“You’re early,” Bon Bon said, inviting the two ponies inside.
“We were anxious to hear what the princess had to say about our extraterrestrial friend,” Rarity replied, taking a seat in front of the couch.
“S-So is everything going to be fine?” Fluttershy asked, taking a sip of tea.
“Yes, the princess agreed that our work was enough for her to have second thoughts,” Bon Bon answered. “But there’s been a slight addition to what we need to do.”
“What does the princess expect him to go through now?” Rarity asked, dropping a cube of sugar in her tea before swirling it.
Lyra cleared out her throat, “Now before I say this, I just want to point out that it totally slipped my mind you two were elements. Not that I think it’s a huge thing, I mean, I’ve never heard you two ever bringing such things up.”
“Small details,” Rarity replied, gently drinking her tea. “To parade such things around, why would I want that to be the defining factor of who I am?”
Lyra nodded, “I get that. The only reason I bring it up is, well, It seems that it actually helped the princess in her decision with Anon.”
“How so?”
“There’s a lot that no one knows about, the counsel at Canterlot being such an example. They’re a kind of a system of checks and balances that the princess set up long ago for looking into different beings in power in our lands, the princesses being included.
They would normally ignore this whole alien thing, even with me being a direct employer of the princess as it doesn’t have anything to do with them. On account of the Elements being directly under Princess Celestia’s power, however, that changes things.”
Lyra chuckled, “I don’t know if you gals know how much they keep an eye on you all. They took what you said about Anon very seriously. The two of you pretty much helped stop the princess just from your letters.”
Fluttershy turned to Rarity surprised. “I, well… I didn’t know we had that kind of influence… Did you, Rarity?”
Rarity blinked. “No, I didn’t. I wasn’t aware us being Elements truly amounted to much,” she said, trying to sound nonchalant, clearly failing from having her ego rubbed.
“Anyways, the princess has included your statements and is reconsidering everything,” Bon Bon said. “But now she wants the statements of the other elements, to prove without a doubt that he’s harmless through their eyes.”
“So,” Lyra said, slamming her teacup on the table, “here’s the plan! We need you two to ‘convince’ the others of Anon’s innocence! He needs to be with each one for a week, so having a jump-start would be really helpful.”
“And… how exactly are we going to go about this?” Rarity asked. “He’s barely able to understand us as it is, only just recently learning how to write.”
“I don’t think it’ll be that difficult, so long as we move things around in the right manner.” Lyra brought out a board, showing off her ingenious plan that was sure to work. None of the others commented on how it looked like the drawings of a three-year-old.
“The first one will be Applejack. She’s more judgemental toward actions than words, which will help with Anon’s current difficulties in speaking.” An image of Applejacks, eyes enlarged, was pointed at. “She’ll need the least amount of work out of the four. Keep him around her, get them to know Anon, and it’s quite simple with her.”
“The next,” she tapped on an image of a pegasus, sleeping on a cloud, “is Rainbow Dash. So long as we keep him near the farm, Applejack should be able to help convince her. Though I am afraid of her flying off if she gets bored. She’ll need behind the scenes prodding to keep her around.”
A tap of the board showed a grumpy unicorn, glaring at the viewer. “Twilight will be third. Out of them all, she’ll be the most difficult to convince. In fact, it’s quite likely the princess will have already told Twilight about everything and has something prepared to foil things.”
Rarity harrumphed, “Don’t be absurd, I highly doubt the princess of all ponies would sabotage this whole ordeal.”
Lyra held her tongue, wishing to share her side of things concerning the moon princess and how things have already been meddled with. Stirring that hornet's nest wouldn’t help. Trying to sip from her tea, she noticed that she cracked her cup, the tea puddled on the table. Shrugging, she took the teapot, drinking directly from it.
“Regardless,” Lyra continued, wiping her mouth, “Twilight will still be very strict about her work, possibly going as far as to treat him similar to a wild beast. She may even keep us from doing anything during that time, so that’s why we need Pinkie to be last.” Lyra tapped the board, showing a pink pony jumping around.
Fluttershy looked confused. “Why would Pinkie being reserved for last help with Twilight?”
“Pinkie tends to do what she does: Be super friendly and try to bring a smile to others. If Twilight has any notion that Anon might not be all that he seems, Pinkie should be able to help convince her otherwise, along with everyone else at the time backing her up.”
“The plan isn’t difficult, but it will take a lot of work to perform as we want it to,” said Bon Bon. “We want this to be off to a good start. The first pony we planned on him meeting was Applejack. Are there any arguments for that?”
Fluttershy continued drinking her tea as Rarity rubbed the bottom of her chin in a thinking pose. “Applejack would be a very good place to start. Out of the other four, I don’t think she would have much trouble around him.”
Rarity took a sip of her tea, failing to ignore the sloppy gulping coming from Lyra. ‘What? I’m really thirsty!’
“Just out of curiosity but, well, why wasn’t Rainbow Dash considered first?” Fluttershy waved her hooves in front of her, “I mean, not that Applejack’s a bad pony to start with! I just, well…”
Finishing her teapot in a loud gasp, Lyra threw that over her shoulder. Bon Bon dived for it before it could hit the ground. “We figured that if we can get Applejack on our side, she can easily help and saddle Rainbow Dash to look positive toward him. I mean, seriously, what do you think the first thing Dash will do seeing Anon?”
“Tackle him,” Fluttershy and Rarity said in sync.
“Exactly,” Lyra said with a nod, “then she’ll start hollering at Anon, which might result in some things we’d like to avoid. But if Applejack is around, someone already used to him, she could help convert Dash to our side! So your side of all this is quite simple: We just need you two to try and keep both Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash away from the farm until the end of the week.”
“How do you intend to introduce Anon to Applejack?” Rarity asked, placing her cup on the table.
It was still quite full. She barely drank anything in it. Lyra licked her lips. ‘She’s not going to finish that, is she?’
Rarity, seeing this, rolled her eyes, pushing the cup forward. Lyra gladly accepted the cup, levitating it up to her before slamming it down. The drinks from the bar really dehydrated her.
“Anyway,” Rarity continued, disgusted at Lyra’s lack of etiquette, “she can’t take time off from the farm. And if I recall, Anon can’t leave this house.”
Bon Bon spoke up, “After reading the message over, it ultimately states we are to have it shown it to the elements in a manner that does not deviate from their normal routines. Normally this would be difficult to do with since after they’re done with their tasks, it would be getting quite late for them to do anything with Anon, leaving little to no impact on their views toward him. But with how she wrote her orders, we can interpret them as being allowed to invite the alien to their residences and introduce them over the course of a week.”
Lyra slammed her cup down, still feeling dry. She started to eye Fluttershy’s drink as she sipped on it.
“Won’t it be a problem if any other pony other than Applejack sees him?” Rarity asked.
“We thought of that. Sneaking him when there’s little activity out in town won’t be that difficult, we’ll make the trip either early in the morning or late at night.”
Fluttershy seemed to have noticed Lyra eyeing her cup. She pulled it back, worried she’d want it as well. It was her favorite flavor, Lilac Springs. It was difficult coming across that flavor. Lyra had it imported a while back; spendy, but worth every bit.
“It sounds like you have everything already planned. I suppose I best keep Sweetie Belle away from the farm for the time being.”
Lyra was staring at the drink Fluttershy was very adamant with keeping away from her. ‘Ooh, if only I could—’
Her thoughts were interrupted as Bon Bon smacked her hooves, sending her a glare. “Lyra, I already served you, Anon, and the girls. You are being rude right now. If you want more, you just have to ask and I’ll go make some more.”
The unicorn rubbed her hooves, sending a pout. They’re the ones that forced her to go to the bar, they knew how thirsty the next day would have been for her.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X ~ ~ X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
“~+Now… Whaaat is thaaat?+~”
Lyra pointed at, of course, the stick with fire on it, placed around some kind of box to prevent it from burning things.
**Fire on a Stick.**
“~+Good! Now… Whaaat is on myyy riiight?+~”
He looked where she directed, letting out a sigh before writing the answer down.
**Fire on a Blade.**
“~+Yes! Now… Whaat am I loooking at nneeooouuww…?”
Rubbing his eyes Anon looked where Lyra was. Oh, he definitely remembered that one. He looked back at her, seeing a large smile that waited for an answer.
**Fire on Fire.**
Lyra clapped her hooves. They had been testing dangerous things on him for some time. His worries never abated, seeing them bring out more hazardous and weird items each time.
The pony went back to her papers, writing something down. It was the last day they were supposed to be doing any of the dangerous item testings, as they called it. They had mentioned that he would be leaving the building later on to visit someone for a week. He, of course, was nervous.
Sitting at his desk in his small chair, Anon looked at the paperwork in front of him. A bunch of nonsensical scribbles that made up a language was written down. He had been hard at work, trying to learn as fast as he could. Whoever they were taking him to was likely to test him on what he had learned.
Continuing his work, his thoughts kept drifting to a reason for it all. Why would anyone want to kidnap him in the first place? Sure, he was the leader of an environmental group, but if anyone wanted to kidnap him for those reasons, why put him through everything?
He had been surrounded by small horses for the entire stay, being taught a musical language, seeing all acts of nonsense such as levitation taking place, and nothing seemed to be adding up for him. How did they even manage to make robotic horses that intricate? Who would do all this?
**You are not here to take over our world, are you?**
He kept remembering the odd message, the thing prodding at him, trying to tell him how it all made sense. He refused to acknowledge the ridiculous thing.
He felt a tug on his arm, the one called Rarity measuring him once again. They were making him a cloak to cover his body and she wanted to make some last-minute adjustments.
“~+Are you almost done?+~” Lyra sang out.
“~+Nearly there darling, simply want to give his arms some more drape.+~”
“~+They’re covering well enough don’t you think?+~”
“~+Goes to show what you really know. If it is covering his entire body, it needs to look stylish! His arms will droop down, the bottoms just barely touching the ground yet completely hiding his legs, and a hood concealing his face, a dark foreboding look to anyone daring enough to peer inside.+~”
“~+Are you trying to make him look like a creep?+~”
“~+Why, no, I am not. I rarely get to do this kind of work and I admittedly am finding it fun, trying to give it my all to designing such a thing.~+”
It didn’t take much longer for her to finish. He now stood in front of the door, a cloak covering him, with a rucksack strung over his shoulder carrying some small supplies and extra chalk, alongside his board. Lyra and Bon Bon wore matching cloaks, strapping their bags to themselves, the other two having already left long ago.
‘I hope they’re not making me a part of some strange horse cult.’
Anon could feel his heart thumping in anticipation, wondering just what awaited him outside. He watched as Lyra used her horn, slowly opening the door. Looking around, he could see many different buildings around him with various shapes, forms, and colors. Off in the distance, Anon saw what looked like a gingerbread house and a merry-go-round that looked fit for a fair.
He wasn’t sure how to react. His expectations were blown out of the water. How was he to know he would be located smack dab in a town, full of horses. It was still early in the morning, but he could clearly see more horses walking around near the town center or flying in the sky. He had never seen the yellow one using her wings to fly, thinking it was merely for show; it shows how much he knew, now seeing they were fully functional. How did they even keep their bodies in the air with so little force being used?
Feeling a bump in his leg, Lyra motioned for him to follow her quietly. The different houses he passed were interesting to look at, each one being its own unique design. He was quite impressed with the one made entirely out of a tree.
They had to hide in bushes every now and then, waiting for any passersby to leave. It appeared they were leaving the town and were hiding him from the other horses.
‘Why are they going through with all of this? Hiding away from the others as if it was dangerous to be known by the other horses. Who would be insane enough to design an entire town of ponies to show off, just to hide from them?’
…Unless he was thinking in the wrong direction this whole time. A coldness settled in, some form of realization finally dawned on him. He watched Lyra and Bon Bon guiding him forward, twittering softly to one another.
‘No. They can’t possibly be real.’
But why make everything up, all just for him?
‘They were levitating things! And they’re horses! None of their actions make much sense either.’
Perhaps he was the one not making sense. How would anyone make advanced pieces of technology, invent a completely new language of such intricacy, and be using him of all people to use them on? In the grand scheme of things, he was a nobody. Just some schmuck that wanted to make the world a better place.
‘Oh god. OH GOD. Where am I? These are freaking real?’
He couldn’t control the beating of his heart. His mind felt dizzy, a sickening numbness spreading inside him.
‘No, no, no. I… I have to stay calm. I can’t freak out right now, I just need to take things slowly.’
His mind preoccupied, he never noticed them slowing to a stop, now standing in front of a massive apple orchard.
He wasn’t sure how to handle everything. It was too much to take in all at once.
His tolerance nearly broke seeing the sun making an appearance. At first, he thought perhaps his mind was finally breaking down with how bright it was getting. Anon instead saw the sun gliding through the sky at an alarming rate over the horizon.
‘THE SUN’S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO DO THAT.’
The moon followed the sun’s actions, only drifting down past the horizon. He wasn’t even aware that he ran off in a random direction in a panic. His journey was short-lived, running straight into a tree.
He could see white spots blinking in his vision. Many little thumps began to hit his body soon after. Groaning, he leaned up and saw apples covering him. Rubbing his head, he could hear a pony saddled up beside him, looking down at him in amusement. It was a new horse, having an orange coat and freckles that don’t make any sense in having. The pony also wore a cowboy hat, for some reason.
The pony gave him a smirk. “~+So, this here be that alien I was told about? The fella ain’t very bright in the dome, is he?+~” Lyra merely groaned.
The orange pony chuckled, “~+The name’s Applejack, partner. We here at Sweet Apple Acres be expectin’ you to not run around slammin’ into trees too much around here.+~” The pony eyed around his body at the apples. “~+Unless this is how you aliens go about gettin’ yer apples?+~”
Anon continued to stare at her, uncertain what she said. It sounded like the language Lyra and the others spoke, but something was off.
“~+Applejack, he can barely understand us as it is. The most he can do is read and write.+~”
Lyra pointed at the bag on Anon’s shoulder, motioning they wanted to communicate. With some hesitation, he pulled himself out of the apples, sitting beside them before grabbing the chalk and board. Looking up at the sun, he saw it floating still, brightening the day. Forcing himself not to freak out, he wrote her a message.
**Sorry, the sun scared me. Not used to seeing it do things like that.**
The cowboy pony raised an eyebrow. Giving her the chalk, she wrote a message back for Anon to read. He stared at it, unable to understand what she wrote. Showing the board to Lyra, hoping to find what it said, she smacked her face with her hoof, giving the still-unnamed pony a deadpan expression.
“~+Applejack, how many times do we have to say this to you? Stop writing in your accent!+~”
“~+And I keep on tellin’ everypony to get those rocks outta their heads ‘cause I ain’t got no accent!+~”
The two ponies started to bicker back and forth as Anon sat there in the pile of apples, contemplating his life, wondering how he wound up in such a situation.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Sitting inside the barn, Anon tapped at his chalkboard with some chalk. His stay on the apple farm was if nothing but exhausting. He was on break, going through a grueling amount of work, picking up barrels of apples and hauling them around. Working on his language skills was extremely important if only to simply speak with the… Equestrians.
Anon bottled up his emotions, going along for the ride if only to keep his sanity. He had already been there for a few days, having to go back and forth from the house to make visits. After a few too many close calls, they decided it would be best for him to stay at the farm. Applejack was not one to let him simply stay there with nothing to do, regarding him more as extra labor.
“At least she doesn’t see me negatively,” he muttered.
It took some prodding but he got Lyra to finally tell him about how the princess of their land was, in fact, having him under her supervision. Depending on how things went, he was told he could simply live with them or wind up being banished. To the moon. And apparently, it was not the first time for that to happen.
Anon made sure to work twice as hard, putting in twice as much effort in whatever was asked, knowing it would likely be the factor on his fate. Applejack immediately took a shine to him, appreciating all the hard work he put in. The other two, her brother and grandmother, were just as enthused with all the extra help and no fuss coming from him.
He wiped a bead of sweat off his brow, clearing the chalkboard before beginning once again. With Lyra disappearing halfway through the day, he was left alone to study. She had mentioned something about keeping others away from the farm. It gave him time for practice. His numbers were starting to look crisp and clean.
Hearing something scraping, he turned to the door, seeing Applejack walking up to him.
“~+Okay ya big galoot, I know ya can’t really understand us but I’m gonna need to have you tidy up before ya sit down and eat with us.+~”
Placing his chalkboard down, Anon followed Applejack to the back of the barn. He could see a wooden tub there, filled with water and bubbly soap.
He knew where this was going, and he didn’t want any part of it. Looking behind him for an exit, he saw Big Mac standing right in his way, nudging him forward. Anon attempted to get out of there but the two overpowered him, forcing him toward the bath.
“Darn it Lyra, where the hell are you?!”
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Sitting at the table, the two apple siblings shared red faces, looking at the ground on opposite sides. Lyra, who was sitting beside the very upset human, held her head down. Anon was peeved.
They had hung his cloak up so it was easy to see the emotions on his face. He held his hands together on the table, patiently waiting for what he assumed was a meal being made.
Feeling something poke him on the side, he saw Lyra nudging his board on the table. He could see she wrote a note for him.
**I’m sorry Anon. I forgot to tell them about your clothing situation.**
The earlier bath had ruined his mood; he felt violated as they stripped him down for his involuntary bath. He could forgive the one time at the house, not really understanding things, but Lyra simply forgetting to tell his patrons something that important? During their silence, an older pony was loading the table with food, keeping an ear out to what was said.
Applejack turned to Anon, “~+We’re mighty sorry about what we had done. We promise we’ll ask ‘fore we do anything like that again. Guess we forgot you’re an alien and all with your alien habits and whatnot.+~”
The unicorn translated what they said on the board. Letting out a sigh, Anon wrote a reply back.
**It is fine you were not informed of it so I can not get too mad at either of you.**
Applejack let out a sigh. “We do appreciate your help around the farm, really. And you don’t seem like a bad sort of fella. Could get used to having another hoof, or paw-thing, around here.”
The elderly pony finished setting the table finally she took a seat at the head. “~+Now, even though we may have some strangeness currently at our table, I’m hopin’ to have everypony here to act as they would normally any other day.+~”
The others nodded while Anon could only guess what was said. He saw everyone there starting to pass some of the food around, putting it on their plates. Examining the food, he saw a wide assortment of apple products all over the table. There was an apple salad, apple quiche, and apple kabobs to name a few. He also saw some things he’d pass on, such as what appeared to be meatloaf, only take the meat and replace it with hay. And apples. He was curious about how they managed that one.
Looking at a bowl of what he thought was potatoes, he eagerly pulled it over. Some mashed potatoes sounded fantastic after all the eggs he’s been served for so long with barely anything to break up the monotony of them. He was wondering how they’d taste.
With no warning, his head was forced straight into the bowl, something now sitting on the back of his head. Anon could clearly taste a rich potato flavor with just a hint of apple that was surprisingly appealing to his taste buds. Now if only he could enjoy it without being shoved into them.
“~+Applebloom! What are you doin’ here?! And get offa him this instant!+~”
The weight quickly vanished. Lifting his head from the bowl, he looked at a chair on the other side of him, seated now by a very small pony, adorned with a very large ribbon in her hair, giving him a very large smile.
Applejack looked at her with a frown. “~+I thought ya were gonna be havin’ a sleepover at Rarity’s place with yer friends.+~”
“~+Well, I was until Rarity let slip that there’s an ALIEN HERE!+~”
“~+Darn it, Rarity,+~ Lyra grumbled, “~+I told you not to tell anypony! But does she listen? Nooo!+~”
The little pony prodded at his clothing, her eyes twinkling in wonderment. “~+Wow. Your clothes are so weird! What’s it like being an alien?+~”
“~+Apple Bloom, he can’t understand you,+~” Applejack said while passing Anon a napkin. “~+He doesn’t understand our language; he has to write everything down on that there board to speak to us.+~”
The little pony groaned, “~+I forgot Rarity said that. This sucks.+~”
Anon cleaned the mess off his face, and not wanting to let the food go to waste, he scooped some of it out of the bowl and onto the plate.
“~+Does he have any weird, alien powers or things he can do?+~” the little pony asked. All the other ponies at the table looked at Anon, and then at Lyra.
Lyra rubbed the back of her neck, “~+He doesn’t have any powers. In fact, his race doesn’t have magic in any form. Not a drop of the stuff where he comes from.+~”
The others widened their eyes at that, the table gasping like kazoos. Anon ignored them, trying out some of the food they had prepared. He knew they were talking about him, but it wasn’t like he could hear what they said or do anything about it.
“~+How is that possible?+~” Granny Smith asked. “~+Everything has magic in them.+~”
“~+Not humans,+~” Lyra answered. “~+They’re completely devoid of it in them or in their world. They get around that by being extremely advanced in their technology. Anon here told me they had things that could allow them to fly across the lands in hours, or talk to another being with only the click of a few buttons.+~”
“~+That… sounds like magic to me, Lyra,+~” Applejack said.
The unicorn shook her head, “~+No, it’s all technology powered by other things. He even brought with him a small box, right in his pocket right now, that carries over thirty thousand songs of all kinds!+~” The other ponies oohed at what Lyra had said. “~+It’s currently dead, but he said it just needs some juice and it can get up and running.+~”
“~+Juice? I gots some apple juice if that’ll help ya.+~”
“~+I don’t think that’ll work granny, it probably needs special human juice.+~”
“~+Lyra, why don’t you ask your friend here what kind of juice he needs. Perhaps we can ask our neighbors up the hill, they gots some carrot juice they store away.+~”
Lyra gave her an awkward laugh. “~+I don’t think he needs real juice, but I could ask what he meant by it.+~”
“~+What d’ya mean by ask?+~” Applebloom spoke up.
Applejack placed her cup down. “~+Lyra here can ask him questions on that chalkboard and he can write back, it’s the only way he knows how to communicate with us.+~”
“~+…Entire sentences?+~”
“~+How else would you have a conversation?+~” Applejack said with a chuckle.
Applebloom gave them all a skeptical look. “~+How’s that possible? Rarity mentioned he only knows how to write for like, two weeks. Even I have problems writing certain words. So how does he know how to write so well?+~”
Everyone blinked at Applebloom, then looked at Lyra. “~+I’m… not sure? I didn’t even think anything of it until now.+~”
Applejack narrowed her eyes. “~+I don’t know, Lyra. That sounds suspicious, being able to write so quickly in another language. You sure he’s not hiding anything from you?+~”
“Well, the reason－”
“Now I mean no offense but I want to hear what he has to say.”
The others twittered agreements, nodding their heads. Lyra seemed worried, grabbing out her chalkboard. “~+I-I’ll ask him real quick, just give me a moment!+~”
Pausing from his bite of apple rolls, which he was greatly enjoying, he saw Lyra had a message written out to him.
**How are you able to learn our language so quickly?**
Placing down his roll, he took the chalkboard, thinking of a reply. His initial thoughts when he was first learning was that the people holding him hostage were simply lazy and created a language that translated easily to English. Sure, there were some odd spelling mannerisms like adding some flourish to show capitalization or the weird differences to their punctuation marks, but it still felt simple enough to translate.
Now that he knew better? He wasn’t sure. How was he capable of translating their language without any problems? It was both irritating and frightening to him, how things coincided with one another. Anon knew how to translate words that they hadn’t taught him, like tambourine or unicorn. Language doesn’t work like that, it shouldn’t work like that, and yet it was seemingly working like that.
**I am not sure why. Your words transfer from my people words easily. It is like stoves or pies. Things that are same that should not be.**
The others read the message, clearly confused.
“~+What’s he mean by stoves and pies?+~” Applejack asked. “~+What’s he on about things being the same? Why shouldn’t they be and what’s that got to do with language?+~”
Lyra replied, “~+The real question is, shouldn’t they be different?+~” Everyone merely looked more confused. “~+From talking to him, while it’s a bit early to say for sure, I’ve come to the conclusion that the two of our worlds are tied together in some manner.
“~+We have similar foods, similar tools, and even similar societies, in certain respects. They know of magical creatures from our world, taking them as myths. We have a lot of products and ideas that they have which we take for granted or don’t give much thought about. Somehow, we’ve been trading ideas back and forth without ever interacting with one another.+~”
Apple Bloom let out a gasp. “~+Are you talking about the dream theory? Miss Cheerilee was talking about that recently.+~”
“~+Dream theory?” Applejack frowned. “I don’t seem to recall that being taught in schools when I was a filly.+~”
“~+It’s only a recent theory from the magical community,” Lyra spoke. “With how our population is growing, we get to truly see the wider variety of what our people are capable of, both in works and magic.
“~+For example, hundreds of years ago, Grampy Tracks was a pony that was said to be able to communicate with animals, helping disputes between ponies and the wildlife. It was a very rare phenomenon and most thought of like a fairy tale. But with our numbers increasing, it’s pretty common to find a few animal whisperers around.+~”
“~+What’s this have t’ do with dreams?+~”
“~+There are numerous incidents of ponies or other beings with special abilities that crop up from time to time, and one of those reported on ponies that could dream walk, similar to Princess Luna, but on a wider level, dreaming of places that seemingly don’t exist. A theory last decade came up that we’re tapping into other realms, and those realms were tapping into ours, sharing ideas back and forth.+~”
“~+I sure would love to be able to do that,” Apple Bloom said. “Explore other places, see new faces, interact and have fun with all kinds of races!+~”
Lyra looked to the side, coughing. “~+Uh yeah… so would I. Anyways, there’s something weird going on, and yet we don’t have any answers. Ultimately, I think he’s saying his language is also similar to ours, and that there doesn’t seem to be an answer; for the time being, until something presents itself that can answer this, it is what it is.+~”
Everyone hummed a choir of flutes as Anon finished his last apple roll, ignoring the symphony of sounds around him as he ate. He frowned, not finding anything to help sop up the apple gravy with for his apple potatoes. Oblivious to the tone everyone had regarding him, he wrote a message to the Apple matriarch.
**Are there more apple rolls? They are very good.**
The older apple family member seemed elated at the message, happily moving from a subject she wasn’t comfortable in. “~+Of course there is! I made a whole batch of them for everyone, and yet, none of the others seem t’ like it for some reason or ‘nother.+~”
“~+Granny, we like the roles, +~” Big Mac said with the tone of a saxophone.
“~+Don’t be lyin’ through your teeth or someone might see that wooden smile of yours! You eat everything off your plates but the roles!+~”
Lyra let out a sigh, seemingly relieved from whatever had transpired. Once things calmed down, Anon was given a whole plate of rolls. He wasn’t going to argue, the look from the others telling him he better eat it since he asked for them.
For the remainder of the night, Lyra told them about the humans and their advanced world. The Apple family was sucked into everything she had to say about them. Anon, barely catching words that Lyra had said, simply ignored the whole thing, eating his food, only replying when urged to.
Soon after the meal, he was brought out to the barn by Lyra where he’d be spending his nights at. It looked like someone had tried setting things up for him to sleep relatively comfortably on the hay, placing a rather large blanket and a decently sized pillow.
Lyra looked at him, giving a hesitant smile. She grabbed his chalkboard, writing a message.
**I hope things have been going well on the farm.**
“So do I.”
He was still nervous about the thought of being banished. He had to stay civil with everyone. If all he had to do was some hard work for a week, then he would push it as hard as he could.
**I’m going to leave you for the night since the Apples don’t want me ‘freeloading’ here.**
Anon easily understood that. They worked him hard around the place, carrying buckets of apples or running around doing odd chores. Lyra gave him a wave goodbye, leaving him alone in the barn.
He laid down under his blanket, left alone to his thoughts. He was still coming to grips about being in another world, a small part of him refusing the silly idea. And yet, he had nothing that could convince him the idea was wrong. No one in their right mind would put so much effort into tricking him otherwise.
“I’m not going back home, am I?”
His friends, family, everything he had was gone. Something pinched his heart, thinking about his life.
“I… I really shouldn’t think about that right now. I need to stay hopeful for the future and get through this. Just… roll with the punches.”
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The rest of the week had been a hassle. The ponies at the farm had him carrying bins of apples along with whatever chores they needed doing. Lyra had been around him more often, explaining things when she could about him to the others.
Applejack didn’t seem to mind him one bit, something Lyra was ecstatic to see, only questioning about his taste in apples or farming from his world. He did enjoy the exercise on the farm, feeling he needed to get in some shape for some time.
The only other thing of importance would have to be the smaller ponies who called themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders. They had attempted to sneak him out of the farm one day. Anon talked them out of it but had difficulty preventing them from their shenanigans at attaining their marks. Applejack found it entertaining and allowed them free run, seeing as he helped keep them out of her hair.
He was just happy things were going well for him if one didn’t include him being ripped from his world and being forced to do chores in an effort to save his life from being banished to the moon.
Lifting up what he would think to be his fiftieth bin of apples, Anon turned around and noticed something was off. No one was around. Lyra had been making a habit of sticking close to him, and one of the other ponies typically sung at him in some fashion, trying to talk.
He made his way to the barn, trying to figure out where everyone went. Stopping, he heard a whistle in the air. Anon looked up, his eyes widened, seeing a mass of colors swirling around in the sky.
He attempted to stay cool so he wouldn’t freak out like he did the first day on the farm. Anon reasoned this was just another oddity in the land of magic and talking ponies, much like the sun and moon were. Slowly walking to the barn with the apples, all the while watching the colors shoot about, they made an immediate sharp turn in the air, now aimed at Anon. The whistling grew louder as the colors came closer and closer.
Thinking fast, he dropped the apples and dove to the side just as the colors came to him. He successfully dodged, seeing the colors shooting right past him and into the sky, only to make a quick stop. Anon frowned, seeing it was a pony with wings. It was rearing up, showing it was coming back for him.
‘Why is it attacking me?’
He turned around from the pony, making a run for Applejack.
“APPLEJACK!” he screamed in English, hoping it would draw her attention.
Her head coincidentally appeared around a corner of a tree, her legs dropping to the ground from the mid-buck. Looking up in the air, she shook her head before going back to bucking.
“Darn it, Applejack! Help me!”
The pony slammed into his back, sending him tumbling to the ground. Laying still, the pony dropped onto his back.
“~+Aaaaw yeeeah! I totally just stopped that monster from taking your apples, Applejack+~” Anon groaned in pain as Applejack walked up to the two of them. “~+So, for my reward, which I definitely deserve from such a heroic action, I wouldn’t mind some of that cider I know you’re already cooking up.+~”
Applejack could only smirk. “~+Now Rainbow Dash, why would I reward ya rammin’ into my guest?+~”
“~+…Guest?+~”
“~+Yes, my guest. This here’s that alien the princess told us that Lyra would be showing around. It’s so nice that ya got to meet the fella early, making such a great first impression and all.+~” Applejack laughed at her words.
“~+Th-Th-THIS is the alien?! B-B-B-But he doesn’t look like, all weird or anything like I thought he would!+~”
“~+Ya thought he was a monster.+~”
“~+Yeah, so?+~”
Lifting a brow at her multi-colored friend, Applejack chuckled before turning around to return to her work. Rainbow Dash blinked, just before realizing she was still sitting on his back. She jumped off of him, landing right beside him. Anon finally sat up, looking at a very worried blue face.
“~+Oh my gosh, I am so sorry about that! I thought you were a monster and was trying to run with her apples and, gah! Why didn’t you say something!+~”
Anon slowly blinked at her; he couldn’t understand a single word she said, especially with how fast she spoke. He pointed at his ears, hoping she would get the message.
“~+I BROKE YOUR EARS?! OH NO!+~”
The rainbow-colored pony attempted to pick Anon up from where he sat, unable to move him a single inch. Surprisingly, Anon did have a single advantage over these ponies: his superior strength. He wasn’t sure why, but he could overpower these ponies without too much effort. He found this little bit of info out at the bath scene when he picked Big Mac right up off the ground. It sadly didn’t help one bit with him not taking a bath.
“~+What are you doing?! I need to take you to the hospital to fix your ears! Come on!+~”
She continued to tug on his jacket, trying to pick him up to his feet. The pony flapped her wings rapidly. Anon, frowning, looked over to the side, seeing Lyra and Applejack walking up to the two of them.
“~+Rainbow Dash, what are ya doin’?+~”
She let out a grunt, “~+I’m trying to get the alien to the hospital! I think I broke his ears!+~”
Anon looked at her, and then at the other two before he shook his head. He pointed at his ears, showing he couldn’t understand her.
“~+See!+~”
“~+Rainbow, he can’t understand you,+~” Lyra said, “~+That’s why he’s pointing at his ear.+~”
The pony stopped tugging, landing on the ground, looking at him.
“~+Oh. Well, why didn’t you tell me you couldn’t understand us!+~”
The two ponies smacked their faces, which the multicolored pony ignored. She walked around Anon as if to examine him for something.
“~+You don’t look like you’re up to something. Just what was the princess talking about?+~”
“~+Wait, what do you mean by that?+~” Lyra asked. “~+Did the princess say anything?+~”
“~+Ya mean ya don’t’ know?~+” Applejack asked. “~+The princess sent us all letters, explaining the situation. She just said some things to watch out for. I didn’t see much wrong with the fella, so I dropped it pretty quickly.+~”
Lyra looked to the ground, frowning at her words. “~+I didn’t think the princess would interfere that far.+~”
The winged pony continued circling Anon, uncertain what to take him for. “~+Well, the princess wouldn’t have sent those letters without a reason, right? So if there is something wrong with it, I’m gonna make sure for the next week!+~”
Hearing that, Lyra picked her head up. “~+You’re going to be here for the week?+~”
“~+Of course I am! I mean, I’m not going to just go back to work when I finally just talked them into letting me off for two weeks!+~”
“~+Wait, it’s only for a week,+~” Applejack said.
“~+Oh, I know, but they don’t know that,~+” Rainbow Dash said with a snicker. “~+So how are we supposed to do this? I mean, I still want to be able to do stuff and I don’t want to be all cramped up in your home, Lyra.+~”
“~+He can’t exactly stay up in your house for obvious reasons,+~” Lyra said.
“~+Yeah didn’t think he’d be cloud-capable.+~”
“~+There’s nothing to worry about,~+” Applejack said. “~+He can just stay here for another week!+~”
The three nodded their heads in agreement. Lyra translated things for Anon, to which he was not happy about.
‘Staying at the farm for another week. Fantastic.’
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Anon was at a grand looking lake, situated near the apple farm. The one called Rainbow Dash had forced him to come for some reason. Lyra had run off ahead of them, making sure no one was around and shooing anyone close by. Rainbow Dash was currently writing a message on a blackboard she had brought herself.
**Okay alien, now that we’re here I have some questions for you.**
Anon stood there, waiting for her next message. He didn’t think she’d try to do anything rash, but just in case he would make sure to answer carefully.
**First things first, you’re not here to take over our world and rule it as the Supreme Alien King Emperor are you?**
He couldn’t help finding the question absolutely ridiculous. He grabbed his own blackboard to scribble back a reply.
**No, I am not. I am not sure how I got here to your world.**
Rainbow Dash stared at Anon after he answered. **You’re not lying, are you?**
He sighed, scribbling on his board once more. **No I am not lying. I just appeared here falling from the sky. And why would I take over a world I know nothing of? I do not even have the power to stop a pony from tackling me from the sky.**
She chuckled, scratching the back of her head in a sheepish manner. **Next question. Why would the princess not trust you?**
Anon had to think on that one for a moment, **I do not know. I would have to guess she is just looking out for her people, you ponies. Though if she really thought I was bad, would she not have sent guards instead of having me meet you ponies? I would believe she is being careful of things.**
The pony hummed, thinking over the message. **That makes sense, I guess. But I’m still going to be watching you for a week, just to make sure.**
He nodded his head. Watching the pony, she started to write a message, right before rubbing it out. She tapped the chalk against her chin, thinking over what to write next. Anon remembered a few things Lyra told him before Rainbow could snatch him away. He wrote down a message for her instead.
**Since we are here, how about you show me some of your flying skills? I was told you were one of the best fliers around these parts.**
Rainbow Dash scoffed. “~+Best around these parts?! Try best in Equestria! Just watch!+~”
Putting her board down, she took a few steps back before shooting off into the air. Rainbow Dash flew around in streaks of color, showing off what she could do. Anon saw her doing some very interesting aerobatics he hadn’t seen before, such as her doing near-complete stops as she turned. It was very impressive that she could decrease her speed as quickly as she could. After a good showing of her skills, she came back down with a large smile.
“~+Hehehe, so what’d ya think of that, Mr. Alien?+~”
‘Seems she forgot I can’t understand her,’ Anon thought. He got out his board, assuming he got what she was asking.
**Your skills are very nice. I have never seen anyone move around quite like that before. Reminds me of something from my world called Blue Angels.**
Rainbow Dash frowned, making Anon worried he said something wrong. ‘Were there connotations I’m not aware of here from my world? Was it the word Angels?’
She scribbled a message back. **What do you mean by very nice? That’s it? Not awesome or super cool or anything, just nice?**
Anon groaned, writing a quick message. **Sorry, my word strength in your language is still weak.**
She huffed reading that with a pout. The pony then hummed. **Who are the Blue Angels?**
**They are people in my world that fly around in the sky at very high speeds, pulling off many different tricks and things in groups and by themselves.**
Her face lit up reading that. **That sounds like the Wonder Bolts! They fly around doing awesome stunts and maneuvers all over Equestria. I’m training so that one day I can be a part of them.** He saw her write another message to him. **I thought your people didn’t have magic.**
Seeing her face, she had narrowed her eyes, as if she caught him in something. He wrote back a reply, having to take things slowly to figure out how to write out certain words. **We do not. We have very advanced machines that allow us to do many things in replace of magic, flying is one of them. I have seen some of your machines, but what we have greatly does better everything I have seen here.**
“~+I think I remember Applejack telling me about that… Okay, you’re off the hoof for now.+~”
“Right. Whatever you said, sure.”
“~+I couldn’t understand you, what did you say?+~” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Seriously, I don’t understand you.”
“~+What was that?+~”
He rubbed a hand over his face. ‘This is ridiculous.’ Rainbow Dash paused in thought, thinking of something before smirking at Anon.
**So you said you don’t have magic? I take it you don’t know much about it then?**
**No, can not say I have too much understanding with it yet, Lyra only recently began teaching me.**
Her smirk widened. **Let me show you some then!**
Before he could ask her what she meant, the pony flew off into the sky toward a formation of clouds. Popping into them, she came back down with some of the clouds, pushing them in front of her. Anon took a step back as Rainbow Dash came back, his eyes widening at the site. “~+So whaddya think?+~”
**How are you doing that? I thought only unicorns could use magic.**
Rainbow Dash harrumphed, picking up her board once more. **Unicorns can use magic externally without too much of a problem because of their horns. But everything has magic in them in our world. Earth ponies are good on the ground, but us pegasi can do things with the sky and even the weather if we get good enough! That’s how I can control this cloud here.**
Anon was in awe. **That is amazing. Can you do anything else with this cloud?**
Reading that, she grinned before jumping on the cloud. She sat on top of it with no problem. **I can do many things, such as making it rain or shoot out lightning. I can even sit down on this cloud with little trouble. Why don’t you give it a shot?**
His amazement furthered reading that, and then he frowned. **I do not think I can do that.**
**How would you know before you try it?**
He was about to reply before he remembered something. Lyra had mentioned that he was currently gathering magic in himself somehow a while back. Thoughts of being able to do things like what Lyra or Rainbow Dash had shown started to swim around his head. Anon was eager to see if he could do anything like what a pegasus could.
**How should I do this then?**
The grin returned on Rainbow Dash. **I’d recommend you take a few steps back before jumping on here with your whole body so you can get up all the way.**
**Why would I need to do that? Could I not just climb up or you lower this down further?**
“~+Uuummm…+~” **There’s no way to really grab onto these things, you attach to them! And I can’t lower this further because it can’t touch the ground.**
“Makes sense, I suppose,” Anon said, taking a few steps back. Rainbow Dash jumped off, standing a few feet away from him, still smiling.
“~+What are you two doing?+~” Lyra asked, having just returned.
“~+Um… well, Anon was going to try and see if he could… get on a cloud?+~”
“~+Dash, he can’t use magic! He’s just gathering it inside himself, and even with that there isn’t anything that shows he can use magic!+~”
“~+Ehr, well… but what if he can?! Wouldn’t it be really interesting to know if he can use what he has already to, uh, jump on a cloud and land on it…?+~”
Lyra continued to frown at Rainbow Dash, making Anon wonder if there was something going on. She then sat down, waving at Anon to continue on. With a salute, Anon got himself ready.
He ran at the cloud, jumping in the air with spread arms. He could feel the cloud was cold to touch, but it had a puffy-like quality along with an odd, smooth feeling to it that made him think of velvet marshmallows. It was only a second he felt this as he slammed straight through the cloud and into the ground. He laid there, limbs spread out, face first in the dirt.
“~+BWAAA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HAAAAAA!!!+~”
Rainbow Dash gave out a belly laugh, rolling around on the ground, unable to stand. Lyra had her head turned away, a hoof covering her smile.
“…Uuughh”
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His week with Rainbow Dash had him somewhat on edge It was the same week with Applejack, only with the pegasus messing around with him. Supposedly, that was a good thing? If she was playing jokes, surely that didn’t mean she saw him as much of a threat.
All she really did was ask him some questions about planes and helicopters and other similar topics. Even bringing up space flight blew her away; Lyra got very involved with those stories. Other than that, she simply swam around or flew in the sky, or even bringing him the odd food to share.
By the end of the week, she was calling him a bro, hoping to spend more time when he was free. Lyra was in high spirits, having the two on her side.
“~+Well, the two weeks with ya’ was an interesting time ‘round here+~” Applejack spoke, nodding at him. “~+You come back now when your speakin’ troubles are fixed and we can probably put ya’ to some good work here at the farm.+~”
He was slowly starting to understand certain words. Lyra tried to rationalize that it was the magic integrating with him allowing his language skills to speed up. He felt doubtful about that explanation.
“~+And we’re going to build the most awesome plane that we can so you can fly up here with me!+~”
“~+I certainly wouldn’t mind seein’ that.+~”
“~+We’ll talk to you all later,+~” Lyra said, donning her cloak. “~+We need to get back so he can be rested up for the next visit.+~”
Wearing his own cloak, the two of them walked by to Lyra’s house, the dark of the night helping aid them. Back at the house, Lyra threw her cloak on a hook, taking a seat by her desk. Anon took a seat by Bon Bon on the couch, watching her eat an apple dish. He grimaced, being tired of eating so many apples.
A whoosh came from Lyra, documents she brought back with her burnt up in a green fire. The remains flew under the crack of the front door, disappearing.
“~+Okay, that’s two of them down. Now we just have to worry about Pinkie Pie and Twilight.+~”
From what Anon could gather, he was going to another place in the morning. He was wondering just where it would be this time, hoping he wouldn’t have too many problems.
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Princess Celestia read the note that came in from Rainbow Dash, her Element of Loyalty. She had nothing but good things to say about the ‘alien’.
‘Just how did Lyra manage to convince her to play along. Applejack I expected, but Rainbow Dash?’
Applejack and Rainbow Dash had conjured up fascinating stories about the human. Some of what they had written was certainly amusing to read, such as how it managed to get catapulted by three fillies trying to attain their cutie marks. Those two absolutely adored the thing. In the end, it wasn’t what she hoped for.
Looking at the images, she couldn’t help but shiver in disgust. ‘How could something like that be any of those things? I’ll never understand why they modeled the alien after those beings from so long ago.’
The images, unfortunately, brought up ghosts from her past she would rather remain buried in the past.
“Sister, I am not sure why you continue with this scenario. Why not just finish this and let it be done with? Surely you understand we have more important matters to deal with.”
Looking at her sister, she could see she didn’t seem to be enjoying this as much as she used to. Of course, neither was Celestia.
The guards from weeks back were turned over to Shining Armor to deal with. This had the unfortunate action of showing more dissidents in their ranks.
Their argument, as puzzling as it was, made it seem like she was under a spell by Luna, and currently being used to achieve her plans quietly behind the scenes. If that wasn’t confusing enough, they even managed to find another guard by pure chance, arguing the opposite direction, that she was the one controlling Luna. To make matters worse, it seemed the pony had some ambition in bringing about Nightmare Moon’s old moon plan from a thousand years ago. Their first course of action was to dethrone Celestia and place Luna on the throne as sole ruler, as they thought she should be.
He was currently locked away, being interrogated by her most trusted guards for more information. She suspected there were more guards in their midst, planning something. Princess Celestia wasn’t certain how any of it came to be, but it was clear that there were two divisions going against one another in her palace. None of the ponies captured were speaking, tight-lipped with their information.
‘How quaint, Lyra having inadvertently made it possible to find these ponies before they could enact anything at their own discretion.’
Princess Celestia saw her sister still staring, waiting for an answer. She turned her head back at the documents on the table, seeing the ‘human’ smiling up at her as if to taunt her with her past haunts.
“If I were to quit, that would be me admitting defeat. That wouldn’t be a good message to have once this scenario gets out.”
“You just have difficulty admitting you don’t want to lose.”
“…I am currently trying to find a way to end it as quickly as I can without making it appear that I had too much involvement in it. Even giving those letters out was risky.”
“So what exactly do you have planned then?”
“Right now, I have my most faithful student primed and ready for her week. I imagine she will be the last one to be given her week. During that week, she’ll start to convince the others why this—” She pointed a hoof at the photos, “—is a danger to have around. That, and I’ve already given her all the information I could on the Bleuh Bleuh Bleuh’s. All we need is some kind of uncertainty from the Elements, and we can easily end this right then and there.”
“Won’t this appear like you’re sabotaging things?”
“Perhaps it will. But I can easily spin it around that Twilight was needed to be informed of everything due to her position, easily quelling any backlash this may have.”
“And just what will happen if Lyra gets through Twilight?”
“Lyra won’t get through her, I have a good amount of faith it will end with Twilight.”
~End Chapter Six~