Celestia was making her rounds around the castle when she heard crying near the room which contained the mirror to the human realm. Sheslowly entered the room and asked “Hello is anypony here?”
She then saw a mare with a white horn and wings curled up on the floor crying. “Hey, don’t be scared, my little pony. I am Princess Celestia and I have no intentions to hurt you.” Princess Celestia said as she raised a hoof to the crying Unicorn on the floor.
Goldhearts grabbed Celestia’s hooves and picked herself up. “Nice to meet you Princess, I am Goldhearts.” Goldhearts said, while wiping away the tears in her eyes.
As Goldhearts stood up, Celestia was briefly taken aback by the fact that Goldhearts absolutely towered over her. It had been a while since Celestia saw some pony taller than her. She quickly regained her composure and analysed Goldhearts physical features. Goldhearts had a sharp and long white horn and shining white wings tucked into her body. Her golden mane was flustered, her long hooves gave her the height advantage over Celestia and add in the fact that Goldhearts had to slightly bent over to avoid hitting her head and her horn on the ceiling, gosh she was tall. Celestia glanced to the side and noticed that Goldhearts did not have a cutiemark on her flank, which just makes her interested about finding out more about the mare that stood before her. One day she would just have to have the medical team measured and conduct an deep analysis on Goldhearts body and her attributes but now was not the time. She would need to find a place for her to stay in the meantime while she found out more information about Goldhearts.
“So erm Princess, I am sorry for disrupting your walk, and I am exhausted from the trip here so Princess, do you mind if I … stay in your castle for tonight? If you don’t mind, that is.” Goldhearts asked timidly.
“Well, there should be no problem here. The castle always has spare guestrooms to entertain foreign guests. But there are a few things we need to do first so that ponies here do not get suspicious.” Celestia said.
“Number one, we need to get to cover those wings, as the only ponies here with a pair of wings and a horn is me. A horn should be fine as I could pass you off as a Unicorn. Number two, you may need to shrink you to about my chest height as that is the normal size of ponies around here. You could be this size while in the guestroom but when walking down the hallways it is better to be at an average ponies size, you get what I mean?” Celestia stated, looking up to see Goldhearts expressions. It looks as if she was contemplating a bit before she lit her horn and changed her appearance and size.
Where before stood a tall Alicorn, she shrank herself to be eye level with Celestia’s chest and retained her features. She also grabbed her camouflaged uniform and draped it over her wings. “Does this look okay, Princess?” Goldhearts asked. Princess Celestia walked around Goldhearts and examined her, and gave a nod. “It should pass you as a Unicorn. Grab your items and follow me, I will lead you to one of the empty guest rooms in the castle.” Princess Celestia said and Goldhearts followed suit, grabbing her personal equipment and followed Celestia. As they walked down the hallway, Goldhearts, using her sharp hearing, heard claws and hooves moving towards the opposite direction. Celestia asked her probing questions about her origins and the human world during the walk but Goldhearts simply stated that she was too tired to talk about it and that she would answer the questions tomorrow. Celestia respected her choice and decided to let her rest first and would find time to learn more about her in between her duties the next day.
They reached the guest room and Goldhearts thanked Celestia for her hospitality and bid her farewell. The guest room was a cosy room, with a table, cupboards, a luxurious bed and a window showing the city of Canterlot. She would have to find out more about this world but for now, she would rest. She placed her items on the ground, and change back to her true form.
She placed her hoof on the bed and was shocked to discover how small it was. For an average pony, this would be a large bed enough for them to lay comfortably with lots of room to spare. For Goldhearts however, it was barely enough. She was a horse not a pony, so naturally the size difference was already there. In addition, all the mixtures that were injected into her by the scientists made her bigger and heavier than the average horse, which enhanced her already large physique. She sighed, and debated between sleeping on the floor or on the bed, since she was scared the bed would not be able to support her size and her weight. She could also change back to the pony form, which would make her smaller and lighter, but it requires magic to sustain that disguise, something that she did not have a lot of due to casting the spell to the portal. In the end, she decides to take a leap of faith, and slowly place her entire body on the bed. Her head and horn were pressing against the headboard, her rear hooves dangled past the floorboard and rested on the floor, while her front hooves dangled off the sides of the bed. The bed also protested against having her by groaning loudly under her weight and it was sure to collapse the moment she made any major movements, but for now it was able to hold her. Sure, sleeping in this position was uncomfortable, but for Goldhearts, who was exhausted from the events of the day, simply let her head rest on the pillow and fell asleep.
She woke up pretty late in the day nearing lunchtime. Normally, she would wake up at dawn but her body demanded her to rest till now. She stood up and went into the bathroom to do her daily morning routine. It would seem that someone has entered the room before, as she noticed that some of the toiletries and accessories were recently placed and that there were some clothes placed in the cupboard, probably to help her cover up her wings when she was in the pony form. She mentally thanked the Princess for providing her a great rest from the events yesterday. Now that she had washed up, she transformed into her pony form and took a brown cloak from the cupboard and walked out of the room and was slightly surprised was she saw two royal guards standing outside. “Ah, I see that you are finally awake. I guess you are a heavy sleeper huh.” The guard remarked.
“Erm, yeah I guess but only for today. May I know why the Princess posted you guys here?” Goldhearts asked.
“We were tasked to guard and escort the occupant inside, and we are one of her most trusted guards. She said she did not want anypony to disturb or interact with you until she finds out more about you.” The guard replied stoically.
“Well, in that case, I guess that I need to wait for someone to serve me lunch. Is that correct?” Goldhearts concluded.
“For now, yes. But since you are awake, I am pretty sure we can ask the princess if she would like to talk to you during lunch since she normally eats lunch in the next hour.”
“Sure, I don’t mind, I have several questions to ask her anyway. Could you help me ask the palace kitchen if I could have some chocolate muffins in the meantime?” Goldhearts requested, since she was feeling hungry.
“Sure thing, miss …, how do you want us to address you?”
“Just call me Goldhearts please.”
“Sure thing, Goldhearts. Maya, please help me to address her concerns to the kitchen please.” The guard said, calling out to his companion. The other guard nodded and left.
A while later, the guard returned, knocked on the door and entered the room. “The princess would speak to you later at lunch and here are your chocolate muffins in the meantime. She asked if you have any food that you would like for lunch later. You can choose what you want from the menu here and we would tell the palace chefs to prepare it later.” Maya said as she handed Goldhearts a menu and a plate of chocolate muffins.
“Thank you. For my lunch later, help me to get the hay fries and carrots for my lunch.” Goldhearts said, as she glanced through the menu and that stood out the most. Maya nodded and left. Meanwhile, Goldhearts looked and smelled the chocolate muffins. It smelled delicious. She took a bite and smiled, this is the taste I have been longing for. She savoured each of the muffins and laid down on the bed. She can’t wait to see what else this world has to offer.
Goldhearts was escorted into the dining hall, with Celestia sitting at one end of the table and a simple spaghetti in front of her while on Goldhearts’ side was a plate of Hay Fries and Carrots.
“Nice for you to join me today, Goldhearts, come please take a seat. We have much to discuss.” Celestia said, using her hooves to gesture Goldhearts to take her seat. Goldhearts sat down and looked at Celestia.
“So how do you want to do this Princess? Do I introduce myself first or do you want to ask questions first?” Goldhearts asked.
“Well, I think I will ask my questions first so that I can understand you better and eat our food at the same time. How does that sound to you?”
“Sure thing, ask away.”
Celestia levitated a list of questions she spent last night preparing and started to ask them in order. Celestia, unable to contain her excitement, bombarded her questions in quick succesion. “Well… I wanted to ask you how did you discovered the portal from the human world to this world? Why did you come here? Ooo What was the human world like? What were the items that you were wearing and what did you bring over to this world? How did alicorns work in the human world?”
Goldhearts took a moment to internalise what she was being asked. Hmm how should I reply? My experience in the human world was limited but she just seemed so eager to learn more about it. She slummed and stated, “The human world is not as nice as you think it is Princess. My experience there was tragic to say the least. As we were a rare breed over there, when we were captured, we were experimented on and did things that would likely be unimaginable here. That’s what made me come here, to start a new life here, so that my daughter that would be born soon would not have to go through that darkness.” She paused, looking at Celestia if she should carry on. Many things were running through her head right now. Goldhearts, a pony who looked so innocent at first glance, told the story as if she had gone through a thousand years like her. She used her front hoof and gestured for Goldhearts to continue her tale.
“I have discovered the portal near a high school. The school had a high magical concentration and we were told of a legend that it would lead to another world. A world of magical talking ponies, where Unicorns and Dragons would be accepted. At least that is what Night Light described it as during his time here. The items you saw me wear and bring are my personal equipment from being a soldier in the human world. A soldier is something like your royal guards here. For their world, they used something called a pixelated camouflage pattern for their uniforms instead of the golden armor yall used here. As a soldier it was a tough life and it was why they experimented on us. So perhaps that is why, in my true form, I am bigger than you as it is what was required of us to perform our missions in the human world. In the human world, the equipment is really heavy, so that is why we needed to be generally bigger and stronger. But not to worry, so long as it is not a magically draining task, I should be able to stay in this pony form for as long as required.”
Celestia simply nodded and took down notes along the way, and she spotted something interesting in Goldhearts tale. “You mentioned that you have a daughter and someone called Night Light. Who are they to you and are they coming through the portal too?”
Goldhearts closed her eyes, she looked down, her face filled with guilt as if it is something she does not want to talk about. “It’s okay if it is a sensitive subject. If you don’t want to talk about it, then it’s fine.” Celestia said in a gentle tone.
“No it’s okay. I just need time to process it. You deserve to know. Especially since i will be staying here in the foreseeable future. Night Light is a Night Fury, a type of dragon if you will. They primarily shoot plasma blasts from their mouths and he is around your size. He was my partner, and the only one who truly loved me for who I am. I used to be pretty small in size but with his love, I grew into what you see today. I fell in love with him gradually through all the times we worked together. He helped me achieve things I never thought was possible. I would have wanted him to join me here, but it would seem that fate has other plans. During the crossover, he would give up his life to ensure that we made it across. He was the reason I would be getting a daughter in the first place. While we can’t, you know, do it, in the physical way as we are different creatures, his love was enough to produce this baby in my belly. It occurred when we were out riding and a comet flew over and he made a wish and that is how we got her.” She smiled as she rubbed her belly. “Well I don’t know much about her but a product of magic can be quite unpredictable. That is why I came here. To give her a chance at life without the wars, the missions and the experiments that we had to go through in the human world.”
Princess Celestia look across the table, she took down her notes and put it away. What should she say to her? To be sorry that she had to went through such pain? To be in shock that she did terrible things before? To even think that once before she wanted to experiment on her? She simply looked at Goldhearts, dumbfounded.
“Like I said Princess, it is not a great tale. If you want to ask me what I want here, I just want to live a simple life here. A place safe for her to grow up in. Nothing else matters.” Goldhearts stated.
“If that is the case Goldhearts. I would need time to delve into the information you give me. In the meantime, you could go into the Royal Library to find out more about Equestria and how you could settle down here.” Princess Celestia said. With that, the two parties ate finish their lunch and bid each other farewell.
While Celestia went back to her day court, Goldhearts used the remainder of the day to read up in the Royal Library.
The Royal library main purpose is to provide reference materials for researchers to study on and it contains many books about Equestrian creatures and their history. It contain many old folk tales and literatures from the time of the three tribes to present day. Even though a large percentage of books are reference books, there is still occasional fictional stories here for aspiring authors. There is also a children section contains books relevant for their age group. It was said that many top scholars in Canterlot would spend their entire day here just looking through reference materials to advance further in their field of studies.
When Goldhearts entered the library, she was amazed at the organised way that books were place and the different levels that the library have. She had never been in a library in the human world and the thought of being able to get books to read get made her excited. There were so many different sections in the library, from spells and sorcery to even space and constellations. She could literally spend at least a month here just to read through and learn all the different topics. She calmed down from her excitement and remembered the purpose why she was here in the first place. She went straight to the cultures sections and found a book on Equestrian cultures and she place it down on the table and read.
And so begin a cycle for her first week here in Equestria where she would get up, go the the library to spend the day reading before going back to sleep. During this time she barely had any interactions with the castle crew except for the two royal guards tasked to escort her.
A week soon passed and in that short week of reading and taking down notes whenever possible, she slowly got the hang of Equestrian cultures and started to understand it. She could see why Night Light had recommended her to come here. She could assimilate well with the ponies here, that is if she could keep her disguise up.
As she learned along the way, ponies here have three tribes, an earth pony, unicorn and pegasus. And the Princess being an Alicorn, containing the traits of all three tribes. In her true form, she could be considered an Alicorn, since she has both a horn and wings but that usually meant royalty so she usually just call herself a unicorn. Furthermore, she also has other powers that the unicorns in Equestria does not have. Since unicorns are usually linked to innocence and goodwill in the human world, she has powers that helped her in that regard to sense someone's true motives and whether they have good intentions.
She also learned that the ponies here has a cutiemark, a symbol of their special talent on their flank. It was not a issue since most of the time she is wearing a sort of cloak to hide her wings and flank, but she still decide to create a cutiemark, a horn crossing with a sword, to represent her military past and magical skill. She also slowly had to hide her wings in her disguise so that it reduce the chance of ponies finding out her true identity. It is tough to keep up such disguises for long period of time so she casted a spell on common clothes she wear to do it automatically for her but that only reduces the strain slightly. Everytime she is in her disguise she would want to break out of it, her body telling her that it does not want to be contained in what is essentially a weaker version of herself.
Now that she had a greater understanding of Equestria, she started to look into jobs that she could perform to earn money or bits in this world as there was no way she could stay in the castle forever. She went through various professions, some she could easily do but she still was not familiar with how this world worked yet. So she chose something that would be slightly familiar to her, perhaps joining the royal guard would allow her to better learn about this world and that it would not be too taxing on her body since she was used to the tough military lifestyle on earth.
While Goldhearts was studying about Equestria, Celestia was studying Goldhearts. She has tasked her guards to give her daily reports about Goldhearts, her movement and behaviour in the castle. She originally wanted to schedule Goldhearts on a medical checkup so that she could understand more about the mare's abilities and if she would pose a threat to Equestria once she decides she was ready to release her out of the castle and into Equestrian society. But reports would have to do for now as she planned her next move. A part of her sees the goodness in Goldhearts her innocence and positivity but she also feel scared around the mare, her size in her true form and her magical prowess lead her to believe that she was hiding more than she let on.
By the end of the week, she slowly realised her fears were unfounded and slowly felt secure about the mare. She was surprised that Goldhearts requested to meet her in the Canterlot Garden at night but she agreed since there were some topics that she wanted to discuss with her too.
Celestia walked out of the day courtroom and lowered the sun, bringing moonlight up to shine across Equestria. She then walked to the Gardens where she could feel brighter? It was like she was injected with a rush of positivity and then she felt like someone was calling her, as if pulling her closer. She instinctly followed the trail and what she saw could have ended her life with cuteness overload.
There Goldhearts was standing in her true form, talking to and smelling the flowers, and the flowers, as if sensing her positive aura had blossomed to greet her. She never saw the garden this bright, this welcoming, full of love and joy.
She was talking to a flower when she noticed Celestia standing there, looking at her in wonder.
"Oh Princess, I did not notice you had come. I hope you did not mind me talking to the flowers. It's just my way of appreciating the garden." Goldhearts said, in a significantly higher pitch and more welcoming tone than she ever did. It was then she realised her guards that have escorted her here were simply lying on the floor, they look to be in absolute bliss.
Celestia did not know to be terrified or to be grateful to be in the presence of such a pure creature. She tried to walk closer but with each step, she felt the energy rushing into her, the cuteness going into her eyes, how her bright white mane and golden mane reflected a calm and charming atmosphere. She walked next to her and try to say her words but that was interrupted when she looked into her eyes. Her pure black iris with a golden outline. That was all her body could take, she collapsed on the floor, her mind filled with cute images and all the positive the world has to offer.
"Princess! Oh no, oh no, oh no, I did not think that this would happen. I am sorry Princess and the guards. I did not think that my true self would be so overwhelming for yall."
Celestia, still in her half conscious state, replied, “It’s al….right. Just Unicorns everywhere…,” She then went on mumbling incoherent thoughts.
Okay this was not meant to happen, erm, come on, Goldhearts, think. What would snap them out of it? She thought of a while before an idea popped out. She grabbed Celetia and shook her body violently. Nothing happened. She then tried stomping loudly around them. Nothing happened. She ran to grab a hose and splashed water on them. That seemed to break the three of their worlds and the three of them slowly recovered.
Goldhearts stood a distance away and faced her back to the group as she thought about her actions. “Goldhearts? What happened? All I remembered was that I saw you and then I ended up getting water splashed at me. Do you have something to do with it?” Celestia asked.
Goldhearts nodded. “Goldhearts, What happened?! It won’t help that you are facing your back to us.” Celestia demanded, her eyes focused on the mare in front.
“I can’t contain it.” Goldhearts whispered. She curled herself up into a ball, her eyes pointed downwards, she was ready to cry at the realisation of what happened.
“What did you say?” Celestia asked, carefully approaching the mare.
“I could not contain myself, okay?! You think it’s easy to live in a disguise. My true self felt trapped and so I thought a walk in the garden would be fine but instead it just forces itself out and when I am my true self, MY TRUE SELF, you guys can’t handle it. It was too much for you guys. I can’t even disguise myself for a WEEK, how am I supposed to do that for a long time? There is just too much magic here! My body is not used to it and then the Unicorn part comes out naturally.” Goldhearts could not hold her tears anymore and started sobbing, “I d..id not want to hurt you…. But it’s just too much for me!” Goldhearts could not hold it back anymore, all this while she acted like she was fine, but the thought that she had lost her partner and that she nearly hurt the ponies that helped her made her let it all out.
Her tears dripped like waterfall onto the garden grounds below and unknowingly, this caused the garden to start to turn from a bright garden full of flowers in bloom, to a sorrow looking one where the plants were starting to wither. Celestia could only stare in shock as she slowly felt that painful feeling reaching her. She moved forward to comfort the crying mare and every step she took to get closer with Goldhearts made her feel even worse, to the point she felt the same pain in her heart as she did when she sent Luna to the moon.
Celestia steeled her resolve and moved forward with all her might And as she stood next to Goldhearts, all the pain was gone. She turn and look at Goldhearts, her tears still dripping. There was a sense of confusion on Celestia face. She then noticed a saddle on Goldhearts back and a lead rope hanging from her neck. Goldhearts leaned on to Celestia’s shoulder to rest her head and hugged her tightly. Celestia stood still and let her hug her. Thankfully her hug was gentle enough to not cause her any discomfort. Celestia returned the hug and said in a gentle, motherly voice “there there, my little pony. It’s okay to feel overwhelmed. You are a powerful Unicorn that is just confused. I can only imagine what you went through in the human world. Forget all that pain, for you are here now. Focus on your life here and you will make it through.”
“Thank you, Night Light. That is all I needed to hear.” Goldhearts said as she leaned her body forward, resting her full weight on Celestia. Celestia, who felt the balance shift against her, could feel the full weight of the mare and her body was trying its best, but gosh was she heavy. She slowly stepped out of the way, letting Goldhearts body fall onto the ground softly. Goldhearts then curled herself into a ball and rested her head on Celestia’s chest. Celestia then laid down next to her and watched the steady rise and fall of Goldhearts chest. Princess Celestia felt a wave of motherly love go over her as she watched Goldhearts slowly fall to sleep. Celestia instinctively used her hoof and brushed Goldhearts’ mane and patted the mare to sleep. “Sleep well, Goldhearts, and sweet dreams.” Celestia said and gently kissed the mare on her forehead. She then went back to the guards and saw that they were looking at the sky, as if something spectacular was in the night sky. She wanted to ask them what they were looking at and when she turned around she realised what they were looking at.
The night sky never looked so beautiful before. There was a strange sense of calmness in the garden as she looked at Goldhearts.
“What are you, Goldhearts?” Celestia asked out loud. “How can you be so simple yet so complex to understand? What made you so innocent yet so wise in your words? How did you bring joy and sadness to the world around you? How can you be heavy to carry yet light to hold? Just what are you, Goldhearts?”
“Princess, should we move her back to her room?” The guards asked.
“No. Even if I wanted to, I doubt you two would have the strength to lift that mare off the ground, let alone back up to her room. Just let her sleep here tonight, and escort her back tomorrow. I will talk to her in the morning.” Celestia said.
“Yes, Princess.” The guards replied in unison. Celestia then made her way back up to her own room, drafting plans on how she was going to integrate this pony before falling asleep.