Equestria is a land of magic. It suffuses through the very ground. It pervades every tree, every flower, every bush and shrub. The ponies, who are most closely aligned to its power, are also the most knowledgeable about it. They know that it is magic that makes the pegasi fly, magic that makes the Earth ponies strong and fast, and of course magic that gives the unicorns their power. Magic is the soul of Equestria.
But even magic cannot handle the logistics of moving a throng of a thousand people.
Twilight Sparkle had recruited everypony not busy in town to come to the spot where the Gate let out. With cries of “Keep moving, please! This way!” and an occasional prod from a hoof or a horn, the crowd from the convention moved further into the meadow, allowing those behind the room to move.
All the humans shuffled forward with their eyes looking up and around and their jaws hanging down. Most were from the area of the city, but even the rural types had never seen such a clean and verdant world. The most technological object around was the dirt road that led into town.
When the last person made it through the Gate, one of the ponies next to it gave a high sign, and Twilight ran up to the head of the crowd.
“Attention! May I have your attention please?” she said. Everyone was still murmuring and looking, but they focused on her.
“Thank you. Now that we have some time, we can do everything proper and by the checklist. Now, would every human who wants to return immediately to Earth please move to the right of the group—your right, not mine—and step a few paces away.”
A dozen or so people, mostly older folks who had children back home, separated out from the group.
“Thank you,” Twilight said. “Now, what I’d like is for someone who has a home or an office close to the convention center to volunteer their space to be a Gate endpoint. This is as good a time as any to explain how this works. Establishing one end of a Gate is a very complex piece of magic, rather good work if I do say so myself. But once it’s working, the other end can be connected on Earth at any number of points. Yes? We have a question?”
Julie had raised her hand. “I do. What happens if two people try to come through two Gate endpoints at the same time?”
“An excellent question. Technically, there’s no such thing as ‘the same time.’ Time is infinitely divisible, and one event always happens before any other. But that’s some very high-end science that I’m sure no one’s interested in. Suffice it to say that if that were to happen, they’d come through one after the other. There might be a little bump, but that’s the worst that would happen.”
Twilight saw that the explanation satisfied them and was pleased that they were so reasonable. “So, again, what we want is someone willing to sacrifice some real estate close to where we took you from.”
A few hands went up. Twilight pointed at one. “Ah! Yes, you, please come here. Now, for those who are staying, or if you go and return, we’re going to start helping you further get in touch with your powers. And for magical bronies, one thing you’ll need to learn is spell-sharing.” The volunteer had come up next to Twilight, and she cast a spell that made his hands glow. A blank look came over his face. Twilight continued. “What I’m doing now is running the spell in tandem with, er. . .”
“Claude, Miss Sparkle.”
“Claude. Please call me Twilight. I’m the initiator, but I’ve given enough leeway to him so that he can change the location of the Gate. Once we’ve got that set, it’s a snap!”
A bolt of magic came from Twilight’s horn and Claude’s hands and flew over the crowd and into the shining wall of light that was still behind everyone.
The Earth humans and pegasus people looked at each other with confusion on their faces, but the magical bronies nodded their heads as though they understood.
Twilight resumed her announcement voice. “All right, everyone who would like to return, please step back through the Gate and make your way home through normal human travel. I do have one request of you. When you get back, please spread the word to the others that we have an open-door policy as far as immigration or visitation goes. We want you here. Ponies and humans can learn a lot from each other, and we’re eager to get started.”
The small group that had set themselves off filed back through the Gate, and Twilight said, “Now that that’s done, let’s all sit down and talk about getting you acclimated.”
She plopped down easily on the grass, and so did some of the humans, but others did so hesitantly, out of long instinct against getting dirty. Twilight noticed this and said, “The first thing you’ll have to get used to is being close to nature. We know that you wear clothes all the time, and believe me, there are some tailors and seamstresses here who are very excited about that! But at the same time, they’re not that necessary, at least not in Ponyville. For pegasus people who take to the skies, it’s a bit cooler there. But on the ground, even in winter, it doesn’t get cold enough to freeze. Anyway, if you want to go naked, nopony will object—yes? Question?”
Alex held up his hand. “We’ve seen that it gets cold enough to snow, and that’s cold enough to freeze if you don’t have a fur coat.”
“You’re an Earth human, right? Well, I’m not surprised that you haven’t discovered it, but you can withstand temperatures a lot lower than you used to. And for us mages, we have internal heating spells that I’ll show you.”
“Oh, cool! Thanks, that answers my question. . . but I think I’m still going to keep my clothes on.”
The humans tittered, and Twilight shrugged and continued.
“Anyway, talking of buying clothes is a good segue into talking about money. None of you have a bit to your name, but we want to change that. There’s plenty of opportunity to work here in Equestria, and the economics of it work out so that you’ll be able to make a living and put a little aside if you’re prudent.
“But it’s going to be different from the work you’ve done on Earth. You might be on a farm, where your shift is sun-up to sun-down. You might go into a shop where you’re expected to be there every day. Remember that, in technology, we’re several decades behind Earth. It’s similar with our working relationships. There are no mandatory break periods or free coffee. You’re expected to work hard. And you’re expected to be happy in your work.
“But that’s not a threat. If you’re not happy, tell somepony, and we’ll try to figure out why, and more importantly to figure out what would make you happy. Part of being an Equestrian citizen is learning to trust others. That’s something that you might have lost.
“And while we’re at it, let’s talk about getting along. Remember, Equestria is a monarchy. Princess Celestia has the final say on anything. Everypony trusts her and if she makes a decree, everypony is going to back her up. You’d be wise to join in. I know from your history that you don’t have a lot of good feelings about having one person rule. But some of your greatest progress came under monarchs. Your only problem is that they died, and power fell to greedy or foolish offspring. That won’t happen here. Celestia is immortal, and having lived for so many years, she has developed the wisdom to be a benevolent ruler.”
“Ahem,”
Another voice interrupted Twilight’s speech, and she looked around for the speaker. Pinkie Pie was tapping her hoof and looking impatient. “Well, I guess I’ve been going on too long about serious things,” Twilight said. “Let’s take a break and—“
“—have a party!”
Pinkie Pie bounced around among the humans. “Don’t listen to Twilight’s downer warnings. Life in Equestria is all about fun! Holiday celebrations, social events, and lots of good friends. My door’s always open for any human who needs somepony to talk to.”
From her wagon, Pinkie produced drinks, plates of food, and background music. The humans milled around. Most of them were hungry and thirsty, and they welcomed the refreshments. Small groups formed to discuss some of the things they were told. Most people were still optimistic, but a few were having second thoughts.
Lisa huddled next to Olivia. “Why were we not in the return group?” she asked. “We can’t stay in Equestria. In the first place, we’re a couple of seventeen-year-old girls, not exactly the pioneer type. In the second, our parents are going to be worried stiff about us!”
“Our parents weren’t expecting us back until tomorrow anyway, and we’ll figure out what to do to contact them then. And just think about it. In another year, we would have been going off to college anyway, so we would have been leaving home just the same.”
“Yeah, but still on Earth. Still in normal society.”
Olivia sighed. “Normal society may be a bit overrated. It might be a riskier life here, but the reward could be greater as well.”
Pinkie Pie bounced over to the two of them. “Hey, girls!” she said. “What’s with all the serious faces?”
“I mean, come on, Leese!” said Olivia. “This is Pinkie Pie! If you’re talking about risk, who’s safer than Pinkie?”
“Exactly!” said Pinkie. “You want to meet later by Froggy Bottom Bog and tease the hydra?”
Lisa gave Olivia a significant look.
“All right, bad example,” said Olivia. “But here’s the thing. It might not be the best time in our lives to come to Equestria, but it is the best time in Equestria’s life. Success is sometimes a matter of timing. We’re the first humans to come here. That’s got to count for something.”
“It sure does!” said Pinkie. “After all, what’s a party without presents? Let me see if Twilight will let me show you.”
She bounced off, and Lisa said to Olivia, “All right, I’ll give it a chance. But I know that my folks are going to be screaming at me to go right back. I can’t promise that I won’t cave.”
“I’ll try to be there when you talk to them. Meanwhile, let’s have some more of this juice. What is it, anyway?”
“I think it’s carrot.”
“I hate carrot,” said Olivia. “but I love this. Oh, yeah. I definitely want to stay.”
Twilight circled the group at a gallop and got everyone’s attention. “Here’s the first chance to see what I was talking about. Is everyone ready for a hike through Ponyville? It’s several miles to see the whole town, but no complaining about tired feet!”
“Aw, I guess she vetoed the presents,” Lisa said. But Pinkie had a sly look on her face.
High spirits carried them past the strain of walking. When they reached the edge of town, the first of the ponies who hadn’t come to help noticed them. Work stopped and mouths fell open. The ponies might have known that the humans were coming, but it was still a shock to see another sapient species.
Lisa found herself drifting to the rear of the group. As they passed a house, she got the feeling of being watched. She saw a unicorn colt staring right at her. She stopped and knelt by him.
“Hi. My name’s Lisa,” she said. “What’s yours?”
The colt didn’t say anything. Lisa, unsure of what to do, held out her hand and floated a rock up next to him. “See, I can do magic too. You and I are the same.”
He tilted his head. “You’re a u-man!” he said.
She smiled. “That’s right, a human.”
“I’m Gallant.”
“I’m sure you are,” Lisa said, then realized that was his name.
“I can’t do magic yet,” Gallant said.
“You will. Just grow a little bit more.”
Lisa saw a shadow pass over his body, and she looked up. A mint-grey mare, obviously his mother, was standing over and watching. “Er, hi!” Lisa said. “I was just talking to your foal here. I’m new.”
The mare smiled. “Welcome to Ponyville,” she said. “My name’s Lyra.”
Lisa was relieved. She had been worried about the mother being overprotective. “Oh, sure! We all know you. I’m glad I could finally meet you. I didn’t realize that you had a son.”
“You know,” Lyra said, “I’m not upset that you’ve come, but do you really think it’s fair for you to have both magic and hands?”
“Oh, right, you always wanted hands of your own. Here, let me help.”
Lisa concentrated her magic. Lyra’s front hooves extended and grew fingers. “What?! How? I’ve tried everything and that’s impossible!” she said.
“I’m sorry, I’ll change them back.”
“No! That’s OK. But how did you do it?”
Lisa thought for a moment. “I guess I didn’t know it was impossible. If I did, I couldn’t have.”
“Well, now I’m definitely glad you came. And so is Gallant.”
“Thanks. I’d better catch up with the group,” Lisa said, and ran to the others.
When she got back to the tour, everyone was clamoring around to see something. Or, as Lisa found, somepony.
“Hey, it’s Fluttershy!”
“Fluttershy, over here!”
“Fluttershy!”
All the humans were excited to see another one of the main characters of the show that had brought them there, but Fluttershy took to her wings and gave them a wide berth.
“Oh, my,” she said. “I didn’t realize that you would all be here together.”
Bastian ran to the front of the tour. “Hey! Everyone! It’s Fluttershy. The last thing she wants is everyone fawning all over her. Let’s let her go.”
All the humans backed off. A murmur of regret ran through the crowd. Fluttershy came back. Her voice carried over the people, to their surprise.
“Hi, humans. I’m very glad to meet you. I really do want to get to know all of you, and I appreciate that you like me so much, but right now I’m shopping for some of my animals, so if we can do it later, I’d be ever so grateful.”
“You got it!”
“We’ll see you around, Fluttershy.”
“So long, Fluttershy!”
The group turned around and kept walking. Twilight said, “See, it’s not so hard to get along. Just respond reasonably to reasonable requests. I’m sure that you’re all going to be just fine.”
After a long walk, they reached the end of town. Ahead of them was a forest, but they saw something different about it. Paths had been cut into the trees in a grid pattern. Pinkie said, “Can I tell them now, Twilight? Can I? Can I?”
“Go ahead.”
“OK! Friends, humans, Equestrians, lend me your ears! You’ve just been through Ponyville. You’ve seen what we’ve been able to build. We’re in our third generation, and we’ve got something good going. Now it’s your turn.
“All of this land is now yours for the asking. Every one of you can have one plot. If you have a family, you can have more. The Earth ponies have cleared the land into the plots, the pegasi have promised you good weather until you can get shelters put up, and the unicorns are going to lend you tools to build them. Welcome to the site of Ponyville’s sister village. Welcome to Humantown.”
Twilight joined Pinkie at the front of the group. “Now, I’m sure that most of you are thinking that you know nothing about building a house, though I’m hoping that a few of you do know something. I don’t want your homes to be copies of pony homes. But where we can, we’ll advise you on techniques. For example, once you’ve chosen your section, you might start by digging the ground so that we have room for the foundation. Or you could clear the trees, but be careful when they’re about to come down.”
Pinkie and Twilight turned around and walked away. Just like that, the humans were left to their own devices, plus a few that had been left for them. Alex, always the initiator, grabbed the nearest shovel and dug it into the ground.
Once she and Twilight were out of earshot, Pinkie said, “So, do you think they’ll be able to work together to build Humantown? I still don’t see why we couldn’t just tell them to all work on the same building first?”
“They might,” said Twilight, “or they’ll get tired and bored, and they’ll leave.”
”I still don’t see why we couldn’t give them more help.”
“They’re not babies. And they need the challenge. That’s the problem, as I’ve seen it, on Earth. Too much connectivity, not enough connection.”
***
Luke dug his shovel into the ground once more. He had not permitted Julie to do any of the work. She had sat idle and watched as he dug around the trees on the double plot that they had selected near the middle of the forest. He looked up and saw the sun setting.
“We’re all going to have to bed down in a little,” he said.
“It’s going to be cold,” said Julie.
“Not according to the ponies. And it doesn’t feel cold. But if we don’t want to do this night after night, we’re going to have to do things on a much accelerated schedule.”
Julie flew up to the treetops. “I’m going to go visit with some others. Maybe they’ve got some ideas.”
Luke nodded, and she flapped her wings.
Half a mile away, Bastian was pacing himself, figuring that he had the whole night to get ahead of his fellows. He leaned on his shovel and looked up, saw Julie flying overhead, and waved to her. She landed and inquired how the work was going.
“I won’t lie to you, Miss. . .”
“Julie.”
“I’m Bastian. It’s not that I can’t do this, it’s just going to take an awful lot of time.”
“I know. Everyone realizes it, but no one wants to say anything.”
Bastian dug the shovel back into the ground. “Probably because no one has a better solution.”
“Well, from what I read of early civilizations, which we are, the only building worth that they really put any effort into was the church.”
“That makes sense. But we don’t need a church here.”
“But we do need a central building,” said Julie. “We just need a way to put it over.”
“What did you have in mind?”
“Well, if you could come with me, maybe what we could do is convince people that we need a new convention hall.”
Bastian stared at her.
“Well, you did do a heck of a job with the last one,” she said.
“And it looks like I’ll never live it down. Come on, let’s go sell some people. Once we have the first few, the rest will join in.”
Fifteen minutes later, they had Luke in tow and were going after the others. They found a magical brony whose plot of land was between the two.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“We’re saying that we should delay building our own houses and build a convention center,” said Julie.
“Really? What’s the point of that?”
“We don’t really need it,” said Bastian. “But we do need a main building to gather and store stuff.”
“Ah, I get it! We’re just pretending it’s a convention center.”
The scene played itself over and over again. Everyone saw the logic in a central building, but they all thought that everyone else wanted a convention center. They gathered at the border with Ponyville and began to dig. The Earth humans were doing most of the work, digging around the trees and pushing them over when the roots had been exposed. Some were assigned to hauling them off. Magical bronies stuck by as safety patrols whenever a tree went down. Some, who had learned the magic necessary for it, worked with the Earth humans.
The pegasus people looked at each other. They felt rather useless. Julie walked away from the scene. Luke stepped up and walked over to the pile of wood.
“We’re going to need to start making this into planks. I think we have some hatchets around. If we can shave off the bark, but keep it in big chunks, we can eventually use it as shingles for the roof,” he said.
Although he worked on roofs, he had picked up the basics of home construction in general. The others recognized him as someone who knew what he was talking about, and they followed his instructions.
A few hours after they began, they had a perimeter laid out and a small hole dug in the ground, but fatigue and thirst were getting to them. That was when Julie flew in carrying two casks with her.
“I got water for everyone!” she said.
A cheer went up, and everyone took a break. “Where did you get it, hon?” asked Luke.
“I flew to Ponyville and asked. I have the feeling that the ponies will be as helpful as we need them to be.”
After everyone had a drink, she flew back and forth, taking other pegasus people with her and bringing food and more water. Once that was done, they borrowed some of the shovels and went off. When they returned, Alex asked them what they had done.
“We went digging,” said Julie. “After all, if we’re eating and drinking, we’re going to need a privy.”
“Good thinking. You don’t realize how many functions of civilization there are until you don’t have them.”
Lisa had been working with the hatchet team, but after they ate, she picked up some of the wood chips that had formed while they were making the planks. She sat on one of the logs and stared at a chip.
While the others worked, she just kept sitting and staring. Nobody wanted to say anything, but Olivia as her friend was able to approach her. “What are you doing?” she asked. “We’re all working our butts off here.”
“I am working,” said Lisa. “I’m trying to figure something out.” She hadn’t stopped staring at the wood chip, and as she finished talking, it burst into flame. She shook her fingers and stuck them in her mouth. “Nope! I guess not.”
Everyone else returned to their job, ignoring Lisa. A few more times, attention was drawn to her when she had a burning chip of wood. At one time, when everyone’s heads were pointed at her, she looked sheepish, scratched the back of her head, and said, “Well, at least we’ll have charcoal for the big barbecue once we get the building up.”
Everyone else went back to work.
Finally, she gave up, threw down her chip and walked away.
“Real winner of a friend,” Bastian said to Olivia.
“You don’t know her. She’s as loyal as they come,” she said.
“We’ll see.”
Walking with purpose, none of the ponies stopped Lisa as she made her way to the library. Twilight was reading when she entered.
“Oh, hey. How’s the building going?” Twilight asked.
“Slow, but steady. I’m trying to make it go faster. I need a book on the basic theory of magic.”
Twilight got up from her own book and showed Lisa the section she needed. “What exactly are you trying to do?”
Lisa told her.
“I’ve never even heard of that. I don’t think it’s possible,” said Twilight.
“I’ve already had one pony tell me that I did something impossible. I want to try. If it works, it’s going to make our jobs a lot easier.”
“Well, read through and see what you come up with.”
Night fell over the camp. There were no blankets, no pajamas, and no beds, but the moss was soft enough to sleep on and the temperature was comfortable. Bastian, who didn’t sleep, and a few others, who couldn’t or didn’t want to, were up when Lisa returned.
“What did you come up with?” he asked.
“A book.”
“You’d have been better off going back through the Gate and grabbing some pillows.”
“Maybe so,” she said, looking him in the eye. She picked up another chip of wood and sat back down.
About an hour or so later, he heard her say, “Haha! Got it!”
Bastian came over. “What have you got?”
“I’ll tell you and everyone else in the morning. Right now, I’m ready to bed down. But trust me. Tomorrow’s going to be a lot better.”
All the people got up grumbling and rubbing their backs. Although no one wanted to be the first to say it, everyone was thinking about heading back to Earth.
Bastian still found himself as the unofficial chairman of their impromptu group. “All right, everyone. Lisa here says she came up with something that will help us.”
Lisa was nervous, and climbed up on a log in order to see everyone, forgetting that doing so would make her even more the center of attention. She summoned up her courage and started in.
“So I know a lot of you weren’t too happy with me not pitching in. But I was over at the library trying to see if there’s a way we could use magic to help us. What I found was that there are several stages of magic. You see, it’s a lot different trying to do something that one person could normally do—like carry something or hurl something in the air—than to do something nominally impossible, like turning one thing into another.”
“Get on with it!” someone shouted from the back.
“OK. It occurred to me that we were wasting a lot of wood in chopping. So. . . Olivia, can you lift one end of this log so I can show everyone?”
Olivia shrugged and held out her hands. The log stood up at an angle and Lisa jumped off. She focused her hands as everyone watched. Slowly the wood inside the bark started to quiver and melt. Lisa separated her hands and the melted wood flowed like water into the air. Tunnel-visioned, she moved her hands like she was conducting an orchestra. The liquid wood fell and formed itself into a square. She put her hands down and the movement stopped. The log was a hollowed out cylinder of bark, and there was a wall of wood at her feet.
“If some of us can learn this spell, and figure out how to join pieces together, we should be able to get a building up by mid-morning. We’ve got to anchor it, but there’s no reason to waste ourselves in back-breaking labor, even if our backs are strong.”
Alex spoke up. “Did the ponies teach you that spell?”
“No. Twilight Sparkle—and we all know how smart she is—said that she never even thought of it.”
“I think what we’re missing here is that all the ponies are used to living simply,” said Olivia. “We’re all modern, twenty-first century human beings. We’re used to decadence and comfort. But we have all the problems that go with it as well. What we need to do is meet them half-way. Take our standards of living and the powers that they gave us. Simplify, and then complicate. Our ancestors built a world out of struggle, and it came out one way. We want to build a world out of easy living, and see if we can’t do better.”