Letters from Midgard
Chapter 1: The Second Letter
It was dark almost pitch black with only the faintest of light coming from nearby lighting that allowed Tristem to see a number of human sized silhouettes charging at him. Emotionlessly Tristem drew his swords and began to cut the formless silhouettes down one after another streams of black nothingness spewing out of their formless bodies.
Tristem advanced slowly as hordes of the formless entities continued to charge at him. With no sign of emotion he continued to cut them down one after another. Eventually as there numbers dwindled the formless shadows began to turn and run from Tristem. Tristem gave chase cutting down the shadows that he managed to catch up to. Then it began to rain and in seconds it had turned into a downpour turning the barren dirt ground into mud.
One of the shadows fell as it was trying to flee and Tristem was quickly upon it. Lifting the formless entity off the ground Tristem wasted no words and quickly stabbed it several times in the chest. It was then that Tristem heard it scream something that the other shadows had not done.
This caused Tristem to stop as he stared down in horror as the shapeless entity took on the form of a young teenager. He then noticed that the black substance that had been spewing out of the formless entities was actually blood. Shocked by this revelation Tristem dropped the now lifeless body and looked around noticing the bodies of countless others all dead and disfigured in horrible ways.
“No what have I done,” thought Tristem as he looked around and saw the bodies of those he had killed.
Suddenly the clouds above parted and what appeared to be sunlight shone through. Tristem stared up and saw the sillouette of two large horse-like creatures.
“Tristem,” said a kind and unearthly voice inside Tristem’s head, “Tristem please leave humanities’ blood stained past behind and join us. Let go of the hate and fear that you have in your heart and be born again anew. I promise that you and your sister will be loved and cherished you two will not have to be alone anymore.”
Hearing this Tristem backed away, "your lying. You just want earth for yourself and your destroying humanity in order to get it.” Tristem turned and started to run.
“Tristem!” yelled the entity, “Please come back I’m not trying to destroy your species. I’m trying to save you.” Pleaded the entity but Tristem was already out of earshot.
Tristem was thrashing around in his futon. “No leave me alone,” yelled Tristem in his sleep.
The noise woke Cao up who ran over to where Tristem was sleeping. “Tristem,” said Cao as she grabbed Tristem’s shoulders in an attempt to stop him from thrashing around, “Tristem wake up.”
Tristem opened his eyes and saw Cao sitting over him. “Cao,” exclaimed Tristem in both shock and relief, as he pulled Cao into a hug.
“Bad dream huh?” asked Cao returning the hug. “Yeah.” said Tristem pushing Cao away and ending the hug, “I’m okay now.”
“Good, I was worried,” said Cao as she began to stand up, “so what’s on the agenda for today?”
“Well we need to get some more supplies we’re running low on food, so we’ll need to find a trader.” said Tristem as he sat up from his futon.
“With the barrier this close we’re not going to find any human traders around here.” said Cao.
“Then we’ll have to find some pony traders. I think theirs a pony village nearby,” said Tristem.
“Pony traders; well fair enough, but we won’t be able to get any meat from them.” complained Cao.
“Well we’ll just have to do without Cao, come on let’s gather our trade goods and get a move on.” said Tristem.
As Tristem began to stand up Tristem noticed what appeared to be a paper tube sitting beside where he had been sleeping. Puzzled Tristem reached down to picked up the strange object and discovered that it was actually a piece of rolled up paper.
“What’s that?” inquired Cao. “Well it can only be one of two things Cao. Either it’s a paper telescope, it’s a letter from Princess Celestia,” said Tristem who noticed the sun seal holding the paper in its cylinder-like shape.
“Really,” said Cao. Before Tristem could respond Cao grabbed the scroll from Tristem’s hand and looked it over.
“Tristem you know what this means? She answered our letter,” said a very excited Cao.
“Right,” said Tristem grabbing the scroll from Cao’s hand, “Now lets see what she wrote.”
Tristem undid the seal and started reading the letter’s contents aloud.
Dear Tristem and Cao,
I am more than happy to answer your questions concerning these topics young ones. I can certainly understand your hesitation concerning conversion and I want to put your minds at ease. Feel free to write to me with any questions you might have. I will do my best to answer them. Stay safe my dear young ones.
Sincerely yours,
Princess Celestia
Having finished reading the letter Tristem scrolled the paper back up in his hands.
“See I told you she would help us,” said Cao with a smug look on her face.
Seeing this Tristem gave a fake angry expression right before he threw the letter at Cao hitting her square in the face.
“OW! Hey! Why’d you do that for?” complained Cao pretending that the impact had hurt her.
“Because your being smart about it that’s why,” said Tristem a sarcastic smile on his face.
Seeing this Cao stuck out her tongue, “Tristem you meenie!.” Having retaliated Cao then turned her attention to the letter, “well now that she’s agreed to help us I guess we’ll have to decide what we want to ask her.”
“We’ll worry about that later right now we need to get our trade goods together and head for the pony village,” Said Tristem as he began to walk towards there supplies. Cao carefully placed the letter down and went over to join him.
About 15 minutes later Tristem and Cao had gathered up their trade goods and headed for the pony village 3 miles away. The pony village which went by the name of Trottinheim was like most other pony villages having been built over the remains of a human town a year prior. The village’s population consisted almost entirely of Newfoals, it did however have a significant population of native Equestrians residing in it. Also this village being so close to the barrier had not seen humans for over eight months, and unfortunately for Tristem and Cao the village was also the regional headquarters of the PER and they were walking right into the middle of it.
It was almost noon by the time Tristem and Cao had arrived in Trottinheim. “So this is the pony village its bigger than I expected,” said Cao as she surveyed the town visually.
“Indeed,” said Tristem his eyes once again drawn to the barrier which now was so close that it loomed over them like some strange glowing monolith, “The barrier really close her.”
“Yeah,” said Cao, “at this rate the town will disappear behind it in less than a week.”
“Well then lets get are trading done before that happens,” said Tristem as he started walking towards the town again.
The town was alive with dozens of ponies all milling about conducting there daily activities. All of which ended abruptly upon them seeing Tristem and Cao approach. there was complete and total silence which was brought on by the shock of seeing a pair of humans. This made Tristem and Cao stop in place.
“I don’t think we’re exactly what they expected to see today,” remarked Cao.
“Geez you think Cao,” remarked Tristem with a sarcastic tone in his voice. Cao shoved Tristem from behind sending him falling to the ground, “bite me!” Cao laughed in triumph up until she felt her feet leave the ground, her body was surrounded by a light green energy field.
Cao felt her body slowly turning until she came face to face with a jade colored unicorn with a dark green mane and tail. A green eight pointed adorned her flank.
“Hey let me go let me go,” protested Cao. The pony just glared at her with contempt. “No!” the pony finally replied, “I don’t know how you humans managed to approach our town without dying in the process, but I will not allow you two to commit acts of violence in this town.” Seeing that the ponies attention was focused on Cao Tristem took the opportunity to sneak away. Once he was out of sight Tristem climbed up on top of a house and contemplated how he was going to save Cao.
“Now,” said the unicorn a sinister smile on her face, “how are we going to punish you for your transgression.”
“Perhaps I can help with that,” said a voice from behind the crowd. Cao looked to see a white pegasus with a black mane approach the group beside him stood an almost totally black pegasus with only dark blue and purple highlights breaking up her otherwise monochrome appearance.
“Cao Su as I live and breath I had thought that you and your brother would have been smart enough not to walk right into a PER fortress town,” said the black and white pegasi. “and I see that you haven’t taken the opportunity in the last four months since I’ve seen you to join our great and wondrous pony race.”
“Daniel its nice to see you as well and I see that you haven’t changed either in the last four months, I’ve figured that the HLF would have killed you by now,” said Cao a defiant look on her eye.
This caused ‘Daniel’s’ right eye to twitch in anger, “My name is Fearless Leader, that name no longer bears any meaning for me.”
Seeing this the all black pegasi came up and affectionately nuzzled Fearless Leader on the neck, “Fearless don’t let Cao’s sarcastic quips get to you after all she is our friend and we must be tolerant of here abrasive personality.”
“I know Black Pearl,” said Fearless as he embraced Pearl, “I just can’t understand why our old friends are so resistant to the idea of conversion.”
“Don’t worry about that my love,” said pearl as she took a vial of pontification serum out of her saddlebag, “She’ll come around to our way of thinking in about 15 minutes, it’s a shame that your brother ran away like a coward Cao I would’ve preferred to have ponified you both at the same time.”
Cao then noticed that her brother was no longer lying on the ground. She then saw a glint of light overhead. She looked up and saw Tristem signaling her as he prepared to surprise attack the ponies below.
“Now Pearl you should know my brother better than that,” said Cao with a smirk, “You should know by know that my brother merely doesn’t like to directly confront his enemies, he’ll come and save me.”
This made Fearless and the other ponies present laugh, “Fine Cao, said Fearless, “use what bravado you want, but you and I both know he’s not coming,”
“Oh but he is,” said Cao, “as a matter of fact he might just be ‘right behind you’!”
On cue Tristem leaped off the top of the building and landed feet first right on top of Fearless the impact causing his legs to buckle, sending him violently crashing to the ground. This shocked every pony present including the unicorn that had been previously holding Cao who had accidentally released her from the telekinetic field. Cao immediately took the opportunity to tackle the unicorn punching her in the face and knocking her unconscious.
“Cao you alright,” asked Tristem as he ran over to her. “Yes I’m fine,” said Cao.
“Why you no good hairless apes I‘m going to convert you one way or the other,” yelled Pearl as she hurled the ponification serum at Tristem and Cao. Seeing this Tristem and jumped backwards the potion smashing onto the ground in front of them.
Upon landing Tristem took out a small cylindrical object from the pouch he had slung over his neck, “Ninja Vanish!” yelled Tristem as he threw the cylinder at the group of ponies. The cylinder exploded releasing a cloud of smoke which covered Tristem and Cao’s escape.
Unfortunately for Tristem and Cao Pearl flew up over the smoke screen and spotted them. “They’re escaping into town after them,” said Pearl as she and the other ponies chased after them.
Tristem and Cao ran through the town dodging confused ponies and jumping over obstacles in an attempt to shake there pursuers. Tristem and Cao could hear their pursuers gaining on them.
“Cao we need to find someplace to hide, we might be able to outrun the unicorns and earth ponies but we’ll never be able to escape from the pegasi,” said Tristem as he leaped over a crate
Cao and Tristem looked around for a way to escape and about ten seconds later Cao spotted an alleyway, “quick Tristem run into that alleyway.” said Cao.
They quickly darted into the alleyway and hid behind a dumpster. The mob of ponies that had been chasing them ran right past the entrance to the alleyway.
“Phew that was close,” said Cao as she sat down to rest. “We’re not out of the woods yet Cao we need to get out of this town and fast,” said Tristem as he tried to catch his breath.
“Who’d have thought that this town was the headquarters for the PER in this area,” said Cao. “Makes sense Cao, they’re so close to the barrier that the HLF can’t attack them here,” said Tristem as he looked over the edge of the dumpster to see what was going on.
“Well what do you think of the ponies now?” asked Tristem changing the subject
“What do you mean what do I think of the ponies now,” asked Cao. “Well yesterday you were basically being their cheerleader so I thought that this might have changed your mind about that.”
“I was not and besides I was talking about normal ponies not these PER maniacs,” said Cao an angry tone in her voice.
“Alright whatever Cao now’s not the time to be talking about this anyway, right now we need to get out of here its not going to take long for them to figure out what happened to us.” said Tristem.
Tristem and Cao turned to leave the alley from the other side, but they started to hear ponies moving about franticly from both sides of the alley.
“Where did they go,” yelled a voice. They then heard Fearless addressing the crowd, “Alright everyone calm down they couldn’t have gotten far spread out and search the alley and houses we’ll find them.
“Oh grip,” complained, “Now what we do?”
“Quickly in here.” said a somewhat elderly voice behind them.
Hearing this Tristem and Cao drew there weapons and quickly turned around. Standing before them was an elderly looking earth pony with a faded light purple coat and a graying darker purple colored mane and tail a trio of purple flowers adorned her flank.
“Who are you?” demanded Tristem. “Quick there no time get in here quickly,” insisted the elderly pony.
As Tristem and Cao weighed their options and decided that going with the elderly earth pony was their best bet. “Alright,” said Tristem, “we’ll come with you, but if you trick us you will regret it.”
They followed the elderly pony into what they assumed was her house. She led them up into the attic and told them to stay there until she called them.
How long had they been hiding in this ponies attic thought Tristem as he turned to look out the slants of a vent. He saw that the sun was setting so it had to have been at least eight hours. He looked over to see that his sister had fallen asleep. “Well that’s for the best Cao must be exhausted,” said Tristem as he turned and looked at the entrance to the attic, “I wonder why that pony helped us.”
Tristem sat back and began to ponder on the events of the last few years on Equestria’s emergence from the Pacific Ocean, the opening of the conversion bureaus, the interactions that Tristem and his sister had had with the ponies, and on how their world was slowly ebbing away.
Tristem then thought about the events of the day. “Cao always seems to think the ponies are kind and friendly but then you have these PER ponies who are basically forcing conversion on people. I wonder which type of pony is the majority.”
Tristem heard a creek as the attic door opened, “its okay now you two can come down,” said the elderly pony. Tristem quickly roused Cao from her sleep and followed the pony down to the kitchen.
The Kitchen was nothing too remarkable. It did have a pleasant feel to it though. “Thanks for hiding us,” said Cao as she sat down at the table. She fidgeted a little bit trying to get comfortable. The chairs were obviously not built with humans in mind.
“Oh your welcome my dear I had a feeling those misguided PER ponies were up to no good, by the way my name is Lilac though everypony calls me Granny Lilac these days,” said the elderly pony with a warm smile on her face. “I’m Tristem and this is my sister Cao,” said Tristem. “Hello nice to meet you.” said Cao returning Lilac‘s smile.
“Nice to meet you both,” said Lilac, “So tell me what brings a pair of humans to a pony village so close to the barrier. I didn’t think humans could get this close.” “Normally that is the case but me and Tristem aren’t effected by thaumatic radiation though I really don’t know why, and we often spend a lot of time in areas so we can avoid other humans.“ said Cao.
“Oh so you two don’t associate yourselves with other humans?” asked Lilac. “No not really the World Corp thinks we’re dead due to the accident seven years ago, and we‘ve been off the grid ever since,” said Cao, “We mostly just wonder around scavenging for what we can find.”
“I see,” said Lilac, “Tell me why haven’t you two converted yet? You both will be able to live better lives once you do.”
“Its not that easy Lilac,” said Tristem, “Me and Cao aren’t sure about this whole conversion business. I mean weren’t you apprehensive about it when you went through it?”
“Oh my dear I wouldn’t know I’m not a newfoal I came to earth hoping to help humans such as you get over your fears about conversion,” said Lilac, “Unfortunately, I have found that I’m ill suited for the task. Lilac hung her head low in disappointment in herself.
This took Tristem and Cao by surprise, “Wait a minute if you came here to convince humans to convert why aren’t you helping the PER?” asked Tristem.
“Simple my dear I want humans to convert so that their lives can be saved and so that they can lead better lives, but I also believe that it is a choice that they have to make for themselves its not right to force it on them,” explained Lilac, “Now come its getting late I’ll show you two were you will be sleeping.”
“Your going to let us stay here?” asked Tristem.
“Of course its not safe for you two to go outside you’ll never be able to get past the PER troops. So you two will have to stay here until we can figure out a way to get you out of Trottinheim.” said Lilac who gently nuzzled the side of Tristem’s face.
“Thanks,” said Tristem running his hand through Lilac‘s mane. “Tristem before we go to bed shouldn’t we write a letter to the Princess Celestia?” asked Cao. “Oh your right,” said Tristem as he got a piece of paper and a pen from his backpack.
“Princess your writing Princess Celestia,” Lilac looked surprised by this. “Why yes as a matter of fact we are, we thought that she could answer our questions and help us resolve our problems regarding conversion.”
“Oh what a wonderful thought I’m sure she can help you,” said Lilac, “Oh Celestia I thank you for helping these poor wayward humans.”
“So Tristem what are we going to ask her?” asked Cao. “I think we should we should start small like asking her a series of simple questions,” said Tristem. “Like what,” asked Lilac.
“Like what its like to be a pony, what happens to you mentally and physically when your ponified, and whether or not the PER are typical of all ponies,” said Tristem.
“I can promise you they are not we agree with everything Princess Celestia said about the PER,” said Lilac.
“Nevertheless I think we’ll ask her that anyway,” said Tristem as he readied his pen, “now if you excuse me.” Tristem set to work writing the letter.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I thank you for taking the time to answer our questions your highness it means a lot to me and my sister.
For our first question we actually have a series of smaller questions that we wish to ask you. I hope that that is alright. I will tell you in advanced that these questions have been asked by other humans many times before, however me and my sister feel compelled to ask them anyway.
First off I would like to ask you about Equines in general. Specifically what is it like being a pony? How does your species deal with day to day challenges like eating, performing day to day tasks like cooking and cleaning or building things? How do non unicorns manipulate tools? What are normal ponies like psychologically? How do ponies relate to each other, you get the idea. We just want to get a general idea about what life is like as a member of your species.
Second we wanted to ask about the conversion process. What will it change about us mentally and socially? What will stay the same? Finally what will happen to us after the conversion? Will we be able to maintain our current way of life if we choose to or we be forced down another path? This last question in particular is very important to us because we tend to be afraid of change and we would like to maintain at least some remnant of our former lives after we are converted.
Our final series of questions pertain to the most unscrupulous of your subjects namely the members of the PER or the Ponies for Earths Resurrection. Me and Cao have had the great misfortune of having multiple encounters with this group largely due to our former friends being members. This problem started when they converted almost two years ago and have since then they have taken it upon themselves to get us to convert whether we like it or not. Personally as I said previously I am not against the idea of conversion, but if and when it happens me and Cao want it to be on our terms. So I ask you do you support the PER and if you do, are you behind them? Finally I would like to ask if they are typical of Equestrians?
Well that’s all for now sorry about this letter being so long. I appreciate you helping us like this your highness.
Respectfully yours,
Tristem and Cao
It was almost a half an hour later when Tristem finished writing the letter. He looked over it to make sure he wrote it right and then rolled it up in his hands.
“Well that’s it then all we need to do now is send it,” said Tristem. “How are we going to burn it in order to send it to Princess Celestia we don‘t have a bonfire this time” asked Cao.
“You can use the stove,” said Lilac, “just be careful.”
“Alright,” said Tristem. He walked over and turned the stove on and carefully allowed the flames to consume the paper. Unlike before, however, Tristem could clearly see the paper turn into a strange green flame which traveled out the window.
“Did you see that,” an astonished Cao proclaimed. “I most certainly did,” said Tristem.
“I can’t believed it worked,” said Lilac. “Your surprised that it worked?” asked Tristem, “I thought this was common for Equines.”
“Maybe for those high society Canterlot folk, but not where I come from I’ve never seen it before,” explained Lilac, “All that aside I think its time for bed we can decide what to do about your guy’s predicament tomorrow.”
Hearing this Cao gave a very loud yawn, “sleep does sound nice its time for Super Happy Bed Time.”
Tristem nodded in approval holding back a slight chuckle. “Come I’ll show you to your rooms,” said Lilac.
Tristem and Cao followed her upstairs.