//------------------------------//
// 19: Twilight Velvet and Night Light's First Visit 
// Story: Humans Meet Ponies 
// by TwiPON3 
//------------------------------//


Sci-Twi's Dream




I looked around, and the place was familiar. I did see Midnight, but she was just a passenger.
A subway? And my clothes? Did I fall asleep in them again? Well, at least I don't have to worry about her trying to kill anyone just to learn something.
I looked at the Casio Calculator watch that Mom gave me when I was seven years old.


08:43 27 AM


I held the "Divide" button, which acted as the "Date" button in clock mode.


12 8-11 SA


"Oh God."
I heard screaming, so I ran to the window, and saw the horror of that day unfold: my parents' death.
"NO!!"
"Fear not, Miss Twilight," a familiar voice said.
I turned around and Princess Luna, in a human form resembling my half-pony body, placed a hand on my shoulder, "It's okay. You are safe."
"Is this real?" I began to sob.
"No. It is simply a dream, young one," she began to do something with her magic, "They are my domain, and it is my duty as Princess of the Night to aid all that I can in a peaceful and restorative sleep."
"But..." I said as she began to do something with her magic.
"Look at your watch, young one."
I looked at it, and it now read an earlier time:


08:40 00 AM


"What the...?"
"You are having an anxiety about your parents'... Equestrian parents'... visit today."
I looked back at my parents from my reality, just as the stabbing was about to happen, but they didn't react. It was almost like they were... projections. My brother and Cadence were holding hands and watching a movie just a few seats down from them now.
"Are you sure?"
She nodded with a smile on her face, "Go and see them."
"Everything will be fine when you step in that car."
"Will you come with me?"
"Of course."
The moment I opened the subway doors to get to that car, Indigo became her current age, the assailants and past me vanished, and they looked up at me.
"M-mom...? D-dad...?"
"Yes, deary? I didn't hear you get up," she looked up at us from her new copy of Extreme Sports Weekly and was immediately shocked, "What happened to you!?"
"Velvet, I'm sure our baby girl's just-- What the heck!?" he dropped his Sudoku book, "My baby!"
I gave a sheepish laugh as they ran over to me.
"What happened to you?" Mom asked, getting the others' attention, "Are you okay? Your face looks swollen!"
"Twilie!" Shining and Cadence ran over to me with Mom and Dad. Indigo looked up at us in complete shock, twitching and speechless.
"I'm fine," I said, embracing them in a hug, "I'm fine, now that I have you."
"What do mean, Sparkle?" Indigo stood up, coming to realization, "And who's she?" she pointed to Princess Luna.
"J-just back up, and I'll explain everything, but you might want to sit down."
"Okay," Indie said.
"Before telling us anything else, Twilight," my dad said, "I want you to tell us about what we're seeing."
I looked at Princess Luna, who gave me a nod of approval.
"Something happened to me, Shining, and Cadence that led us to a different reality, called 'Equestria'. This reality is, instead of humans, inhabited by ponies. There are four kinds: Regular, pegasi, unicorns, and alicorns. Pegasi have wings, unicorns have horns, and alicorns have both. One of the princesses there, my alternate, used a spell on me that would turn me where I would be equally human here and there, instead of having to swap from human here to pony there. The spell left me with pony ears, a horn, a muzzle, and a tail, and some magic from that land left me with perfect 20/20 vision, hence the faux-glasses. She," I pointed to Princess Luna, "is the Princess of the Night. She helps everyone there have a good night's sleep, and she's an alicorn, as you've already noticed, probably."
"You're not hurt, are you?"
"No. As long as I can see you, I'm fine."
"Nice to... meet you, Princess Luna," Mom said, shaking her hand.
"Charmed. All of you."
"I'm..."
"Mrs Twilight Velvet and Mr Night Light."
"How do you know?"
"I am very familiar with you two in Equestria. You are her parents there, too."
They stood with their mouths agape.
"Is that... us, Velvet?"
I looked behind me and saw an Equestrian variant of my parents.
"Twilight?" I heard Lemon's voice calling, "Twilight? You okay, dude?"
"Lemon isn't anywhere around here, Princess Luna. How can I be hearing her?"
"One o' yer books is glowin' 'n buzzin', Twi. Prob'ly oughta check it."
"I haven't even met Applejack yet."
My watch began beeping, so I checked it.


05:12 04 AM
15 9-17 TH


"Miss Twilight, it is time for you to return to the waking world. Only then will you know of your anxieties' real truthfulness," she said, leaving the subway car.
I took one last look at the scene before leaving. It had turned into what it should've been that day, three years ago.


"What are you doing, Sparkle?"
We were both on the subway to the museum at 1647 Lyon Avenue. I was writing computer code, while Indie was sketching some random stuff. We were the only people in that particular car.
"Oh, nothing. Just trying to write a little bit of software."
"Software for what?"
"I've always wanted to just unlock my computer with my face, so I figured I could use the trip to work on it some."
"Then, why are you timing it? It just looks at your face."
"I want to make sure that it's as efficient as possible on this AMD Opteron-based architecture, Indie."
Mom and Dad both looked up from their books and smiled.
"What's up with her, Ms Velvet?"
"Oh, she's just in the zone, deary, just doing what she likes."
Indie looked at Dad.
"Indie, I've been where you are. Both of us have."
She raised an eyebrow at a complete loss.
"Just try to get involved and help out. Even if it is just something simple, just show her that you're willing to try," he motioned for her and Mom to lean in, "I'll let ya in on a little secret. We go in the zone with her, too. All of us do, but at the end of the day, we don't understand a thing she does or says in it."
Indie looked at me juggling a watch, notebook, and trying to look at the webcam on the 2008 custom-built Aluminum MacBook.
"Okay, I need a better system."
Indie sat next to me, "Can I help? I don't know how to code, but is there anything I could do anyway?"
"Just one second," I said, setting up a new profile, "Ready!"
"What do you want me to do?"
"Look at the camera and take your picture, then sign out. Just click the Opteron menu, then logout."
She took her picture, then signed out.
"Okay, I'm gonna time how long it takes for the computer to recognize your face and load to the LXDE desktop."
She clicked her nick, Indie, and looked at the iSight camera as I began to time it. She gave a "thumbs up" when it had finished.
"17.89 seconds," I said, making a note, "Now, we swap roles."
She timed the process on her iPhone 4S, totaling 3.7 seconds.
"Uh, 3.7 seconds?"
"Thanks, Indie," I said, giving her a hug, "I never would've known my own algorithm without your help," I said, scribbling something in an almost-full spiral-bound notebook.
"If I get rich and famous, apart from my family, I'll see to it that you get a part of it, too."
"W- why?" she said, caught off guard.
"Because it feels right, and you helped."
"I just held a stopwatch and looked at a laptop."
"True, but you were a very important variable," I said, saving my work and turning to her, "I don't care that all you did was chronograph my login and take a picture of yourself. You still helped," I added, "Wanna watch Back to the Future tonight?"
"Me? After everything?"
"Sure. It felt... nice... having someone outside of my family that I could talk to," I turned around to Mom and Dad, "But you two and Shining and Cadence are irreplaceable."
"Twilight?" I felt a jerking sensation on my body and heard Sunset's voice. It was time to leave the subway.






In the morning




"Mom...? Dad...?"
I woke up on the couch in the sitting room. I had gotten used to the tail and other pony features by now, but today was going to be a new experience: I could finally see Mom and Dad again.
"They're not here, Sugarcube," Applejack said, holding the book that Princess Twilight gave to me, "But ya really oughta check 'is. Might be important."
I turned around, moved my tail between me and the armrest, put on my "glasses", and read the letter that Princess Twilight wrote.


Sci-Twi,
Expect to see your parents from Equestria at about 6:30 in the morning. We were all too excited to sleep.
Princess Twilight


"I've got just enough time to get to the school and pick them up!" I said, racing to my room to get myself ready for the day.


05:42 12 AM


"Sweetie," Cadence called while I was in the shower, "I'm leaving $20 for you to get breakfast with, since I don't think you'll have time to eat here.
"Thanks, Cadence," I said, running to my bedroom in drip-drying clothes. I looked on my desk to get my keys, money, and my glasses and watch (since they weren't on the bathroom counter). The keys and $20 were there, but not the eyeware and watch, so I started to freak out.
"Twilight?" Lemon said, worried as she came in my room.
"I can't find my glasses and watch!"
She gave a small laugh, "I think you took a shower with them on."
I stopped freaking out and looked at myself in my phone's front camera, "Oh."
"You better hurry if you want to meet your parents."
"I'll be back, guys!" I said, pocketing the keys, $20, a car charger (I had no idea how much charge my phone had, but it couldn't be more than 40%), and my phone.
"I made you some coffee," Cadence said, handing me a to-go cup of fresh coffee.
"Thanks! I'll be back in a few minutes!"
I took the elevator down, as that was the best way. I was going to have to put speed first as it was, but I checked my phone in the elevator just to see how much time I had.


6:00 AM
Thursday 17 September 2015
Twilight Sparkle's Samsung Galaxy S6
Battery: 44%
∆ Connected to AT&T via Unknown Infrastructure at 768Kbps


Still need to charge it, though.
The elevator stopped at the fifth floor, and a pale girl with electric-blue hair, purple ovular glasses, and headphones got on.
Just say 'Hi'.
"Um, hello."
She looked at me, "Hey," she took off her glasses revealing magenta eyes that flashed red, "What's up?" I noticed she had fangs. Almost... vampiric.
"WHAT!?" I jumped backward, hitting the corner of the elevator. Time slowed exponentially, and the possibility of being attacked by a bloodthirsty creature was NOT helping any of my anxiety about what might happen today.
"I don't attack."
Really? She could be on her way to an Annicon, and you, with that bigass brain of yours, think she's ACTUALLY a vampire?
I know something's up, and I've had PLENTY of nosebleeds, and that smell is STRONG on her breath! When you've been in my shoes, THEN we'll talk.
"Hey, you're that girl."
"Huh?"
"From the games. You sure have been beating yourself up over that, going by what Applejack's told me."
"And you don't bite?"
Stay strong.
"No. Vice-Principal Luna's a vampire, too. You've never noticed?"
"No."
The elevator FINALLY made it to the ground-level.
"Nice meeting you, Sci-Twi!" she said as she walked off.
What the hell?
I cleared my mind the whole way to my car. My phone started charging the second I cranked it up.
"Money... check. Phone... check and charging. Time..." the console's clock read 6:07, "I can pick up breakfast on the way." I finished downing the cup of coffee and put in my old mixtape. Unchained Melody by Air Supply began to play, which helped my nerves.



As I parked on the street side of the Wondercolts statue, I did a quick scan for Blueblood and Manor. The clock on the console flashed 6:23. I also decided to check my phone to see its charge.


6:23 AM
Thursday 17 September 2015
Twilight Sparkle's Samsung Galaxy S6
Battery: 97% - Charging
Connected to AT&T 4GLTE


Not here. Good. And I'm on time.
I got out, and as I was making my way to the garbage cans at the front of the school, I was jumped and pinned to the ground by Manor and Blueblood.
"HELP!!!!!"
"That won't do you any good!"
I let out a surge of magic, making a blast. I heard someone running over to me immediately after.
"Get off of her!" Principal Celestia yelled, "Luna, call the police."
She called the cops, and by 6:27, those two boys were being escorted off of the school grounds in handcuffs.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah," I said, "You two sure do get up early."
"We had a dream last night to be ready for something like this today."
"I bet I know how."
Princess Luna took my McDonald's bag and threw it away for me, while Principal Celestia helped me up.
"It must've been hard for you."
"Yeah," I said, excusing myself to finish my coffee.
I downed the remaining portion of the coffee in a second attempt to get rid of any lingering grogginess. I was about to throw the cup away when something came through the portal.
"What the--?" I heard Vice-Principal Luna say.
When I looked up from my now-empty coffee cup, there were my parents, on all fours. They obviously weren't my my parents, but they were close enough.
"Velvet, does something feel... off... to you?"
"I'm... it's different."
I ran over to them, but stopped myself from falling on them over my own feet. Instead of becoming full humans, they became more like me: small horn, pony ears, muzzle, and a tail. They had all of the accessories that Mom and Dad would probably wear today: Dad's sunglasses and digital watch on his left arm, and Mom's Quartz watch with her fingernails painted the same shade of purple as the stripes in her hair.
"Is that you, Twilight?" my dad said, taking off his sunglasses with his horn.
They noticed how I was standing, then looked at one another.
"How about I help you two up?"
"That sounds great."
I tried to help them up, but failed miserably, barely getting them halfway up before falling back down, though they were able to hold their balance for a few brief moments.
"I don't think that this is going to work, Sugar," 
I looked around. Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna had already gone back inside, and I wasn't about to leave Mom and Dad stranded like this.
"Deary, anything else we could try?" Mom said, both sitting down now
"We could try to get you two balanced against my car," I said, going over to my DeLorean, "Come on."
Balancing with the front of the car, while it did prove to be a challenge, was a success. It was easier with Mom than with Dad, because she was more into thrills, where Dad was more into things like Sudoku and Bingo.
I looked around, and saw Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna coming back out of the school.
"What's going on, Twilight?"
"I don't know. They probably just want to meet you."
They met the two principals at a little past the statue.
"Hi, I'm Principal Celestia," she said to my mom, "I take it that you are Mrs Sparkle?"
"Twilight Velvet, actually."
"And you must be-"
"Night Light."
"Pleased to meet you," Vice-Principal Luna said.
"Velvet, we should probably get to Twilight's house. Her Shining Armor and Cadence might be getting worried."
"Good point, Dear."
They were both shaky in walking to my car, but they had two very different approaches to it. Mom, with her love for a thrill, probably though Aw, heck! I'm just going to go for it until I fall!, as she was just trying to get to the car, taking rather large steps and holding out her arms for balance. Dad, on the other hand, probably thought something along the lines of Alright. I'll just go slow and easy. This Twilight would help us, just like our Twilight would., because he was taking slow, small steps to get to the car, even asking to hold onto me a few times.
"And, there!" I said, helping Dad get sat down in the car next to Mom, "Have you two eaten breakfast?"
"We had hotdogs," Dad said."
"Just asking, because Cadence usually makes eggs on Thursday."
They looked at each other, "That sounds nice, Deary."
"It's settled," I said as I began to close the gullwing door, "Be careful."
They moved over, then I went and got in.
"Do you like music, Mom? I'm asking because mine liked it. A lot."
"We both do," they said.
"Tell me if you like this," I said, putting in a mixtape that was rewound to Walk Like an Egyptian by The Bangles.


TAPE IN →


"Ready," Mom said, "Play the music."


PLAY →


The song from 1986 started playing as I drove to my our apartment.
"Oh, I just love this song! Do you have a Neighagara Falls here?"
"Neighagara Falls?"
"Now Velvet, one step at a time."
"I'm sorry, Night Light! I'm just so happy and excited!"
"Oh, Niagara Falls! We can do that on your next visit, Mom."
If my hypothesis is correct, then 95% of our experiences with our parents have been the same as Princess Twilight's with hers.



Driving up to the apartment, I took the cassette out and put it in a small bag. I pocketed the phone and leftover money from my trip to CHS, but I decided to leave the car charger in the car, for obvious reasons.
"How do we get out?" Dad said as I unlocked the car.
"Just hang on," I said, opening the door.
"Good to get out of that seat. I needed to stretch my legs."
I called Shining Armor to let them know that I was back.
"Hello, Twilie!"
"Hey, Shining!"
"Did those two get taken care of?"
"Yeah. They were led off in handcuffs by 6:30."
"Great! You wanted to talk to me about something, didn't you?" he teased.
"Big surprise when I get back home. Also, is Cadence making eggs?"
"She's got the griddle on high right now. Do you want some?"
"Yeah."
"Alright, then."
I ended the call, "Ready?"
"Ready."
I took them up to Apartment 7C in the elevator because I didn't want to risk them losing their balance and falling down several flights of stairs.



"We're home!" I said as I had Mom and Dad stand right outside the door, just out of sight.
"Who, sweetie?" Cadence said, taking another plate of eggs off of the griddle.
"You can come in, now!"
Mom came in, walking in a manner somewhat like you would after you would get off of a merry-go-round, while Dad came in, closer to a normal stride.
"Oh, Shiny!" Mom said seeing my brother.
Shining Armor turned around and dropped a plate, shattering it and leaving an egg-y mess on the floor.
"Is something wrong?" Cadence asked, turning around and dropping a spatula with raw egg on it on the linoleum floor.
"We didn't startle you, did we deary?"
"N-no, Mom," Shining said as he began to tear up, causing Rainbow to snicker a little.
"Hush it," Applejack said, somewhat harshly, "They prob'ly haven't had a family moment like this since, you know. That?"
Applejack received a raised eyebrow as a response.
Dad ended up in the sitting room, looking at what would send Mom into a shock, "Velvet? Can you come in here for a minute?"
She could tell the tone of his voice changed drastically, going from cheerful to serious and concerned, "Yes? What is it, honey?"
"I don't know how to describe it, but maybe the kids and Cadence can."
Rainbow Dash turned the same shade of red as the red half of Sunset's hair (in other words, VERY) trying to hold back (being only somewhat successful, to be generous) laughter when Dad called Shiny and me "kids". She received a slap from Indie that made a slightly-swollen bruise in the shape of her hand on the side of Rainbow's face.
"Oh, Celestia! Twilight? Shining? Cadence? Can you three come in here?"
There was anxiety and a little fear in her voice.
Dammit! We forgot to take those pictures down!
We all went in and saw Mom and Dad sitting on the couch with Dad holding Mom in his arms.
"I... I can't believe it. Everything you went through, Deary."
"Well, we have you back now, you two," Cadence said.
They looked at each other very uneasily, but the thought was obvious: they weren't safe here. We were all in denial of it, but they had to go back to Equestria. For their safety.
"You drove them here, Twilie, so Cady and I will drive them back to the portal."
"Okay."
"It's at Canterlot High School, right?"
"Yeah."
"Come visit soon, Sugar," Dad said as they were leaving the apartment, "We'll miss you."
When the door closed, I looked at the mess that was made with breakfast earlier. I had lost the part of my appetite that the bag on the way to CHS didn't tackle.
"I should clean that up."
"You want an excuse to use magic, don't you, Twilight?"
I sheepishly smiled.
"Alright then."