The Capacity of Forgiveness

by Frenac

A Very Real Dream

Aliya opened her eyes. Rather than in her bed, she lay on a grassy hill in stark mid-day sunlight. Beside her, lying face down, was Tom, still as sickly as ever. Beyond the hill was a bustling town sprawled across the plains, full of half-timbered houses with yellow thatched roofs. A mellow stream meandered through the town. Nestled in the distant mountains was a large fairytale castle overlooking the town.
“Could we be in Equestria?”
“Shut up, you’re just dreaming,” Tom mumbled.
“But what if it’s real?”
“But what if you’re just cray cray—” Tom paused to stand up and vomit, forcing his eyes open. “Oh fuuuu—”
Tom discharged another pile of stomach contents. He paused long enough to look around. “What the hell? Did someone slip us acid? Oh, hell, when I get my hands on them…”
“Why don’t you relax and explore a bit, Tom?”
“No, crazy girl! How the hell do I get out of here!” Tom tore for the mountains toward the castle. Aliya scurried after him, but soon lost sight of him.
A long dirt path opened before Aliya, slowly climbing toward the mountains. The stream continued on into the mountains, where it trickled from a stone dam against a waterfall. To Aliya’s right stood a lone cottonwood tree with a curious dark shape beside it.
“Tom? Tom!” Aliya cried, running down a hill after the dark shape. A small brown squirrel poked out from under the shape and quickly fled into the tree. Otherwise it lay still on the grass. Upon closer examination, the shape appeared to be Tom’s jacket, a bit damp and reeking of sweat.
A sudden cry of “Yeeeeaaagghh!” from the plains caused Aliya to turn to Tom, face first on the ground. A puff of fluffy seeds marked his landing.
“Tom! Are you okay?” Aliya called, dashing to his side and flipping him over. He only groaned and looked toward the sky.
Aliya glanced upward in response. A gilded chariot led by two winged white creatures, resembling armor-clad ponies, glided above. As the two winged ponies descended and pressed their hooves into the ground, the chariot fluttered to a halt. A large white horse with feathery wings and a long horn rode in the chariot. The horse’s iridescent flowing mane and golden tiara sparkled in the sunlight.
Aliya knelt on the ground. “Princess Celestia?” she said in a mix of shock and delight.
“Hello, human children,” Princess Celestia said with a smile. “No need for formalities, young girl. What is your name?”
“Aliya. And this is my friend Tom,” she said. “He’s a bit drunk.”
“Oh, then we’d better get him to Canterlot immediately. Come along, Aliya.”
As Aliya stooped down to hoist Tom, a faint whitish glow engulfed him and he began to rise from the ground. “Don’t worry, Aliya, I’ll take care of him,” Princess Celestia said from the chariot, her horn glowing as well. Aliya stepped into the chariot beside Celestia and watched in awe as she lifted Tom into the front. Wow…this is Equestria…for real.
“It’s such an honor to meet you, Princess Celestia!” Aliya cried out in joy.
“I’m surprised anyone from Somnis remembers my name. It has been over a thousand years since I’ve seen a human.”
“Somnis?”
Celestia chuckled. “Oh, maybe I’m mistaken. Somnis is where humans and ponies once lived and prospered together for several thousand years. But darker powers took the land sometime over a thousand years ago. Neither Luna nor I had the strength to defeat them, so we did what we only could: we fled to Equestria.”
Aliya watched as Celestia’s face sunk. “Of course, when we arrived in the young land of Equestria, we had another evil to face: Discord.”
“I’ve never actually heard of Somnis. Tom and I are actually from a place called Earth. I don’t think it’s part of this world.”
“Earth…that’s odd. This planet happens to be called Earth as well. What is it like in your world, if you may?”
The chariot ascended through a sheet of clouds, obscuring most of the ground below. Aliya gazed at Tom, who appeared a little less sickly, but was still unconscious. She turned back to Celestia, who was waiting patiently.
“We actually have a lot of the same kinds of flora and fauna, but we don’t generally take care of them like in Equestria. The weather happens on its own, and there isn’t anything like the magic ponies here have. This must all sound very strange to you, Princess.”
“No, not really. Please go on.”
“The cities have paved roads, which we drive cars on.”
Celestia lifted a brow. “Cars?”
“Yeah, they’re…um, how should I describe them…like self-powered carriages? We use them to get from place to place much faster than on foot. We also have airplanes to fly us between places, since we can’t fly. I’m not sure how to describe those, except that they’re vehicles with wings that can carry people in them.”
“Mhm. Your world seems very different from ours. That is amazing that you have so much interesting technology without even having magic. Almost magical in itself, isn’t it?”
Aliya laughed. “I guess you could say that. But one of the most amazing technological innovations I think is the computer. It’s a device that can do all sorts of things, from writing to drawing to storing data. I could go on for hours about them. I bet Twilight would love to have one!”
“You know Twilight Sparkle, my student?” Celestia asked, surprised at Aliya’s knowledge.
“Of course. I know about her from the internet, which is a huge network of computers. That’s how I know all these other things about Equestria too,” Aliya said eagerly.
Celestia began almost to look concerned. “How can you know of another world from a ‘computer’ when I have never heard of this other Earth you come from? This is all very confusing.”
“Oh, sorry, Princess Celestia. There are actually probably millions of humans on our Earth who know about Equestria from computers and television. There’s a show on Earth called ‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic’ documenting the adventures of Twilight Sparkle and her friends. It’s difficult to explain, but this show is projected onto televisions as a series of animated images. Most people don’t even think Equestria is real. I didn’t until just a while ago until I found myself here.”
The chariot landed at the foot of the castle Aliya had seen earlier, its gold and purple spires glistening against the sunset. Celestia stepped out first and lifted Tom onto her back with her magic.
“Thank you, Stormwing and Starswift,” Celestia said with a nod. The two nodded and gave an affirmative snort in response. “Sorry, Aliya. This is so much information to process at once. Maybe you should talk to Twilight about all this sometime. I’m sure she’d love to hear about all this. But I’d better be going. I’ll have everything set up for both of you very soon, and I’ll have someone check on Tom, so wait here until I return.” Celestia rushed into the castle without another word.
Stormwing and Starswift stood where they had landed, keeping their gazes directed ahead where Celestia had left.
“So, what do you guys think of all this?” Aliya directed toward the two pegasi. They simply shrugged with their faces, their huge round eyes betraying no emotions.
“Well, have either of you seen a human before?”
Stormwing and Starswift looked at each other, then turned back to Aliya and stared in her direction. Finally, one of them spoke: “We haven’t. In fact, most ponies haven’t even heard of one. Don’t be surprised if everypony looks at you funny or is a bit jumpy.”
The other began: “We can’t really tell if Princess Celestia thinks this whole situation is good or not. But that’s for her and Princess Luna to decide.”
“Does Princess Luna live in Canterlot?”
“She usually stays in her own keep to the east of Ponyville, overlooking Ponyville and the Everfree Forest. But she does sometimes visit Canterlot or stay with Princess Celestia.”
“Do they get along well?” Aliya asked hopefully.
“It may not seem that way at first, but they are very close. As close as two siblings can be, anyway.”
“We believe Princess Luna may prefer more solitude at night than Canterlot has to offer, but it does appear to warm her heart that many ponies do like to be out at night.”
“She might actually be here in Canterlot right now.”
Celestia reemerged from the castle with a small green and blue pony. “I see you got them to speak. They’re not a very talkative bunch, even around me,” she laughed. “Your rooms are ready. I’d feel bad to keep you waiting any longer. Dewdrop will show you to your room.”
The pegasi turned to Celestia. “Usual place, Princess?”
Celestia nodded and the pegasi rode off. Aliya, Celestia, and Dewdrop continued into the castle. “You must be wondering about Luna. She doesn’t know about your arrival yet, but I will tell her and you can meet her soon. Would Tom want to meet her too?”
Aliya smiled uneasily. “He’s not a big fan of ponies, unfortunately. I think it’s going to be a rude awakening for him. I hope Princess Luna will understand.”
“Of course. I’ll let her know. But I’m not sure what I can do about that. Maybe you can try to convince him that everything will be fine. He’ll be down the balcony from your room.”
“Will anyone mind that we’re human?”
“That depends on who you ask. You’ll find their reactions aren’t so calm like mine at the very least. We’ll have to find a solution to that soon, as Stormwing and Starswift have probably told you that humans are more than myth in these times.”
“Thank you so much for everything, Princess Celestia.”
“Oh, it’s no problem, Aliya,” Celestia said, smiling. “Good night now. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Good night, Princess Celestia.”
Celestia strolled away down another corridor. Dewdrop looked toward Aliya. “Come on, I’ll show you to your suite, Aliya.”
They wandered through a few purple hallways, through a door to the outside and across a bridge, and then up a stairway to the suite and walked inside. It was a large room with maroon-colored walls, tall glass windows, a few decorative rugs on the wall, a soft, sparkling clean white carpet, and complete with a chandelier and king-size canopy bed with curtains.
“Thank you, and good night, Dewdrop,” Aliya said as she lay upon the bed and kicked off her shoes.
“Good night, Aliya,” Dewdrop replied, closing the door behind her. Aliya had already fallen fast asleep.