The next morning my alarm struggled to arouse me from my blissful slumber. I was just so content sleeping there that I almost considered sleeping through it, but a grunt and some movement told me the Lunar Princess did not appreciate the obnoxious noises so early in the morning.
I turned over to silence my phone, still contemplating staying in bed and skipping classes. That was until I remembered it was Saturday.
“Why do I have an alarm set for today?” I wondered aloud before reading the alarms name out loud. “‘Chroma-Q light demo’...fuck.”
I rolled out of bed, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. I really wanted to stay in bed, but Conrad would be furious if I missed this demo. He knew what he wanted but I knew what we needed. I was an important part of this meet up, and I’d get a free lunch out of it, so I went about getting ready. I was grabbing my keys when Luna finally looked up to see what all the commotion was. She blinked wearily, flashed her horn, and her head flopped back to the pillow.
“Tracking spell, I’ll catch up later.” She said snuggling back under the covers.
I would have replied but by the look of things she was already asleep again. At least she’s good enough at magic that she didn’t accidentally transform me into a dog or something in her half-asleep state. So with that in mind I made my way outside to the snowy shithole wonderland that awaited me.
“Too slick for car, guess I’ll walk.” I said as I made my way to campus. I usually walked but today was Saturday, meaning I could park in the staff lot without getting ticketed. Parking was really the reason I didn’t drive too often, that and the fact that it was only two or three minutes faster than walking. But my car kinda sucks in the snow so I walked regardless.
I got to PAC almost half an hour before the salesman was scheduled to arrive, which was fine because I could unlock the drama theater and get some stuff ready for him. With that in mind I turned on the works to let them warm up, and made my way over to the fly rail to lower in the syc.
“Syc coming in.” I said loudly out of habit. I decided to also lower a baton so some lights could be hung if need be. Again, out of habit I announced the incoming of the pipe. “Baton mid-stage coming in.”
With the baton and syc in I went to the shop next door to grab some extension cords so the lights could be powered along with whatever board was brought. I ran three to separate outlets to keep from drawing too much from the same area. Although all the lights are LED’s, they can still draw a lot. Better safe than sorry.
“You read my mind.” Conrad said entering into the drama theater. “What do you have in the air right now?”
“I have a PAR backwash that could be used for light.” I replied seeing him eyeing the work lights. “Dimmers one-forty through one-eighty counting by fives. Three per Electric starting on the fifth.”
“That will work, can he plug in down here?” He asked looking to the walls for a DMX plug.
“There’s a place to patch in behind the false proscenium.” I replied already making my way up to the booth. “I’ll grab a hundred foot DMX and get it set up.”
“That’ll work.” He said grabbing some chairs and setting them mid-stage.
I climbed the ladder that lead to the booth, there were other ways to get there but this was the quickest. Once there I searched for a DMX cable I could borrow. Unfortunately they were all shorted cables that couldn't be used. I made my way to the sound booth, it has a folding window we usually kept open, to tell Conrad.
“Nothing of use here, I’m gonna run to the electric shop. Need anything else while I’m down there?” I asked getting a shake of his head. “Ok, I’ll be back.
I made my way to the stairs and headed down to the second floor, walked down a few hallways, took another set of stairs to the first floor, and entered the light shop. It was unlocked but I felt like I knew why.
“Didn’t sleep too much longer did you.” I asked the empty shop. I closed the door and turned on the lights. “Good guess on where I would be though.”
“You practically live here.” Luna said dropping her invisibility spell. “I’ve only known you for a day and I know that.”
“Such is the life of a techie.” I sighed opening up the cabinet and grabbing a DMX cord. “So what are your plans today?”
“Stalk you of course.” She said smiling. “You live quite the interesting life here.”
“Really.” I deadpanned. “I’m setting up for a salesman to demonstrate lighting equipment. One out of ten even find that remotely interesting and there will be five of us in that room. You being legitimately interested is highly unlikely by those made up statistics.”
“You forget that this ‘electricity’ is new to me.” She said glancing around at all the light fixtures hanging from batons above. “Magic can’t even do what you did yesterday.”
“You have theater right?” I asked curious.
“Yes, we have plays performed.” She replied. “Usually around Hearths Warming.”
“What do you use to light them?” I asked. “Candles? Because humanity used that once...so many theaters lost.”
“We use the sun's light, redirected with mirrors.” She said.
“O my.” I said closing the cabinet. “That’s just sad. You guys need to fix that.”
“Well now I will definitely attend this light showing.” She said haughtily. “And maybe I can take the knowledge back home with me.”
“If you insist Princess.” I said bowing in a mock fashion. “Right this way...invisibly.”
She just smiled, shaking her head before recasting her spell and disappearing from view. I waved her through the door, feeling her brush against me to let me know she was through before shutting and locking it. We made our way upstairs and back into the theater. I plugged in the DMX and ran it to the same area the power cables were run. Just as I was finishing, George came in.
“You’re putting it there?” He asked mockingly. “I would have put it over there.”
“You want it there, move it yourself.” I said with a slight grin. “You’re getting payed for this, I’m not.”
“Ahh, but your pay is knowledge.” He countered. “And isn't that worth even more?”
“Hmm, I’ll check. Next time I go to the grocery store I’ll tell them all about lights and see if they give me food.” I said full on smiling at this point. He just waved me off and took a seat next to Conrad, who was on the phone.
“Yup come in that door and straight across the hall.” He said, presumably talking to the salesman.
“Where’s Daz?” George asked. I shrugged. “How’s he gonna be the new ME if he doesn't learn.”
“I still have three minutes before the scheduled time.” Daz said coming in the side door.
“Early is on time, on time is late, late is fired.” I said leaning back in my chair, eliciting a glare from Conrad as he hung up the phone.
“That's bad for the chair.” He said. “And he’ll be here any moment.”
I ignored Conrad's warnings and continued leaning back while we waited. Once the salesman arrived we helped him bring in the equipment. He had a large moving light, some moving pars of different sizes, a LED Leco style light and a board he used to show the lights. The demo, to me, was quite mundane. I saw all these lights and more at USITT (United States Institute for Theater Technology) last year. But Conrad and George having not gone, were impressed with them. I could only imagine what Luna thought. After an hour or so of showing each light and answering any questions we had, the showing was over.
“So would you guys like to go get something to eat?” The salesman said. “My treat.”
“I have rehearsal to attend to but thanks for the offer.” Daz said, shaking the man's hand before leaving.
“Anyone else have things to do?” He asked the three of us.
I was going to say I had something to do but Luna must have read my mind.
“Go.” She whispered into my ear. I almost lost my shit, but managed to play off my jump scare as an itchy leg.
“Ok, let's pack up and we can figure out where to go.” He said as he started tearing down his console.
Packing up was as quick as unloading and before long we were on our way to El Canelos, a Mexican joint I suggested. Luna obviously couldn't ride in the van with us but as we were packing she let me know she would just fly overhead. Once there I excused myself to the bathroom so I could talk with her. After entering the bathroom, feeling her brush by me, I locked the door for privacy.
“How you doin?” I asked worried about her. “Must be boring just sitting and listening.”
“Are you kidding?” She said leaving herself invisible. “That was the most interesting thing I’ve ever seen!”
“O, ok...well do you want anything from here?” I asked realizing she probably had not eaten for way longer than was comfortable. “It’s Mexican...I don’t know if you like Mexican...or know what it is?”
“I don't know but it smells amazing.” She said, ironically in the bathroom. “I’ll let you know if I do. How will I eat it though?’
“I figured before we left I’d order something to go and say it’s for a friend.” I said simply. “So you’ll have to wait till we get home but you’ll get food.”
There was a knock at the door signifying another patron needed to use it. I looked in the direction I thought luna was in and mouthed the words ‘ready’. I felt a snoot on my shoulder signifying she was. And with that we left the bathroom and joined the rest at the table. There were four of us, but we were sat at a six person table. This left a large area unused. Perfect for a certain invisible someone to sit and not be in the way.
While I looked at my menu, flipping the pages even though I knew what I wanted, Luna peered over my shoulder.
“I’ll just get what you’re getting.” She whispered into my ear. I just bobbed my head, signifying I understood and set down the menu.
As we ate we talked about what we did, fun stories, and just made conversation. I thought we would talk business about what we were going to buy from his shop but we didn’t. Maybe that was for later, who knows. Once we were all done eating and just talking I got the waiter's attention and put in my second order, explaining to everyone I would pay, and that it was for a friend. All of it was true, it's just the friend was here but couldn't eat.
We headed back to the PAC and again, Luna flew overhead. I wish I could have seen her fly, or that I could fly, but that's neither here nor there. Once we got back to PAC, we said our goodbyes to the salesman.
“I'll talk it over with Shawn, we’ll get a wish list together and send it to the Dean.” Conrad said.
“And with any luck, we can get some lights.” George added. “Without luck, it was nice meeting with you.”
“Thanks, and Shawn.” The salesman replied. “Once you graduate, if you send your resume to Chroma-Q, I’ll put in a good word for you.
“Thank you so much, I’ll see where life takes me.” I told him. In reality I have no interest in their company. Their lights are cool, but not where I want to be in the business.
He headed out and Conrad said we’d talk more on Monday so I made my walk home. On my way, Luna talked with me.
“Those lights were impressive.” She said again. “Electricity is amazing.”
“I’ll set you up once we get back.” I said holding my phone. I wanted it to look like I wasn't just talking to myself. “Once you get the hang of it, the internet is a plethora of information. You can learn just about anything if you know what to search.”
“Why do you not take advantage of this?” She asked. “If you are able to learn anything, why not learn everything?”
“You ever hear the saying ‘Jack of all trades, but master of none?” I asked.
“No, I haven't. What does it mean, and who is Jack?” She replied.
“Jack doesn't matter, what it means is that you know a little of everything but not a lot about anything.” I answered. “Our whole civilization runs off of that. What they don't know is the rest of that saying is, ‘But still better than a master of one.’”
“So knowing a little of everything is better than knowing a lot about one thing?” She said confused. “Isn't that what I said?”
“It is. But that's not how we think.” I replied. “People are very culturally driven. We do things because we always have, and we think certain ways because that's how it's always been.”
“How do you progress then?” Luna asked. “With behavior like that, civilization would be at a standstill.”
“Because we have a select few that break the mold.” I answered. “Sometimes they’re tyrants, sometimes they’re heroes. They can be thought of as mentally ill, or geniuses. It’s all how our society perceives them.”
“I can understand that part.” Luna said. “Many brilliant unicorns are socially shunned because of how much time they put into their work instead of being social. Ponies are inherently social creatures, so when somepony breaks the norm they are ‘weird’.”
“Exactly. That's how we operate sometimes too. But with how much our culture evolves, sometimes they are seen as revolutionary. But sometimes their ideas come before we are ready and they get written off.” I replied as I made my way into my house.
“So what so you do?” Luna asked as we climbed the steps. “Where do you fall on the spectrum?”
“I like to think I’m on the outside.” I said smiling. “I hate socializing so that would normally make me an outcast...but recently that's become more acceptable. Then I learn more than I need to, making people think I know too much about extraneous things. And to top it all off, I know how the system works. So I mold my way back into society to make a living.”
“That all sounds extremely complicated.” Luna said thinking. “But does explain you a little.”
“Oh? And what do you mean by that?” I asked.
“You behave around each person you interact with differently.” Luna replied, speaking slow and choosing her words to express her thoughts. “While most people have two or three personas, you have one for literally every person I’ve seen you interact with so far.”
“That's where the understanding the system comes in.” I replied, thinking it over. I never really thought about how I interacted with people. “I act like I think they would want me to without really thinking.”
“And it makes me wonder if you put up yet another personalized persona for me.” She said. I think there was a little hurt behind her words, but I couldn't be sure.
“From what I can tell, I did.” I started. “However, I am slowly reverting to completely normal, without any sort of filters or edits to my behavior...this is quite interesting because it usually takes me a year or more with someone I’d actually consider a friend before I start being myself. And I’ve hardly known you a day, and I’m controlling myself less with you than any of my friends.”
“And why do you think that is?” Luna said as we sat on my bed, food forgotten.
“Maybe because we have so much in common.” I started. “You like the things I like, you have the same cynical humor, you like to sleep naked.”
“Do you, maybe...like me too?” Luna said blushing hard.
“I do like you.” I said, choosing my next words carefully. Not because I was afraid of her reaction, no. But because I wasn't sure. “I like you...I like you a lot, but I don’t quite know how much yet.”
“I see.” She said simply. “Well I know how much I like you.”
“Do you?” I said interested, yet oblivious. “And that would be?”
She didn't answer, instead she pushed me back onto the bed and gave me a big, long kiss. Once she was done she sat up, winked, and used her telekinesis to pick up her food and walk to my computer desk. She even swayed her hips on her way over...hot.
However she didn’t make it to the desk. She dropped her froze in place, dropping her food.
“Whoa, what’s up?” I said standing up and walking towards her.
“She knows.” Luna said quietly. “My sister figured it out.”
“She what?” I said confused. “Your sister figured what out.”
“She realized I’m not on the moon.” She said turning around and starting to pace back and forth. “She realized I was separated from the Nightmare and that I’m not on the moon. And she’s trying to reach me. I can feel her magic and I’m sure she can feel mine as well.”
“How did she find out so quickly?” I asked confused. “Aren’t you in another universe or whatever?”
“Yes, I am.” She replied. “But it hasn't just been a day and a half for her. I can tell that Celestia’s magic has changed, a change this big would have taken many many years. It must have been decades for her...maybe melania!”
“Hundreds of years?” I said. “How can hundreds of years pass in the matter of a day and a half?”
“There must be a time dislocation between us and Equis.” She said stopping her pacing. “But she’s making progress at an alarming rate for me, but to her it's taking much longer. She can already sense me more clearly now. Soon she will be able to locate me in the cosmos, then maybe she can take me home!”
“That's great!” I said hiding my disappointment. Yah, I’m happy she’s going home...but I really clicked with her in the short time we had together. “How soon do you think?”
“A day at most.” She said thinking. “But I think much less, maybe a few hours.”
“Wow, are you excited?” I asked, curious to what she was feeling. “Are you happy to go home?”
“I am happy I can return.” She said, with a pause. “And I can tell my sister needs me. But I’ve only been gone for a short time to me...and I don't want to leave you.”
“Oh?” I said, pumping my fist in my head. “But your sister needs you, and your world probably misses you. You’ve been gone for a long time.”
“Do you want me to go?” She said morosely, stopping her pacing.
“No, I don't.” I said, no longer hiding my thoughts. “I want you to stay honestly. We really hit it off, and I want to continue our relationship...but what I want and what an entire planet needs are two very different things.”
“Maybe you can come with me!” She said starting to grasp at anything. “You can come with me and eventually we can return you. With the time difference you’d only be gone for a little bit.”
“But what of my age?” I replied, not entirely hating her idea. “If I suddenly go from being in my twenties to my forties...I don’t even know what people would think.”
“Maybe there’s time correction when you jump the time gap?” She said, starting to pace again. “Then you could spend most of your life in Equestria, come back, regain youth, and return to Equestria once more!”
“That's some fountain of youth shit right there.” I said scratching my head. “You know what, I have until Monday till anyone needs me. And if what you say is true, I’ll be gone from here at an hour at most. Why not venture a little?”
“Really?” Luna said excitedly. “You’d cross the universe to spend more time with me?”
“I didn't think of it like that..”I said before I could catch myself, but I tried to save it. “It’s more like crossing the universe with you.”
“I feel like a little filly reading a romance novel.” She said, obviously taking my cover well.
“But...this is all assuming everything works like we are hoping.” I said, having to rain on her romantic parade wasn’t fun, but we had to look at reality before she got too far in. “We aren’t sure if Celestia will be able to bring you back, if she will bring me back, if time will or will not fuck us.”
“I see some bucking in my future alright.” Luna said under her breath.
“What was that?” I said, not hearing her.
“I said I hope the future works out alright…” She said unconvincingly, but I decided it wasn’t important.
“Well, I know there’s a lot happening now, but you should get to use my computer while you have the chance. Get some knowledge to take home with yah.” I said walking to my computer, picking up the dropped to-go box. The food was...unrecognizable, but it’s Mexican so it’ll taste the same.
“Well if I can take you I’ll have all sorts of knowledge.” She said pouting as she made her way over as well. She sat on the floor in front of the keyboard as I opened Firefox up.
“This is google.” I said gesturing at the screen. “Ask it anything and you can get all sorts of answers.”
“How does electricity work?” She said at the screen, causing me to facepalm. “Why isn’t it working?”
“One sec, I'll turn on my microphone and set…” I paused realizing she had no idea what I was saying. “I'll get it working. Ok, try now.”
“How does electricity work?” She said again. This time my mic picked up her voice and filled out the search bar for her. It didn't search though. “It still isn't working Shawn.” She whined.
“Ok, I guess I need to teach you about the mouse anyways.” I said as I went over the basics of computering. The mouse, the keyboard, that she couldn't use because although she spoke English, apparently her language had different letters. Eventually she got the hang of it and started learning all about electricity. I went and laid on my bed, waiting for her to call me over to fix something else, bu she never did. And at some point I fell asleep.
I woke up to someone laying on my bed next to me. I assumed it was Luna, her being the only one in my room and all, so I rolled over and threw my arm over her to pull her in. But something was off about her...She was warm for one, not the usual cool fur but warm...really warm. And she was squishier, but still furry and obviously a pony. I opened one eye to investigate only to see not Luna.
“Luna’s dead, it's a ghost!” I yelled, backing off my bed and falling to the floor. “I should have warned you about people! They killed you and now you’re back for revenge!”
“How could you?” Luna's ghost said with a hurt expression. “I trusted you to protect me and instead you fell asleep! Now I’m dead.”
“Nooo, you were so...well I’m not sure how old you were.” I said loosing my dramatics and looking at her inquisitively.
“Two thousand five hundred and thirty seven.” She said simply.
“You’re so...old.” I said confused. “Yet still so sexy, or you were, now you’re dead!”
“Enough of this.” Luna said from the computer. She was looking at the screen really hard, trying to read I guess? “Celestia is here, I explained everything to her before she even arrived, she’s a big goofball.”
Celestia in turn just smiled and looked to me. “So you think my sister hot huh.”
“No.” I said defensively. “I said she was sexy, get it right.”
Luna just sighed from the corner, thought she was blushing.
“Well she has a hot older sister too.” Celestia said, snickering at her own joke as she kept glancing back to her butt.
“What’s so..” I said, finally giving up and looking at her butt too. And lo and behold, there was a sun on her butt. “Did you really get a sun on your butt just to make that joke?”
“No.” She said grinning more. “But it sure has it's...wait for it...ups and downs!” She lost it at this point. She was rolling around on my bed, a mess of hooves, wings, and feathers.
“O my me, that was too good!” She said between her laughter. “Ups and downs, I’m going to have to remember that one.”
“How come you never asked about my moon?” Luna said, finally looking away from the screen.
“Because I wasn’t staring at your butt?” I lied. I had indeed been staring and I did want to know about her moon, but I felt like if I brought it up...yah. “O hey, look. Luna, what's with your moon butt?”
“Moonbutt!” Celestia yelled, losing herself again to fits of laughter. “This is too much, I’m gonna pee myself!”
“First of all, it's on my flank.” Luna said, blushing and angry all the same. “Secondly, it's a cutie mark, everypony gets one, and it shows our purpose in life. And finally,” She paused looking bashful again. “Do you like it?”
“It's awesome.” I said truthfully, but then it digressed. “I love ASStronomy!”
That was the final straw, Celestia lost her marbles. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but one second she was there laughing so hard she was crying and then there was a flash and she was gone. All that was left was a black spot in my vision and feathers.
“Did she just laugh so hard she exploded?” I asked, a little worried.
“No, she teleported away.” Luna said. She wasn’t even mad anymore, just done with my shit. “Probably so she didn't wet your bed.”
“Well that was nice of her I guess.” I said awkwardly. “And in all seriousness, I do really like your cutie mark. If I were to get a tattoo, it would look like that.”
“Really, that's so sweet.” She said gushing. “What’s tattoo?”
Google beat me to it. Apparently she worked it out so it would auto search after it filled out the search bar, click the first link, and read it out loud.
“A tattoo is a form of body modification where a design is made by inserting ink, dyes and pigments, either indelible or temporary, into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigmint.” The voice read out.
“You’d do that for me?” She asked, genuinely taken back. “Permanently alter your body?”
“Sure I would.” I said easily. Of course that isn't what I meant by ‘I would get one like that’ but I let her have this one. I was serious though, it was a simple yet cool design and if she wanted me to get it, I would have no regrets...as long as it wasn't on my face. “That help you figure out how much I like you?”
“It’s certainly a good indication.” She said opening and closing her wings a few times. Either a nervous twitch, or she was warm...couldn’t tell. And before I could think much more on it Celestia flashed back into the room.
“Sis you gotta take this one home with you.” She said still slightly out of breath from her laugh attack. “I literally peed myself! I had to teleport into the woods so I didn't make a mess of his bed! He’s awesome!”
“We were just discussing that.” She said ignoring most of what her sister had said. “He’s willing to come back to Equestria for a while.”
“Yup.” I said cheerily. “Although only for a few Equestria months or so. Unless time passing between worlds is...do you know what will happen?”
“Unfortunately I do not.” Celestia said. “I have realized that time passes differently between the worlds, but it may be possible to choose when to arrive. I’m going to try it on our way back because if not, I have been gone for years by now.”
“So time travel and inter-dimensional travel...somehow it doesn't surprise me.” I said. “So, if that works out, I can live an entire lifetime in Equestria then come back to the moment I left and be the same age as when I left?”
“Theoretically yes.” Celestia said. “When we’re in Equestria I’ll have my student Twilight work on the specifics of it. And when your month or so is up and you come back, we can test then as well. If it all works out you could potentially be immortal.”
“I don't know how I feel about that.” I said scratching my head.
“I do.” Luna said from beside me. Her wings were twitching again...probably hot.
“Yes you do.” Celestia said with a knowing grin. “However I don't think he knows you know.”
“Well she just said it…” I said confused. “So I know that.”
“That's some impressive obliviousness you have there.” Luna said confused. “The whole town should know...you know what, never mind. Humans are weird.”
“Indeed.” Celestia said somewhat curiously. “Regardless, lets get home. I’ve left Cadence in charge too long.”
“Not Twilight?” Luna asked. “Thought she would be your go to mare.”
“I thought about it, but I didn’t think she could deal with the stress for the years I would be away.” She replied starting to charge her horn. “For a few months, sure, but not years.”
“Wait, are we going like now?” I asked confused. “Can I at least-”
I didn't even get to finish my sentence before I was hurtled into a cosmic blender of time and space.