Charlotte floated in a murky void. Whenever she tried to move, she met great resistance. After a time, Charlotte made out an approaching light in the distance.
Hello Charlotte Svensky. You have been terribly injured, and unconscious. I can, however, assure you that you are not slipping into death. However, you will need a tool in order to survive in this new land.
Wordlessly, the light seemed to split off a small part of itself, and that light enveloped Charlotte before fading. Charlotte simply nodded in acceptance, still sure she was dreaming. Then she heard a voice, quiet at first, but growing louder as it went on. Shle thought she recognized it before realizing who it was.
Jonathan?
Charlotte gave Jonathan a look of incomprehension.
“What”
There was no inflection to indicate that that the phrase was a question, more like a demand for information.
“Well, it all started about a month ago in the middle of the night…”
And so, Jonathan told Charlotte about Twilight's strange appearance that night, of what he and the mare spoke about, and then the unexpected quake that started the fire which claimed the lives of everyone else in the base camp.
“...And that's when I found you. You were half dead and burned to a crisp. I genuinely thought we were both going to die, from either the fire or the weather. I thought I had lost you, too. That's when Twilight threw us through a portal, and here we are. In a world populated with magical talking ponies.”
Charlotte took this new information a lot better than Jonathan expected. As in, she didn’t have a total breakdown, instead, looking deep into to his eyes, and uttering one thing.
“Are you shitting me?”
Jonathan cracked a smile at the remark. Despite the situation, Charlotte still managed to keep her sense of humour even in her current state.
A few of Twilight’s friends had nearly left when they saw Charlotte for the first time, but when she woke up, and Jonathan had hugged her, they realized she wasn’t too different from them. Rainbow Dash had some memories of being bedridden, and felt sympathy for Charlotte, even they were so different.
For about two weeks, Jonathan stayed with Charlotte while she recovered, leaving very rarely. He remembered how many times she had come to see him after the car crash, and he felt he was reciprocating the act. When she was finally discharged, she asked something that had been on Jonathan’s mind for awhile.
“Jon, where are we going to stay? It’s not like we have any money, or anyway to make any, yet.”
“I was thinking about that, and I had been speaking with Twilight. She agreed to let us stay with her for the foreseeable future.”
Jonathan and Charlotte wandered around town for a bit, earning a few stares, but otherwise went unbothered. Thanks to the unicorns’ efforts, Charlotte actually came out looking pretty alright for having had multiple third degree burns. The only thing that was noticeable was than her skin was quite pale, a byproduct of the rapid healing, accelerating the burns into being scars.
After awhile, Jonathan spotted the tree in the center of town. Charlotte following behind him, he walked up to the door, giving it a few knocks before he heard a voice from within.
“Coming!”
Jonathan noted with some interest that whoever it was was male, thus not Twilight. His suspicions were confirmed when a short, purple and green lizard looking guy opened the door. He stared up, a little startled by Jonathan’s significant height relative to his own. Jonathan decided to speak first.
“Hey there. Is Twilight in? She said we could stay here for awhile.”
“Oh! You must be Jonathan! Hi Charlotte!”
He gave a wave to Charlotte, who waved back.
“Come on in! There are some chairs in the main room, make yourselves at home. Twilight will be down in a minute.”
It was just then that Twilight trotted down the stairs, taking a seat across from Charlotte. The two looked at each other before Twilight broke the silence.
“So you two are close?”
Jonathan decided to answer the question.
“Been best friends for as long as either of us can remember. After my mom died, out friendship only became stronger. Don't worry about it, by the way. It was, what, almost sixteen years ago now?”
Charlotte nodded in agreement.
“It was a car accident, I was pull-”
Jonathan noticed Twilight's hoof was raised. He smiled a bit before asking what her question was.
“What are cars? Are they like carriages?”
Charlotte responded, a little amused at the unicorn’s student like behavior.
“Imagine a train, but a little slower. They have wheels like a carriage, so they aren't limited to tracks.”
Twilight's curiosity was sated for now, but she made a mental note to ask more about it. Jonathan then spoke up.
“As I was saying, the medical pulled me from the wreckage, but my mother wasn't so lucky. She had been killed instantly from fatal brain trauma, her spinal cord snapped. At least I know she died painlessly.”
“That's awful! How old were you when it happened?”
“I was nine. In the hospital, Charlotte got her parents to take her to see me after school everyday. On the weekends she’d stay almost the whole day. Needless to say, being paralysed from the waist down temporarily. You always brought stuff over to me. Remember when that nurse said were doing her job better than her?”
Charlotte chuckled at the memory.
“Yeah, I remember that. I swear, that made my day. Of course, I guess I preferred volcanoes to people, but hey. Turned out well.”
The sarcasm in the last part of her sentence eased the tension that Twilight had from listening to these two talk so casually about being bedridden from what she assumed to be a traumatic event. She then remembered how long ago this had happened, and that they had moved on.
“Twilight. I need to ask you something.”
Twilight looked up at the man. He was still in his grey jacket and jeans. She made another mental note to talk to rarity about that.
“Yes?”
“Why the hell did I use magic?”
Twilight looked pretty bewildered. Everything she had gleaned was that humans do not have, nor ever had, magic. She looked to Charlotte, who had a ponderous look on her face, lake green eyes deep in thought. Suddenly, she looked like she had come up with something. Then she spoke
“Twilight, Jon was unconscious when you brought us over, right? I could barely see since my retinas melted.”
“Yes, he was.”
“Jon, did you dream of anything while you were out?”
Jonathan, for his part, seemed to be intrigued. Then it was like an idea exploded behind his bright blue eyes.
“Charlotte, did you dream of a murky space, and then a light came and talked to you?”
“Actually, yeah. Now that I think about it, I can almost feel the ground beneath me, as if I could send it to my will if I wanted.”
“Interesting…”
Twilight thought of a few studies and odd cases before coming to an unsatisfactory conclusion.
“Well, I'm not sure what may have happened. I'll be sure to ask the princes in the next letter I send to them.”
“Sounds good.”
The two sole humans in Equestria shared a laugh at their synchronized response, and Twilight joined in as well. This was definitely going to be an interesting friendship report.
Later That Week
“Good job, Jon!”
Jonathan just maintained focus on the icicle he was forming from the middle of his palm. He and Charlotte had started an impromptu sort of magic school with Twilight over the past week. Now that they had gotten basic theory down, they were applying it to their own powers. Twilight had described their type of magic as an elemental speciality or affiliation. Essentially, Charlotte and Jonathan had a magical affiliation with their respective elements, Jonathan’s being ice and Charlotte’s being earth. Both of these elements had some distinctive properties, as he had learned from the prior week’s theory classes. Ice, and most other forms of elemental magic, came from within. While mastery over that can lead to being able to manipulate natural ice, he would likely only use his own ice. Charlotte, on the other hand, had earth. THose with an earth affiliation could only draw on the earth around them. Right now, she was attempting to create geometric figure with dirt she was packing together, with decent success. Twilight observed happily.
“Good job on the tetrahedron, Charlotte!”
“Thanks, Twilight. It’s always nice to be complimented by someone who isn’t Snowy over there.”
“Snowy?”
Twilight blinked in confusion at the name. Jonathan gave a good natured chuckle before responding.
“It’s the hair Twilight. This stark white isn’t typical until old age. I assume pony manes and tails grey over time?”
“Yes, that’s true”
“Well, same with humans. Some people with already light hair, such as blonde or light red, will eventually get close to white hair, though few truly attain this shade of white. I’m not an albino, as I don’t lack melanin. It’s just a genetic defect, though It’s not really harmful in anyway.”
“Interesting. With ponies, we have almost every color you can think of as possible hair, though typically a foal’s hair color is some mixture between the parents’. For example, if a pony with red hair and a pony with white hair had a foal, the foal could have anywhere from red to white hair, such as pink. Some however, such as myself, inherit traits from our parent’s hair. My mother’s hair is very similar to mine, but my father’s is blue. My hair is essentially my mom’s but darker. It’s a very intere-”
“Okay Twilight, while I’d love to discuss genetics, I’d like to point out my icicle is melting.”
Twilight looked a bit apologetic.
“Oh, I’m so sorry...”
“No hard feelings, Twilight. I think I actually figured out what I was doing wrong…”
And so the two started discussing Jonathan’s icicle. Charlotte, however, was doing pretty well on her own, already making structures strong enough to stand on their own. The irony of studying volcanoes and now being connected to the earth itself did not escape her. She smiled a bit at that.
Heh, would have been funnier if I had control of fire. Though I guess it still would have had a similar irony to it.
Canterlot
Celestia was reading through her various papers and reports when she received a letter from her student. She smiled as she took it with her magic and opened it. She read the letter, wondering what her faithful student sent her today.
Dear Princess Celestia,
Charlotte has made a full recovery from her burns! Jonathan has been a lot happier since she was discharged, and something very interesting has come up with the two! Jonathan and Charlotte have displayed aptitude for elemental magic, ice and earth respectively. I would like to make a request to let us visit the library in Canterlot so we can find more information on the subject, asy knowledge of elemental magic is quite basic. They have also shown signs of being able access contemporary magic, but aren't yet strong enough basic levitation lessons. I hope you'll let us know if we can come.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
Celestia smiled in both pride and intrigue at these developments, and was quick write her response. She dearly hoped to see Charlotte up and about, and was glad to know Jonathan had been his normal self again. She also was eager to see just how far the two young friends had come in just a week with their magic. She wondered just what had brought them together so closely, and opted to ask them when they got to Canterlot.
Ponyville-Canterlot Train
Jonathan was looking out the window while Charlotte and Twilight discussed her earth magic.
“You know, I think that main issue was I was relying too much my own magic keeping the earth together, rather than building structures to stand on their own.”
“Interesting insight, Charlotte! Maybe we'll learn more about it when we get to the library. Don't worry about the guards, by the way. I know pretty much all of them, and know the city like the back of my hand.”
“I lived in the city for awhile. Never liked it too much. Always too many people for me. I preferred living in a small town. Remember when I moved for a year, Jonathan?”
Jonathan blinked before realizing he was being asked a question.
“Yeah. Worst time of my life. Happened right after I got out of the hospital, wasn't it? Remember telling me while you wheeled me out of the hospital? You looked on the verge of tears. I haven’t seen you like that since.”
“I do remember. Dad was following jobs at the time, and had to go to the city for a new job. I just couldn’t get used to it. Too much noise, too many people. It was never quiet.”
The two friends looked at each other for a bit before realizing that Twilight was still there. She looked like she had something to say.
“We’re here, guys