Maria was quite happy when she emerged from the bathtub. She had no idea how much time she spent just lying there in the warm water, without a thought in her mind, and she didn't really care. She hummed a made-up song as she dried herself off with a towel, and then put on a bathrobe. It was a simple white one, almost perfect in size, and also quite fluffy. She also found a brush she could slide on her hoof and then use to brush her mane. Once all was done, she thought about how it was a nice pause in her otherwise chaotic day. She exited the bathroom and went up to the sofa, then lay on top of it. She could spend a bit more time doing nothing. However, she had a sneaking suspicion this day wasn't over yet.
A few knocks came from the entrance door.
"Nakarkala..." she grumbled in Russian at her thoughts, stood up, and headed to the door. However, even this unexpected visit didn't sour her mood much - she was still quite relaxed, and her mind was clear. Once she was at the door, she used her hoof to pull down the U-shaped door handle and slightly opened the door. She saw Celestia standing in front of it, "Yes?"
"I'm sorry if I'm disturbing you, but a student of mine wants to talk to you," the princess said in a pleasant voice, "May we come in?"
"Uh, okay, sure," Maria shrugged and opened the door fully. Princess Celestia walked in first, and then a lavender unicorn mare followed her, seemingly vibrating with endless energy as she did. The girl eyed her carefully, not knowing what to say yet. She debated for a moment with herself before taking the sofa, leaving both the princess and the unicorn standing. She quickly realized it was an awkward situation, but she wasn't sure how to remedy it, so the silence dragged on.
"Well, this is Twilight Sparkle, my student," Princess Celestia gestured at the unicorn, "She is very interested in what happened this morning."
"Hi!" the unicorn jumped forward, a quill, an inkwell, and a notebook appearing in front of her, "You really are an alicorn! How did you become one? What kind of pony were you before you did? How does it feel being an alicorn? And-"
"Slow down!" Maria raised her voice, making the unicorn stop, "You can't just... bomb me with questions like this!"
"She is right - we did talk about it, and you promised not to overwhelm her," Celestia pointed out as well.
"I'm very sorry, but I'm just so excited!" Twilight Sparkle said somewhat slower this time, looking a bit guilty.
"What if," the girl continued with a thoughtful expression, "What if... you ask a question, and I ask a question. You first, I'm second, then you third, you know?"
"A fair deal," the unicorn readily agreed, "So, how did you become an alicorn?"
"I made a wish," Maria answered, "I, uh, am an alien. Different world. Yeah."
"You are?!" Twilight inhaled deeply, ready to bombard the girl with countless questions regarding that moment.
"Twilight, please," Celestia softly said, and the unicorn's energy subsided immediately, "Maria gets to ask you a question now, too."
"Okay..." Maria thought for a moment, "Who are you? Not in name, but, uh... spe-ci-es? Kind?"
"I'm a pony of the unicorn tribe," Twilight Sparkle replied, speaking quickly in her excitement, "There are three major tribes of ponies: earth ponies, pegasi - they have wings, and unicorns - we have horns. There are a few smaller tribes like thestrals, and there are also alicorns like Princess Celestia."
Maria nodded, remembering some people talking about My Little Pony. She didn't really pay too much attention to them back then, but memories resurfaced to help her understand where she was. From what she knew, the show was about friendship and followed six girls on their adventures. If her memories were right, Twilight Sparkle was a name mentioned a few times. However, she decided not to talk about it yet, fearing it might set off the curious unicorn and drive her completely crazy. After all, she herself still had trouble accepting the fact that she was now living in the world of a little girls' show.
"So, if you are an alien, you weren't a pony, right?" Twilight inquired.
"I wasn't," Maria nodded, "I was a human. Uh... mostly hairless monkey standing on back legs?"
"Fascinating..." the unicorn scribbled in her notebook at the speed of light.
"When will I... be able to learn magic?" the girl asked her own question.
"Usually, foals - pony children - naturally gain magical abilities soon after they're born," Twilight said, her quill never stopping, "However, you were never a foal, so I don't know. But I think it is entirely possible your magic will show itself naturally in a few days if not tomorrow."
Maria was all giddy on the inside - a dream from when she was but a little girl would come true. After all, what kind of person never wanted to be able to use magic? She remembered reading Harry Potter books and, naive as she was then, she waited for her Hogwarts letter on her eleventh birthday, counting months, weeks, and days. She was, of course, immensely disappointed when it didn't come. However, now she had a chance to learn magic in a way she didn't expect. Instead of using wands and words to cast magic, she had a horn, which she would be able to use to cast magic. She couldn't wait to begin studying - as long as it didn't involve the ways she was taught in the school she attended. She didn't doubt for a moment Russian public education could make even magic boring and unbearable.
"Do you humans have magic?" the unicorn asked, breaking the girl out of her thoughts.
"Only in books, movies, shows," Maria replied, "In old legends and myths, too. But no one can do magic - we can do, uh, tricks, but they're not magic."
"Very, very interesting," Twilight's writing increased in speed, as impossible as it sounded. During the pause, she also summoned a small knife and quickly sharpened the quill before teleporting the knife away. The girl could only blink at that display of magic.
"Uh... do women have periods?" Maria asked slowly.
"Pony females have an estrus period when we can get pregnant," the unicorn began, "It involves secreting..."
The following was a number of quite explicit details Maria was absolutely not ready to hear, especially because it concerned the anatomy of ponies' privates, as well as the behavior of stallions during that period. Considering that the ponies were nude most of the time and, when they weren't, they never covered their privates, it necessitated another explicit description of how a stallion would look. By the end of the explanation, Maria's face was so red Celestia had to stifle a giggle.
"To summarize, mares become aroused, and the surrounding stallions become aroused as well," Twilight continued without a single sign of blush on her face, "The majority of the mares, around seventy percent, have estrus cycles starting after Winter Wrap Up and ending with the Falling of Leaves while thirty percent of mares have estrus cycles all year round. Considering that you're an alien unfamiliar with us ponies, I think this should cover everything for you."
"Okay, yeah, that... covers everything," Maria was finally able to squeeze out the words as her mind struggled to keep the explicit images of nude ponies out of her mind. She regretted ever asking this question and wished she could go back in time simply so that she would ask something else instead.
"You said you made a wish," Twilight continued as if nothing had happened, "What did you wish for?"
"I wished to have a new life," the girl said, her blush slowly going away. As long as she thought about anything else, it worked, "There was a... genie, he offered a wish on my birthday. I went to sleep, then woke up like an alicorn, and I was in throne room," she thought for a moment about her next question, "Um, being an alicorn is important, right?"
"It really is," Twilight nodded, "Ponies only become alicorns after achieving something great. There are currently three alicorns in existence - Princess Celestia, Princess Cadance, and yourself."
"Oh," Maria simply voiced, her ears drooping, "Oh. I... didn't do anything great. I just made a wish."
"We can talk about it later if you want to," Celestia chimed in, her voice gentle, "I can promise you I will not shame you for becoming an alicorn the way you did. You didn't know anything about it, so don't feel like you haven't earned to be who you are."
"...Thank you," the girl nodded in appreciation, somewhat relieved, "A-anyway, um, next question?"
"Can you describe your world?" Twilight inquired, her quill trembling with anticipation.
"That's... a big question," Maria begun uncertainly, "Our world is called Earth, and it has land and oceans, rivers, lakes, mountains, fields, and other things. We humans live in almost everywhere, we have invented technology and things, uh... I can't really tell more without details. I think it will take hours."
"Alright, we can explore the topic in depth later," the unicorn agreed.
The discussion continued late into the evening, and soon it was time to lower the sun. Maria yawned, and it was clearly time for the princess and the unicorn to leave. Celestia gently suggested it and Twilight Sparkle, with quite a sigh of disappointment for not having more time to ask questions, teleported her notes, a now shorter quill, and an almost empty inkwell away.
"Wait..." Maria said to Celestia, "You control the sun?"
"For the last two thousand years, I have," she nodded, "Is it different in your world?"
"Two thousand years?" the girl said, shock evident on her face, "You're... more than two thousand years old? Bozhe moi..."
She stared at nothing, contemplating whether she would live to such an age because she was now an alicorn. Two thousand years is more than she could ever think possible for a human to live. If she lived for two thousand years, she would've seen the rise of Christianity, the fall of the Roman Empire, the entirety of the Medieval period, the entirety of renaissance, many revolutions, the rise and fall of Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. She would've personally witnessed an impossible amount of history that spanned two entire millennia, and she would still be there during the Age of Information. It seemed absurd, unreal, but if what Celestia said was true, then...
"I'm sorry, I didn't intend to shock you with this revelation," the princess said gently, "Everyone in Equestria knows how old I am, so I falsely assumed you would not be surprised either."
"I, uh... I don't know what to say," Maria replied slowly, "No one has ever lived two thousand years. If someone did, they would know so much. I-I'm just eighteen, and... Two thousand years?"
Celestia tactfully decided not to mention that while alicorns are ageless, they're not immortal. There was no need to scare her with the prospect of dying, which was something the older alicorn still struggled with herself.
"And... you control the sun?" Maria returned to her original question, "How?"
"Unicorns were once able to control the sun and moon before I took on that duty," Celestia said, "We don't know if it was always the case, however. But now, without our magic, neither the sun nor the moon can move on their own. So, each morning, it is my duty to raise the sun and lower the moon. And each evening, I do the opposite."
"Wuh..." Maria was completely dumbfounded. If the sun was of the same size as the one Earth circled around, that would mean... she didn't even know what to think about it.
"Would you like to see me demonstrate?" Celestia suggested, and the girl weakly nodded, "Very well, come with me."
During the short walk through the castle, Maria was completely withdrawn, trying to deal with all the implications of what she had learned. Not only was she now in a different world, in a different body, with the possibility of learning magic, she now knew just how different Equestria and Vita as a whole was compared to Earth. She wouldn't think twice about it if it were fictional, but it was very, very real, and she was personally experiencing it. It was no longer just a fantasy of a writer, it was a real thing that was happening. Some would think having all sorts of fiction describing all kinds of impossibilities would prepare a human for this, but Maria now knew it was not the case.
She would never be in this position if she hadn't made a wish to a stranger who appeared in her room out of nowhere during that fateful day. Which was scary to think about - was this world specifically created for her? Did the genie have that sort of power? Or was My Little Pony always a different world, one that existed even without her? The many possibilities boggled her mind, and she spent her time thinking about it until Celestia told her that they have arrived.
It was a wide balcony with the view of the lands down below, as well as the sun up above. Maria stood aside and watched as the older alicorn ignited her horn and, right in front of her eyes, the sun descended. Twilight came within the first minute, and the moon begun to rise as well. In five minutes, it was nighttime, with the full moon high above the darkened lands. It was so magical, so unusual, making Maria stare at it with her jaw on the floor. By the time Celestia finished, the girl was completely dumbfounded and could only blink, her mind grinding to a solid halt.
"This... this is... I don't know a word," she said in a hushed tone, "I... It's..."
Celestia patiently waited for the girl to take in what she saw, calm down, and come back to reality.
"This is amazing," Maria finally said, then yawned. She looked around and noticed something, "Where is Twilight Sparkle?"
"We separated during our walk here, she went to do some studies," the older alicorn replied, "I'd say she's quite excited at having met you, and this is going to keep her up all night."
"And I..." Maria let out a huge yawn, "Even with all these things happening... I want to sleep."
"Very well, let me escort you back to your room," Celestia suggested, "You've had a long and eventful day, it is only fair for you to get plenty of rest."
Once again, she tactfully decided not to mention what kind of a mess her appearance caused. There was no way to avoid ponies from wanting to meet or at least see Maria with their own eyes sooner or later, this was certain. However, it wasn't a reason to stress the poor girl even more than she already was.
Celestia silently groaned at the prospect of having to address it all. Her speech was still not ready, and no doubt more rumors had appeared since she last checked. She fully expected to be unable to enter her office due to the amount of letters ponies had sent her from all over Equestria.
The next day was going to be quite busy for Princess Celestia indeed.