//------------------------------// // Ch1, Terrabelle // Story: CSR Philadelphi // by shysage //------------------------------// Yes... It's me, Summer... Well, I knew where my Stallion wanted to go that morning; we took to the air and just headed there from my sister's cottage. Flying over Ponyville(1) again made me sigh... Twenty minutes later, we were nearing that big, huge ring of unbelievably tall trees that seemed to pop up out of nowhere from the surrounding meadow and occasional low scraggly trees. Shysage called these huge trees redwoods once, but I don't know... He and I landed, walked up to the edge of that circle of trees, then inside between two huge trunks. It was a nice, warm summer day, and we walked slowly to the top of the gentle hill in the center of the circle. We both laid on our bellies in the grass together, and were quickly crying... After all we had been through... For most of the day, we just relaxed there, together, alone and close. Writing that made me cry. Still, no looming catastrophes, no reeling crisis building, precious friendships restored (we hoped)... I think we both were trying to get over feeling so... spent... Later in the day, Shysage sighed, then suggested we head back soon. "Just a few more minutes?" I asked calmly, then I smiled. He always says yes. A few minutes later, I sighed. I knew I really needed to get up... Shysage was looking calmly out across the clearing, the warm sunny grass. Maybe we were both having trouble, not wanting to head back to town. We just relaxed there together, next to each other, close to each other, resting at the top of that hill, just looking out across the grass... Like I said, I think we were both, inside, still trying to recover... Shysage started to slowly say "I think we should look forward--" At that exact moment... our surroundings changed... immediately... I didn't think we were in Equestria(1) any more. But we were in the exact same position, still laying on our bellies next to each other, but not in grass now. We were in the center of some sort of hard, brown floor, with a few concentric white circles around us, varying distances away. After taking all this in, I sighed, and said "...not again..." Shysage chuckled when I said that. "At least we are together!" he said so lovingly, then he leaned up against me again. "And I still remember my most beautiful, amazing Mare..." Trying to not cry, I sighed again, and just relaxed next to my Stallion. I didn't even care where we were this time. I didn't want to move away from my Shysage. And I slowly realized that, well, it wasn't the Portal that moved us this time. Traversing the Portal is very much like moving through some sort of tunnel; it takes seconds usually. But this was... very fast. We were in the center of a very large room. The walls were a shiny, smooth white, with a few odd panels of tiny lights, it looked like. Well, there was nopony else in here with us. Shysage saw no reason to even move. We didn't. Well, Shysage picked his head and neck up over mine, and pulled me close. We both sighed together. Before too long, we heard another pony walk up behind us. The sound of hooves on a hard surface, I will never forget that! "Are you two ok?" the pony asked, clearly with genuine concern. I think the main problem was that we were still laying down; we had not even tried to get up after arriving here. Well, I was next to my Stallion! He was next to his Mare, and we just didn't feel the need to move. Shysage chuckled again, then said quietly "Miss, we are fine. We were relaxing together in the warm grass just a minute ago, and didn't feel too compelled to move after we arrived here." I don't think either of us were too concerned. And there was no sinister music blaring out in the background all of a sudden, either. I got carefully up, then Shysage got up, and stood right next to me, of course. While we were getting up, the mare walked around in front of us, so she could see us, so we could talk. Sounding honestly apologetic... "We are so sorry we didn't ask you first, before we brought you here... But that would have been rather difficult..." We all chuckled at this. The mare seemed relieved that we weren't upset or anything. "I'm e3736; my name is Terrabelle. I am an E Type Mare, 9 years old (no stallion yet, sigh), with a tech spec." She smiled after she said all this. She was light brown with a slightly darker brown mane and tail, and dark brown eyes. Shysage smiled. "My name is Shysage, and this is Summer, my Mare. I don't really know either of our ages, though. We are both P Type." I guess Shysage had quickly realized all this, well what he needed to say. Terrabelle stood back, worked on her... Well, Terrabelle had some sort of white hat thingie that sat on her head, with holes for her two ears, and maybe that was what held it in place. That hat thingie had what looked like a small panel out on some sort of skinny stick thing, that she could look at, I guess. Her hat also had a few other weird looking gizmoes on it. None of it made any sense to me, but I suspected that Shysage was already figuring stuff out. And her number, I guess, the number she said, was written carefully on the front of her cap thing. But she backed up and took a picture of me or something. And, after taking that picture, something surprised her maybe. Still, she was clearly looking into her panel thing briefly. Then she smiled. She took a picture of Shysage next I think. Shysage was still standing right next to me. Terrabelle then spoke slowly, to me I think. "Well, you are the Phantom Alicorn. That makes you sort of a celebrity here..." Then she bowed her head briefly. I walked over and hugged her right away. "I am just an ordinary pony." After saying that... I looked quickly over. "Wait... I am Shysage's Mare, well until I need to be something else!" Then I hugged my Stallion too, and we sighed together. "So you are both life-status?" Terrabelle asked carefully. Shysage understood, and just leaned up against me again and sighed, long and deep. I did the same thing. Then I said quietly "Oh my goodness, yes..." Terrabelle worked at her panel thing again, and another pony soon walked in, pulling some sort of smaller box thing on wheels. It had a large hole in the center. Terrabelle explained "We need to put life-bands on you both. Left front hoof, please. One at a time, put your left hoof in the box, and it will take care of everything. Oh, and it doesn't hurt, well from what I have been told." We were quickly done with that. Our bands were... matching, white with gold lettering. It had some strange symbol, like a circle with a stick through it, then our names and some sort of number. "Shysage what is this, the fourth time we have been married, or something?" I said with a smile, as he was getting his life-band. Shysage smiled, such a cute smile. "With you Summer, not enough. Forever is not near long enough..." When he was done, we faced each other, and hugged necks. Terrabelle smiled then sighed. "Well, lets start our trip to central" Terrabelle said next. "This way, please." Terrabelle seemed pleasant enough. We just followed her. We walked out of that clean white room with the circles on the hard, brown floor, and started walking down a very long, broad road, that was dead straight, totally flat, and headed far off into the hazy distance. We had not walked very far when Terrabelle stopped us. She had us turn around and she nodded towards a long, slightly curved row of large white half-ball shaped things that looked like they popped up out of the ground. It curved away from us off into the distance. Terrabelle explained. "We all live in one of those dorms. They are our houses, and up to 4 of us can live inside each one. We do have bigger ones, but..." Terrabelle stopped talking briefly, worked at her panel thing, then added this. "Hmm... Well, I guess I am still not sure how long we would like you to stay. But if you will be spending the night here, that is your dorm right there, R-979. Just come out sector road R, then look for your dorm, number 979. It should be pretty easy to find. And that will put you closer to the transjector for your return." That transjector thing must have been how they got us up here. Terrabelle then turned, and led us off, down sector road R again, away from that big white room that brought us here, the transjector, whatever that is. Well, we definitely weren't in Equestria(1) any more, but it otherwise felt the same. And the air smelled really nice here. I thought about that as we walked. The road we were walking on was very wide, with colorful bands on the surface. In the direction we were heading, red to the right, orange in the middle, and (much wider) green to the left. We were walking calmly in the red. Shysage chuckled again, then said "Red is for walking, orange for trotting, green for galloping?" Terrabelle smiled right away. "Yup. It is a lot faster to gallop in to central, plus it keeps muscle tone up. The lanes prevent collisions, usually!" Shysage was in thought a minute, then said "These roads are one way, right?" "Wow, yes, sorry!" Terrabelle apologized immediately. "Q is the road you want to take back out here, then follow the perimeter road around to R-979. It still isn't far. But yes, each road is one way. There are arrows at regular intervals just to make sure. We are heading towards central on R at the moment." I stopped and hugged Terrabelle; I think she felt bad about that. "My Stallion has an amazing mind. Don't let him scare you though, he is such a sweetie!" Then I hugged Shysage again, and we resumed our walk towards central, whatever that was. On either side of the road, I realized, were tall, seemingly endless stands of oats! That was the amazing smell... Maybe Terrabelle read my mind. "These oats are our food. We can stop and eat if you are hungry. We are all fed from these huge tracts of continuously grown oat plants. You will find that, the closer we get to central, the shorter the plants are. Well, closer to central, more grazing takes place, so..." I was hungry, and so Shysage and I both stopped and ate. And, there were small perfectly round, shallow pools of water along the sector road, regularly spaced, so I got a drink. Terrabelle volunteered "I guess it goes without saying... Everymini drinks from these pools, so please don't walk through them!" We were soon on our way again, walking towards this place called central on sector road R. As we walked I noticed... The sky here looked very weird. It was largely a consistent light blue with repeating thin strips of night time sky running clear out from, well, central. "Shysage, stars?" I asked hesitantly. "I think we are in space, Summer" Shysage answered right away. Terrabelle jumped in. "Yes, far enough to be out of the atmosphere, but not far enough... Well, planet Equestria(1) below us still supplies our gravity. Otherwise, things up here would be a real mess!" Terrabelle thought briefly, laughed loudly, jumped up a little on her front legs. "Yes! We are geostationary!" Then she jumped almost a complete circle, laughing, saying that word over and over. And, she said it each time with such fanfare, then laughed some more. When she stopped, she sighed. "I don't know, I just like saying that word" she said, then laughed a little more. That word made no sense to me, but Shysage explained it to me later. I guess he knew. We smiled. Terrabelle seemed like such a treasure. "And the blue?" Shysage asked as we started walking again. "Chemicals in the canopy overhead turn most of the sunlight into visible spectrum, and the light blue wavelengths seem to generate the right amount of heat. And the width of the blue strips are carefully controlled to regulate the amount of heat generated from the sunlight, which controls the temperature here. And the visible spectrum is carefully configured to optimize the growth of the oats." Terrabelle explained all this effortlessly, and without much thought. "And at night-time, the blue segment goes away entirely so we can see all the stars." Shysage was thinking, looking around. "The sun... This whole platform rotates?" I guess he had already noticed that the sun was moving sideways in addition to its normal movement up, then down. I didn't have a clue. Terrabelle worked at her panel for a minute, frowned, then said slowly "Yes... Well, I guess there are aspects of our home that we still don't fully understand... The theory is that helps the oats grow straight up, but I don't know..." Shysage said quietly. "It is not important." It was clear we were walking towards the center of this place; Terrabelle had called it central. We could now see, far up ahead, a huge building or something, also with a large spire going up pretty high. It reminded me of the Crystal Palace(1), but the place we were heading was clearly not made of crystal, and was much larger. Even from this distance away, I could tell that. "Well, I apologize, but where do we go to the bathroom up here?" Shysage asked timidly. Well, this was an important question. Terrabelle understood right away, but answered timidly herself. "While in the oats, you can go... wherever you are. The watering system for the oats requires a certain amount of, well, refuse, in order to be able to replenish what the soil needs to grow the oats. In central, there are many clearly marked booths for that. We all use them. All you need to do is back in, and the equipment takes care of the rest. That is just part of life, I guess. Nomini up here thinks twice about it... And the refuse is pumped back out here to the oats." Well, we were clearly maybe half-way to that big central thing by now. Remembering where the dorms were, along the outer edge of this huge expanse... "So, do you walk to central then back, every day?" I asked. Terrabelle laughed. "Nah, I run! Everymini has to at least walk the 20 stadia or so from their dorm to central, then back every day. Most do run though, because it is faster." Terrabelle stopped, looked over at me, then smiled. "The Pegasus-es among us can fly so fast... But they are supposed to fly one way to central, then run back out to their dorm, or the reverse. Nomini keeps track, but still... I think the goal is to keep up the use of all our muscles on a day to day basis. That is just the way it has always been from what I know. I just need to be real careful not to lose my cap when I run!" Terrabelle laughed again. I was pretty sure she meant the white thing on her head with the panel that she could read and the other gizmoes. After a few minutes of silence, Shysage volunteered "We could walk fast if you want." "Wow, sounds fun!" Terrabelle said immediately and moved us over into the orange lane, and we were walking a lot faster. We did that for a few minutes, and nothing was said. But that... I guess Terrabelle... Without warning, she turned sharply into the broad green lane and took off running, shouting "Woohoo!" I followed her at a fast gallop, laughing. Honestly, galloping felt very nice! And we were covering distance a lot faster. I didn't see Shysage, but realized he probably did the sensible thing, and took off and flew, so he could keep up with us from the air (which he did). And I did notice that the oat plants around us were getting shorter as we galloped in towards central. Soon, they were a lot shorter; the grass was just above the hoof. Terrabelle began to laugh loudly, then turned quickly out into the oat grass. "Woohoo!" she shouted a few more times, as she galloped quickly into and across the warm grass. I just followed her. With no warning, Terrabelle jumped then fell, really she dove into the soft grass, and I jumped over her and did the same thing. Terrabelle and I just laid there on our backs, in the nice warm grass, laughing together. As we worked on getting up, Shysage landed next to us, laughing himself. Well, it was just a lot of fun. We helped Terrabelle find her cap thing, too. Shysage had seen where it fell as he flew, and Terrabelle quickly scooted her nose, her head under it just right, twisted her ears... Then, Terrabelle led us slowly back to sector road R. I was walking slow, because I was slowly dragging each hoof across the soft grass. I really enjoy that. Terrabelle said "Hmm..." then tried it herself. It didn't take long. "Wow, this feels so nice..." she said softly, almost dreamily. That's why I was doing that! Once we were back on the road, we resumed our trip into central. It was a lot closer now, and my first look again made me gasp, and I stopped walking. As close as we were, it didn't look like any building I had seen. It looked like a huge Unicorn horn, very wide at the base, with a spiral climbing slowly from the base up to the top, which was very high up. We had all stopped. While I was working on taking all this in, Terrabelle said quietly, to herself, I think "Wow, I hope I didn't break any protocol..." I glanced quickly over; she was looking down with just a little frown maybe. The next thing we heard was "e3736..." This wasn't shouted, but was clearly said with a certain amount of authority. And this was Terrabelle's number. Terrabelle ran quickly over to another, purple pony; Terrabelle bowed on her front legs right away, closed her eyes, then began to cry softly. We followed her over. We were facing an Alicorn mare, medium purple coat, slightly darker mane and tail. Playing back this mare's call to Terrabelle, it wasn't harsh, but it didn't sound like the Alicorn was especially pleased. The purple Alicorn spoke up again. "E-Tech, doc 132, please... You were supposed to..." The purple Alicorn trailed off there. But this reference made Terrabelle cry a little more; Terrabelle knew immediately what that 'doc' said, I think. Through her tears, Terrabelle pleaded "But... I was just trying to be their friends..." I sighed right away. I knew what I probably needed to do, and I didn't want to break any "protocol" or something to do it. I guess I realized I just needed a little more authority to pull this off. I threw myself back on my hind legs, and went through the re-balancing to stand up on my hind legs, and also change into a people (human form) all in one swift, fluid motion. I have had plenty of practice at that. Within seconds, I had my mark spun up. I knew I now had two huge arching, pearl white wings, along with a sizeable, pearl white Unicorn horn. And the very low rumble that accompanies my Phantom Alicorn form... Still, after having quickly made this transition, I gently took a few steps over to Terrabelle, and actually knelt down on my knees in front of her. I cupped both hands under her head, and pulled it up so I could look into her eyes as she cried. It was only then that she realized, that she saw who, what I was. I smiled at her though, and said calmly "A point on which you thoroughly succeeded." I smiled again, then gently kissed her forehead. Terrabelle smiled back. I was kneeling on sector road R as the Phantom Alicorn, and wanted to get up. Shysage had already turned into a people himself, and was standing off to my side. My Shysage took my right hand as soon as I began feeling for something. He pulled me easily up. I almost laughed; we still had our jeans and 'the Diner' t-shirts on. With the hand he was holding, Shysage slowly guided me around until we were facing the purple Alicorn standing in front of us. At the same time, Shysage and I both bowed deeply. The purple Alicorn smiled and said calmly "My name is Fall Star. Welcome to Philadelphi."