Silence now reigned. Guerrero had finished his tale. About how they weren’t native of this world. That their country had suddenly found itself alone, the rest of their world having vanished. Of their confusion if they had been whisked away, or the rest of their world had been. On how they departed across the ocean to find anything. Of their arrival to this land. The rest of his companions pitched in where they could. For further credibility, they had called forth for a few maps and navigation charts to be brought from their ship. Of both Mexico and the rest of Earth. They only gave the most basics of explanations, as it wasn’t deemed critical yet to go in detail about Earth. In the end, they all sat back on their chairs, Álvarez still working with the papers on the table, as they waited how the ponies digested their story.
The ponies for their part, first thing they did was converg into one big group, in a circle.
“I understand now,” Wing Shield was the first to speak.
“When I was in their ship, and shown that map. The lines drawn were portraying what they lost contact with. Even before they attempted to explain their plight as best they could. And seeing those maps… between that and how they’ve behaved these past days, I don’t doubt they’re telling the truth.”
At this Thunderbolt shook his head.
“That may be Captain, but it’s still hard to believe,” he said. “A giant landmass, teleported from a different world?”
Murmurs of agreement followed.
“Is that possible, Lord Starswirl?” Celestia.
“It’s hard to tell, I’ve never heard of anything like it before,” was the unicorn’s reply.
“However, we move big objects like the sun and moon every day, so what difference it makes if it’s teleportation, and with a big piece of land?”
He then placed a hoof to his chin.
“But it would require tremendous power, far imaginable. I don’t think even gathering every unicorn in Equestria we could be able to move the country to the other side of the world, let alone a different one.”
“What about Discord?” Thunderbolt suggested.
He received stares in reply.
“I wouldn’t rule it out,” Starswirl said.
“His magic was certainly in a whole different level. For all that he performed while Equestria was his playground, I doubt we saw the limits of his power. However, outside of moving the sun and moon, he mostly kept his magic within Equestria itself. And nothing we heard was this big.”
“So, could he have done it?” Celestia asked.
“It is hard to say,” Starswirl continued.
“He might. But this action, from seeing and hearing all he did, it would still be unheard of. Unlike anything else he did. It would…”
He frowned slightly, then sighed.
“Not make sense.”
Almost everypony else groaned. They all knew well what those words meant when it came to Discord.
“Which means he totally did it,” Luna deadpanned.
“It is still too hasty of a conclusion,” Starswirl said.
“But I have to admit it is our only possible explanation for now.”
“Which means there’s no way to send them back, sir?” Red Apple asked.
“I’m afraid not,” Starswirl briefly glanced at the humans.
“At least with what we have available. This world is their home now.”
A few of the ponies saddened, only imagining how that could feel.
“Well, on the bright side,” one of the earth ponies of the group spoke up.
“They didn’t lose a whole lot, if it was their whole country sent here, right?”
“For most, perhaps,” Red Apple said.
“Yeah, from their story, it sounded they did have a lot of outsiders when the whole thing happened,” Thunderbolt added.
“They did state most of the group here were from those hoping to still find their own country, even if the chances were low,” Wind Shield commented.
“And unlike us, they sounded like they were more in contact with the lands beyond their borders. With their immediate neighbors, at least,” Starswirl added, before gazing into the sky.
“It is a sad thing overall,” the unicorn mare said, whose expression then shifted into that of slight panic.
“What if it were to happen to Equestria as well?”
The sentiment of panic was briefly shared by most of them.
“I… I wouldn’t worry too much about that, Bookworm,” the same earth pony from before said.
“Y-yeah, this doesn’t sound like the sort of thing that could happen often enough to worry about,” Red Apple added.
“Besides, if it was really Discord the one behind it, then we no longer have to worry, right?”
“But what if it wasn’t him?” The last earth pony of the group spoke up, sounding more afraid that the rest.
“See? It could still happen to us!” The mare, Bookworm, added.
“We still can’t be sure of that,” Thunderbolt pointed out.
As the ponies continued their discussion, Celestia turned to see Starswirl, who was still gazing at the sky.
“What is it, Lord Starswirl?” She asked.
“Is it finally time to bring forth the night?”
The unicorn broke his gaze to face her.
“That it does, your highness,” Starswirl replied.
“And I think this can be a good time as any to bring this fact to our guests.”
“What do you mean?” Celestia asked.
“Well, if they didn’t think magic existed, then they wouldn’t think that’s what moves their own world’s sun and moon,” Starswirl explained.
“That’s one explanation I would like to know,” Luna said.
“We should ask them afterwards.”
“All things do seem to point that magic is at best just rare in their world,” Starswirl said.
“Or a lost art.”
“I agree. A world where magic doesn’t exist…” Luna shook her head.
“I just can’t imagine it.”
“They did at least know about magic as a concept,” Wind Shield pointed out.
“And their own maps showed they haven’t fully explored their own world. Perhaps they just hadn’t discovered it yet.”
“Well, in any case, we must show them,” Starswirl said.
The humans, sans Álvarez, rose once more from their seats when they saw the ponies were approaching them again. This time it was only the princesses and Starswirl, the latter which took a step more.
“We believe in your story,” Starswirl began.
“Though before we begin to discuss that in detail, there’s one thing we must do first.”
He then faced turned to face the sisters.
“Your highnesses, if you will.”
Both alicorns merely nodded, before placing themselves in position. Seeing another spectacle may be incoming, the few men that were keeping an eye on them began to call others. The humans saw how their horns began to glow, as expected now from having seen Starswirl do the same earlier. However, they couldn’t discern exactly what they would do. One of them faced the ocean, her head raised, towards the sun. The other, facing in the opposite direction, just looked towards the forests.
Just then, they started to notice it. The visibility around them was dimming. They saw the sun was now making its last part of the descend on the sky. However, they saw how the alicorn staring towards the sun was following in its path. They were quick to piece it together.
“Wait, is that horse really…?”
“It can’t be!”
“No way!”
For Guerrero and the others, similar thoughts were had.
“Is she… is she really moving the sun…?” Austin asked in Spanish.
“What else could it be?” Lemaur responded in kind.
“I don’t think they would suddenly do this now to fool us. It truly must be happening.”
Soon the sun was out of their sight. This made the humans’ focus shift to the other sister. Some already looking towards the sky to the east. Sure enough, they soon saw the moon rise into view from the mountains. It kept rising in the sky before finally, the alicorns’ horns stopped glowing. The moon’s ascension soon slowed down, almost to a stop, though if anyone could’ve had the means to look more closely, they would’ve seen it was still moving, albeit slowly.
“And looks like the moon as well,” Álvarez commented, glancing towards the moon.
Despite how seemingly calm his words sounded, he was as shocked as everyone else. He then faced back to the table and frowned.
“I’m going to need a candle now.”
Though the moon was giving off significant light, it was still dark enough to properly keep working on the papers. The spectacle seemingly over, the onlookers had all left back to their now nighttime duties.
“Never mind that for now,” Guerrero said.
The alicorn sisters turned back to face them. They and the unicorn sat down. Behind them, the other ponies seemed to be starting up a campfire. This illuminated the immediate area enough to continue their conversation, though the humans moved their chairs slightly closer before sitting own as well.
“I understand you’re going to have many questions about what you just saw,” Starswirl began.
“So, I think we might get something out of the way first. Is this not how it works in your world as well?”
“No, it most certainly not,” Guerrero shook his head.
“Are you sure? We know you don’t have magic,” Starswirl said.
“But surely it still must exist.”
“If I may, I don’t think any of us here can give a truly satisfying answer,” Lemaur said.
“But regardless, our world has had… ah, countless years of studies on the movement of our land and what we see in the sky.”
“Is that so?” Starswirl asked, his interest piqued.
“Then just say what are the current conclusions.”
“Well, it’s an application of… well, your language doesn’t seem to have a word for it. We call it gravity.”
“Gravity?” Starswirl repeated.
“Yes, the concept that any given object exerts some kind of force,” Lemaur explained.
“And when they interact with each other, usually the bigger object affects the smaller one. For something like our… world and the moon, the latter, for being much smaller, is forced to travel around the former.”
It’s not the best of explanations, but it would have to do. Lemaur thought.
“Fascinating,” Starswirl stated, stroking his beard.
“Are you sure this force isn’t just magic?” Luna asked, sounding a little incredulous.
“I would think we would have noticed, if that was the case,” Austin noted.
“Well, I have my doubts,” Luna said.
“Wait, you only mentioned the moon,” Celestia said.
“Does the sun does not work the same way?”
“Oh, it does,” Guerrero said.
“But in this case, it’s our world who travels around the sun.”
All three ponies were surprised by this revelation.
“Around the sun, you say?” Celestia asked.
“Wait, what? Why the sun!?” Luna asked, slight annoyance in her voice.
“As I mentioned, it’s a matter of size,” Lemaur said.
“The sun is much larger than the world. The largest object of the whole system.”
“Well, perhaps in your world,” Luna said.
“Sister, please calm down,” Celestia said.
“I suppose if true, it was bound to happen we’d begin to see big differences between our worlds. It’s certainly a surprise for us,” Starswirl said.
“Well, from our side, we have already faced our share of it,” Álvarez noted.
“I agree, and how the sun and moon work in this one, is another to the list,” Austin commented.
“But, if you two have the power to move them…” Guerrero began.
“Oh, well, it is not just a matter of raw power,” Celestia suddenly spoke.
“Moving the sun and moon is our special talent.”
“Special talent?” Guerrero repeated.
“Yes, we ponies have something we excel at. For my sister and I, that is moving the moon and sun, respectively.”
“And what exactly does that entails?” Lemaur asked.
“Well, before Discord took over, moving the sun and moon was a job for a group of unicorns,” Starswirl explained.
“A very straining job. Most unicorns would eventually lose their ability to cast magic due to the sheer amount of magic they had to exert twice a day, every day. But as you just saw, the princesses were able to do it on their very own.”
“And without any negative consequence,” Luna boasted.
“Then, about this Discord individual you overthrew…” Guerrero spoke.
“Ah, yes, that’s one matter we wanted to discuss,” Starswirl said.
“Yes, Discord was very powerful. Not only he could move the sun and moon without much thought like the princesses, but also countless other things. Things even beyond our power, and that mere descriptions can’t do justice.”
He then briefly gazed towards the ocean.
“Some of us currently believe he may have been the one who sent your country here.”
This surprised the humans.
“Could he?” Lemaur asked.
“It’s hard to say, but we wouldn’t rule it out,” Starswirl answered.
“There are many things we don’t know about this world. Much less so yours. Anything could’ve been the cause.”
“Well, a lead is a lead, nonetheless,” Guerrero noted.
This Discord… he sounds more and more like what many could mistake for a deity. He thought. Though after what he has done, perhaps demon is a better word to describe him.
“Not that we may be able to follow it,” Starswirl said.
“Even if Discord was willing to answer, he no longer can.”
“Why is that?” Guerrero asked.
“Because of his power, there was almost nothing nopony could do against him,” Celestia began.
“Our sister and I, we had to resort to search for these powerful artifacts Lord Starswirl told us about, that were able to subdue him. However, the result was that he got imprisoned in stone. He is just a statue, now.”
“So, is he… dead, then?” Austin asked.
“We do not believe that is the case,” Celestia shook her head.
“In theory, he could be freed,” Starswirl said.
“And there’s no way we will ever do that,” Luna huffed.
“For all he’s done, he can remain a statue for all eternity, I’d say.”
“In any case, considering your current situation, while we cannot do much, we offer any help we can,” Celestia said.
The humans felt relief at hearing those words.
“We still need to report this back to the King, but we are sure we can get him to accept to stablish formal relations between our countries,” Starswirl added.
“That is wonderful to hear,” Guerrero said.
“In that case, we also need to make our way back and report this to our… ah, leader as well.”
“Hm, what was that hesitation,” Starswirl asked.
“Well, you see, we don’t have a King in charge. Our country is not a kingdom,” Guerrero explained.
“At least not since recently. So, what we call our leader… is not something your language has the word for, I’m afraid.”
“I see,” Starswirl stroke his beard.
“Perhaps we should wait for our next meeting to explain that further.”
“Speaking of that, how do we stablish when to meet again?” Lemaur asked.
“Our trip took us many days. Coming back here alone would be the double of that, in addition to any time it would take to decide and prepare.”
“I think it should be here once more,” Celestia said.
“It is an ideal neutral ground.”
“Perhaps at first, your highness,” Starswirl pointed out.
“Eventually either delegation has to travel to the other country itself.”
He then turned to face the humans.
“Well, in any case, since we at least seem to have the same concept of what a day is, perhaps we can decide on some range.”
“If you brought some kind of calendar, like we did, then we can easily plan it,” Guerrero said.
“Excellent,” Starswirl nodded.
“May this be the beginning of a long and lasting friendship between our countries.”
“We look forward to it,” Guerrero replied.