece of artwork in it, the columns had real gold filigree on them, each column itself looked to be handmade and tooled with great precision. Everything about the castle screamed out perfection, while at the same time did not manage to look overly gaudy or repressive, such as he had found Versailles or the even a senator’s home to be.
One particular piece of art caught John’s eyes particularly well, as it reminded him extensively of a very unique painting by one of his world’s greatest painters, enough so that it caused him to stop and stare at the painting to make sure he wasn’t seeing a double. The painting was of the Princess Luna, lying regally with her right foreleg crossed over her left, her head held high and a look that did not say whether or not she was smiling. In the background was a valley complete with roads, trees, hills, bridges and a river. The scene was so similar that John couldn’t help but laugh a little.
“And what, I ask, are you laughing at? Do you not find the painting Moona Luna to be to your liking?” Ordered Quill asked with a bit of a huff, having stopped with John as he peered at the art piece.
“Yes John, why are you laughing at this portrait of myself?” Luna’s eyebrows arched up in a questioning manner.
“Moona Luna? Hah! That’s fantastic! To explain myself… And that outburst, there’s a very similar piece of artwork from Earth, it is in fact famous the world over, called the Mona Lisa. It was painted by a man named Leonardo da Vinchi around 500 years ago. The similarities were so striking that I couldn’t keep my humor down… When was this one made?” John explained as he looked back and forth between the painting and it’s subject.
“I’m glad that we have more similarities between our worlds than you originally thought John, it gladdens me to see that art is universal! This one was done… around 1,100 years ago if I remember correctly, by a unicorn stallion by the name of Deep Learner.” A pensive look covered Luna’s face as she thought back to that long gone era.
“1,100 years…? That’s impossib… No. Sentient equines. Magic. Interdimensional travel. Who’s to say that they can’t be ruled by seemingly immortal beings? It would only make sense, on some strangely universal ‘I’m going to mess with everything you believe’ sort of way.” John said with a shake of his head, “Whatever. Let’s just get going to this breakfast, see what other mind-blowing things I can learn about today before my brain decides that it’s had enough and locks itself away in a corner and just lets instinct take over to leave me curled up in a ball in a corner.”
Luna looked over at Ordered Quill, and the two shared a look of perplexity as John wandered off in the direction that they had been moving, still ranting to himself about going insane one bit at a time, “Quite an interesting fellow, isn’t he?”
“Yes Princess. Interesting is the word that I would use.” The Princess and her retainer quickly caught up with John, in order for him not to get lost as they continued to the private dining room of the two sisters.
The human didn’t speak any words for the rest of their walk, his mind tied up and wrapping around the concepts that he had just learned. Magic. They have magic. I guess that it’s not exactly outside the realm of possibilities, hell, Earth even has tales and stories of magic and wizards dating back through the ages, so it’s possible we even have it. We’ve just forgotten the how… And 1100 years ago that painting was created? That makes no sense. It would have to look much more aged unless… Magic. Once again that force comes to play. But how does she look so young? That makes even less sense.
John’s found himself looking around in awe at the castle as he walked, even with the musings in his head of a world filled with magic. The walls looked to him to be made of white marble with no tooling marks to be seen, at least to John’s untrained eye. The walls made his eyes flow upwards to the ceiling, which was engraved with many forms of pegasi flittering between and lounging on clouds, reminding him of the old cherubs from Western lore and architecture.
As John continued to follow Princess Luna and Ordered Quill to their destination his mind became more and more wrapped in the castle surrounding him. So much so that he did not even notice that the two ponies in front of him had stopped.
He ran right into Ordered Quill. Who John tripped over, knocked over, and fell into Princess Luna.
Who also collapsed onto the ground, leaving two ponies and one moderately sized human tangled up in a mess of limbs and clothing on the floor of the hallway.
It was to this mess of Homo sapien and Equus ferus caballus that a particular Solar Goddess opened up the door to the Royal Pony Sisters’ private dining room, to gaze upon what had caused such a rumpus. As her gaze swept over the quickly reddening face of the human male, the increasingly darker purple face of the alicorn princess, and the rosy cheeks of one unicorn assistant, she could not help but let out a snicker. Which grew into a low laugh, who’s sound managed to infect the three beings laying in a heap upon the floor and soon enough the hallway was filled with the sound of two guffawing male voices, and two giggling female.
The laughter continued on for a few minutes, and as it died down the three started to disentangle themselves from each other, being no small feat due to the size of the human, the alicorn, and the unicorn’s lack of familiarity of the other’s freedom of movement. Finally, John having just decided to roll off of the other two before helping them both up, they turned as one to face the elder sister.
John couldn’t help but gawk at the being standing in front of him; she was the antithesis of everything that Luna appeared to be. Where Luna was young in appearance, this new being was mature in the motherly sort of way. Where Luna was dark, this alicorn was light. Where Luna was short in comparison to John, this being forced him to look up. She held the appearance of one who held great power, but did not need to exercise it but for certain occasions. The grace of her stance and form did little to hide that power and it seemed to radiate from her like the sun itself. Then there was the apparent effect of her glowing, magic flowed out and around her form, magic the very color of the sun itself. A rainbow mane flowed around her, the magic emanating from her form clearly enchanting it to flow in such a manner.
The effect that it had on John was immediate, his smile vanished and his only thought was Kneel. Now. And kneel he did, he dropped to one knee with his hands on the ground and his head bowed, “Your majesty.”
To any outward observer it would appear as though a switch had been flipped or a spell had been cast upon John. His actions and attitude seemed to have changed so completely from that which they had seen before that it would seem that he was being manipulated by the alicorn in front of him.
The smile from her earlier mirth was quickly reduced to something similar to a smirk, “Rise. You do not need to bow here.” The Sun Goddess said with a nod towards the human in front of her.
“Yes ma’am.” John rose to his full height and extended a hand, “John Q. Blake, your highness. I’m sorry if I have offended you in any manner.”
A knowing smile crept across the white alicorn’s face as she stretched out a hoof to meet his handshake, “I am Princess Celestia of Equestria, charmed to meet you John. You have not offended me in any manner. But, I must ask you a question. You can see it, can’t you? You can see the magic around me, the magic in this world.”
“Well. I can see something, I guess if you’re going to call it magic then I’ll say it’s magic as well. Can… Can you see it?” John asked as he set his arm down to his side and arched a single eyebrow in question.
“Alas, no I cannot. It is not within my capabilities to do so, but I would be lying if I were to say that you are the first. There have been others like you, but none of your species. They have all been ponies of exceptional magical abilities. But come, I can see by your face and my sister’s that you are both hungry. We can discuss this at further lengths at another time and place. This is for us to get to know each other, and to have an enjoyable meal and company.” The Solar Princess gestured for John and Luna to follow her into the room as she turned about to return to her seat at the table, “Oh, and no need for formalities such as you have just shown. One such as you is different, separate from the bounds of our high society.”
The princess of the night and her aide looked on at the exchange in bewilderment; this is not the John that they had met the day prior, the human that they woke up this morning. This was an entirely new being to them, but they remained silent in the hopes that the exchange would show them what was going on. Luna took one more look at John and Celestia as they made their way into the dining room, before looking back to Quill and dismissing him with a nod, “I will not be needing you anymore today Ordered Quill, you are dismissed. Enjoy the day. I only ask that you be ready for court tonight.”
As the three beings entered the small dining room the first thing that the human of the group noticed was a smell, a very unique and peculiar smell. The type of smell that any American male would be able to recognize within mere nanoseconds of smelling it. A very pervasive and one could say eternal smell, the smell of bacon and eggs.
All John could do was to stop and stare at the table, “You have bacon. Why do herbivores have bacon? That doesn’t make any sense.”
Celestia smiled a knowing smile as she took a seat at the head of the table in a very plain looking cushion, “Of course that wouldn’t make any sense. You however are an omnivore, as my dearest sister made me aware of last night when you two had finished your conversation. We are not the only species on this planet, for example the griffons are very partial to meat and need it for their diet. So, I decided that it would be prudent for you to have some meat at your breakfast; I am pleased that what we had in the kitchen storage is something that you appear to be able to eat. Now, please have a seat, we wouldn’t like it to get cold now would we?”
The man nodded in apparent understanding, not wishing to get into her statement too much after the shocks that the morning had already presented to him. As he had been following Celestia into the room he was already at the spot that was clearly indicated for him on the left side of the table as Luna had taken the cushion opposing him, whereas Celestia was to his left. Taking look at the cushion in front of him, John quickly concluded that the only way for him to sit mildly comfortably would be cross legged. As he went about getting into that mildly uncomfortable position he took a quick glance around the room. It was spartanly furnished, the blue walls did not have anything too gaudy on them, a picture of a small purple filly reading a book with a look of concentration was on the wall opposite him, and a clock sat on the wall behind him. The room, to John’s observations, was a room designed to help the owners get away from the world and just have some time to themselves. There was a couple of what looked to be bean bags by a window, with a small coffee table between them on the right side of the room, with a book case behind Celestia filled with what looked to be novels of varying stages of wear and age.
John glanced around at the two princesses to see how they were proceeding with their meal, quickly returning to the spread when he saw that they were watching him. Taking note of their observant eyes, he took only a couple strawberries, a kiwi looking fruit, two scoops of eggs and because of his assumption that the two alicorns would not be indulging in the bacon, put the entire plate of bacon by his plate. A little skeptical of the ability of herbivores to cook bacon, John’s first bite was careful, only to quickly eat the rest of the piece with gusto.
Celestia chuckled at the sight before helping herself to a couple of light rolls, “I can see that we made the right decision in opening those stores for you, just don’t expect to find meat too often here in Equestria. It’s not something that is commonly sold, and I do not believe that you could find a single butcher in our kingdom.”
Trying not to look too distraught John just shrugged before he replied, “That’s fine. I had several friends that were vegetarians, and while I don’t know too much about it I believe that I should be able to figure out some way to replace meat in my diet, and I do know my way around fishing and filleting a fish, even though I haven’t done it in quite a while."
“Good! I was worried that it would be harder to come to an accommodation with you on such a thing as your diet, but we will work with you to figure out what exactly you need in order to adapt your diet during your stay here. You will also be more than welcome to fish the streams and rivers, just do not over fish, it would be a shame.” Luna said with a nod and a bite of what looked to be a Danish roll.
“So John, if I may call you John, you told Luna a fair amount about your race and your planet… But what about your government? What are your laws, your officials, your bureaucracies like?” The elder sister asked as she took another bite of her croissant.
“Straight to the tough questions then, huh?” John’s eyes tinkled with a bit of a smile to let the sisters know that he wasn’t too serious about his remark, “We have a tiered government, Federal, State, County, and Local are all set up with their own type of power, in theory anyways. The idea goes that the Federal government has its sphere of influence, so working with the states to keep them from infighting, international trade and diplomacy, and a unified defense amongst other things. The head of that is the President, who is elected every 4 years, we just had an election the day before I came here, though I have no idea who won. With a 2-house legislature known as Congress, with the House of Representatives and the Senate, both of which have different numbers of people in it with certain powers each one could do, supposedly anyways. And then there’s the Supreme court, which is the third part of the federal government. They all have their different jobs and duties, but beyond an overview I would really not like to go into it, beyond the basic idea of their roles it gets into political theories and ideas – something that I’d rather not get into.”
Celestia nodded as she took in the information, “So you’re a democracy then? Or a republic? No monarchy in either case.”
John swallowed the bite of eggs he had just taken with a nod, “That’s right, though we used to be under a monarchy around 240 years ago, we rebelled against it and became a sovereign nation in our own right however.”
“Rebellion… So you have war then?” Luna asked with a bit of a sad look.
“Well, yeah. Of course we have war, don’t you?” John’s right eyebrow quirked up with a questioning tone, and when the two princesses shook their heads he continued, “Well you must have had it at some point to at least know what it is. Yes, we have war, and judging from your looks you disapprove of that.”
Luna’s frown grew deeper, “Yes. We disapprove of that, but if I may ask why do you fight? Is it not easier and more profitable for both sides to come to a mutually benefiting agreement?”
John leaned back on his cushion and looked up at the ceiling, thinking about his answer before continuing, “It could be, yes. I am not a soldier, I am not a general, so I have never actually fought in any war, so take what you’re hearing from me with a grain of salt. All I know about war is what I know from the history books, television, and movies. What I do know about it is that a lot of time and expense has been used with every war to try to prevent the wars from happening, but in the end they all seemed to be inevitable due to the political climates. You really shouldn’t form an opinion on any of this just from me though. I’m one man who doesn’t even focus on that stuff, it’s really only ever been a passing hobby of mine.”
The solar princess nodded to herself as she pondered the information that she had just been given, her mind racing over this visitor’s world. She took a sip of her tea and looked at the clock on the mantelpiece above the door to the dining room before coming to a quick decision, “John, it has been a pleasure to meet you, though I must say that I must be going as I have my duties to attend to. Court waits for nopony, not even one such as myself. I am going to give you the ability to go throughout the palace, though I must request that you have a guard with you the entire time, I will have Shining Armor assign you one and set up a schedule. This afternoon I will make an announcement about you to Equestria about your existence, so that any sightings and rumors will be quelled quickly. We will meet again at a later time; I wish that you have a good day.” The princess finished her tea and then started to make her way to the exit of the dining room.
A surprised look jumped onto the human’s face, and he had to scramble for an answer, “Uh… Thank you! Thank you very much your highness. Just… Uh… You have a nice day as well!”
Celestia nodded her head as she continued out the door, before pausing and looking over her shoulder, “Oh and John, please do access the Royal Library. I have a feeling that you will find it enlightening.” The goddess returned to her exit and made sure to close the door behind her.
“Well that was certainly… something.” John said as he looked back to the lunar princess.
“Um. Yes. You could say that. You really have war?” Luna looked to be on the verge of tears at this point in her questioning, as she looked at John hoping the answer would be no.
John, showing an amazing ability at missing the point, responded, “Yes. We have war, but it’s not what defines us if that is what you are worried about. Our architecture, artwork, our societies are much greater than just war. If I could I would show you all of that right now, heck, if I even had my laptop I have a couple movies that I could show you that would show that to you in 2 hours easily.”
Luna was instantly distracted by the mention of a new piece of technology, “Laptop, what, pray tell, is a laptop?”
“Well, do you know what a computer is?” Seeing the nod from the princess, “A laptop is a compacted computer generally designed for detached work, detached from the power source that is. I use mine mostly for browsing a large network of computers known as the internet and for movies mostly, though I do have a lot of work and papers on it. I had it in my bag when I went to the lab. I must admit, that I’m a little confused as to where it went when I got transported here, it should have been right next to me.”
“Was it in a small canvas bag that had a single strap?”
“Yes, it was! I take that it made it?”
“It did indeed. I had it, and all of the other devices that came through with you, moved to a secure vault. I will have your bag returned to your room immediately.” Luna said with a nod and a bite of her muffin.
“Excellent! Just one question however, what do you use for a power source? I keep seeing lights all over the place, but I don’t see any outlets or cables running through the castle, do you use electricity?”
“We do! Good observation and you cannot observe the outlets because they are hidden by simple sliding doors. To many it would be considered unseemly to have such things appear in broad sight.” She said with a twinkle in her eye, before using her magic to slide open one of the outlet slots.
John was once again surprised by her use of magic, but he managed to conceal the surprise so not to alarm her. He watched as the magic extended from her horn through the air to the outlet, opening up the concealed slot, noticing for the first time a distinct musical quality to the levitation spell at the same time, but he decided not to bring it up to the princess, “Interesting. You appear to use the same, or at least similar, plugs and sockets. I wonder if I’ll be able to use my laptop and equipment with them… If so it would certainly make for returning home much easier!”
“Quite. Anyways, I got you this book to start you off, and to help you with Equestrian culture and society. I think that it would be very helpful for you.” Luna levitated a book from on top of the book shelf over to the human, who plucked it out of the air and Luna’s control when it was close enough.
“A Traveler’s Guide to Equestria: All you need to know in order to survive in the country of Equestria by Long Traveler. Huh, that’s not something I actually expected to see. Puntastic name too. Thank you very much Princess Luna.” John said as he bowed his head in her direction.
John stood up and cracked his back and knees as he did so, unaccustomed to sitting in such a position for such a long time. He twisted his back to get out any more kinks, and in the process his back let out several resounding cracks as well.
Luna’s face took on a disgusted look as she stood as well, “What was that?”
“Oh, it was just my back cracking back into place, it happens when I’m in an uncomfortable position for any period of time, like that one. Uh… Is there any way that I could get a chair or a stool made? If it’s not too much hassle, it’s just that your tables are just too uncomfortable for me to sit on.” John said as he twisted the opposite direction, gaining more pops and an even more disgusted look from the princess.
“We should have some that would fit you, it would be a matter of just getting them for you when you need one, many places actually have stools there for ponies to sit on, and it’s just a matter of height for you. That, and my sister and I prefer to use cushions on the floor when we are eating alone.” She concluded with a nod, “OH, and you mentioned that clothing is a matter of modesty for you?” She paused until she got a nod from the human, “In that case I’ll send for a tailor to make some more clothing for you, I would think that no more than 7 different outfits would be enough for you, am I correct? Good. They will be here this afternoon, I’ll notify the guards to send for you when the time comes.”
“Oh, thank you princess! This is very generous of you, is there any way that I could pay you back for all of this? I mean, you’re giving me a place to stay, clothing, and food… Plus access to your castle and your library. There has to be something that I could do for you!” He fiddled with the book in his hands as he waited for an answer.
“Nonsense, if anything we should be paying you. The information that we have learned about you and your world is invaluable, and will keep us and our scholars debating over the issues for years. Consider all of this as just a gift from friends to a friend.” Luna said with a smile, being very pleased with herself.
“Oh… Uh. Thank you, I guess. But there has to be some way that I could…”
“No. You are accepting this as a gift. And that is final. There will be no ifs, ands, or buts about it!” She gave him a look that clearly indicated that that was the end of the conversation.
“Well…. Thanks. No, not just thanks. Thank you very much for this, you’re really being too kind.” A look could be seen in the man’s eyes, one of pure gratitude that had not been seen from his eyes in quite a long time, “I guess… I guess that I should let you go though. You are looking very tired, and I do have this book, and entire civilization’s library to read through! I wish that you have a very restful day, and I will see you again this evening, correct?”
“You are correct John, I wish you luck in your research, and anypony around you would be more than welcome to answer any questions that you have, the staff have already been informed of your presence in the castle.” Luna said with a smile before she started to make her way out of the dining room.
John slowly followed her, his mind mulling over the conversation that he had just had with the two princesses, before coming to a very quick decision, “Princess, if you’ll wait just a moment.”
Luna only had time to turn around before the human’s arms were around her neck, embracing her in what she could only guess was a hug, and a brief one at that.
John released the alicorn from his hug and then said, “Thank you very much for this princess. You really have no idea what this means to me. It’s… It’s more than generous.”
“Think nothing of it John, but really, I am quite tired and must get to sleep. And I will not be keeping you from your research any longer.”
John nodded before he met the guardspony sent by Shining Armor to escort him, and they made their way to places unknown in the palace. Leaving a certain sapphire alicorn to ponder the events that had just transpired between that human and her sister, especially as it pertained to magic, before she retired for her daily rest.
The following is an excerpt from a published correspondence between Twilight Sparkle, Celestia’s most prized pupil, and the interdimensional being known as John Blake. The contents of this excerpt have not been altered in any form, and are presented in their original form.
It is on this contention that I believe that you are incorrect in your assumptions on how much magic affects your world and your society, Twilight. The more I learn about your culture and your history the more I come to find that magic has woven its way into every part of your society.
Take for example your crop production; it would be very easy for Applejack to increase her production at the farm by utilizing several cheap and easy to use industrial processes, including those tractors that I know exist from my travels through Equestria. Yet, she refuses to adopt such actions due to the feelings with the land that she has, the magic permits her to sense what the land and the plants require, a sense that is integral to how she lives her life and makes her living. Where I am from a farmer does not have an attachment to the land in the same manner, it is not intrinsic to them. They gain that attachment to the land through years of farming, working, and watching the plants and weather around them; they would not hesitate in many instances to utilize newer technologies to aid them in their routines.
What I am saying, what I’m arguing rather, is that magic is as much of a force of nature, a necessity to your existence, as gravity or the sun is. It’s not that you wouldn’t be able to survive without magic, thought that is a distinct possibility, it’s that magic has been such an integral part of your society for so long that it is quite possibly impossible for you to understand a world without it. Magic as an idea has been around in my society since the beginning of time, but my first true sight of it was when I awoke my second day in Equestria. I had inklings of what it could be, other than illusions of course, but I had no idea of its true potential or abilities until I began to study it in earnest; just as you have problems understanding technology that is detached from magic entirely.
As time has continued and my study of magic as a potential stabilizer or catalyst for the experiment I cannot help but realize how much our two societies have deviated from each other with the addition of one additional environmental agent such as magic.Whereas on Earth we took the route of relying upon technology and scientific development for everything from farming to even simple reading, here you would infuse magic into every part of your society, which in turn changed it into what we see today. This shining example of peace and hope for all.
