//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 // Story: Anon's Detour // by NeonDF //------------------------------// Anon sat in the kitchen, alone, slowly digesting his breakfast and staring off into the distance through the window. The mare has left some fifteen minutes ago, shortly after he was done eating, but not before cleaning the table with her magic. It took her merely ten seconds. The lizard hanged around to wash the dishes, but then left as well. Only Anon remained, for he had nowhere to go. What next? This simple, yet insidious question could not leave his mind. Indeed, what next? He had shelter. He had water. He had food, in a manner of speaking. But he had no idea how to get home. For that matter, he had no idea where he even ended up. Or how. Or why. It was impossible to refute what he saw last night: an entirely different sky from the one he was used to. The one seen from Earth. Was he on another planet? The air felt the same, the gravity felt the same, the sun looked the same. The moon did not. And the stars. Could he has somehow ended up on a planet that was very similar to Earth? But could such planet even exist? Well, the universe is essentially infinite, so the chances are there - it’s mostly a question of how far away such planet would be. And how much exactly that “far away” measures up to? There were no familiar constellations, not even the band of the Milky Way could be seen. The skies were awfully colorful… was this planet inside some nebula? Nebula could be thick enough to obscure the rest of the galaxy, but in that case he wouldn’t be able to tell whether he even was inside the Milky Way, and not some other galaxy. The unwanted thought left a pit in his stomach. There are countless galaxies out there, and if he ended up outside of his own, there was no chance to find which one is the right one, left alone which star is the Sun. What’s worse, it didn’t even matter which planet he ended up on, or whether he was in the Milky Way. It’s not like he could do anything useful with such information, like building a rocket and flying back home; he would die of old age way before he even finishes the math required for any such project. No, he didn’t need to know where the home was, or how far away. He only needed to know how to get there. And for that, he first needed to understand how he got here. The answer was self-evident: ponies. If this is a different planet, then he had somehow crossed light years of distance without realizing. There was no technology on Earth for such travel: humanity couldn’t even manage a manned flight to Mars, let alone a neighboring star. The ponies, on the other hand, had telekinesis. They were able to defy gravity itself, and made it look effortless. What if they had similar magic powers that let them perform interstellar travel? What if he was simply kidnapped, brought onboard an alien spaceship and then moved for the impossibly large distance? Like humans move cattle in trucks, but this time the human is the one who goes in the cargo hold. He ought to remember that, then, one can’t just forget a chunk of their life. Unless he was put to sleep, or otherwise rendered unconscious for the duration of the trip, but then again, he could not recall falling asleep in-between entering the park and reaching the ponies’ farm, or any abrupt changes in scenery… was his memory tampered with? Who knows what this magic is capable of. But in that case, surely there would be some signs left on his body over the… how long such trip would have taken? Actually, Anon could estimate that one. With distance measured in light-years, and faster-than-light travel is proved as impossible, it would have taken at least years, if not centuries. He didn’t feel older, or sick, or fatigued, so either he hadn’t aged during the process, or traveled at speeds close to the speed of light where time dilation comes into play, and it would only have been a second or maybe a few hours for him. …Did he skip years into the future? If so, how many? Ten? Fifty? A century? Could he get back home before everything he knew turns to dust? Was there even anything left to return to? Despite the horrific possibility, that scenario made little sense. If one-way travel took centuries or millennia, it would require that the kidnappers were either immortal or extremely dedicated to their cause. Sending out a spaceship in hopes that your grand-grand-grand kids would see the results? That’s insane. But then again, these are aliens, no telling what goes on in their heads. What if they found some way to circumvent the wait? There are still many blank spots when it comes to our understanding of the universe; the ponies could have discovered some effect that lets them travel faster than light and not violate causality. Want to travel to Mars? Two seconds, and you’re there. Another star? Five-minute ride. Round trip to the next galaxy a few million light-years away to pick up a lone human? Sure, will get back before dinner. Anon chuckled to himself. This was getting ridiculous; he was building convoluted theories based on a single piece of evidence. For all he knew, the sky was not a real sky, but a huge concrete dome covered with LCD screens, the sun was a giant light bulb placed up there to look close enough to the real thing, and he was a clone of himself living as a test subject on some alien spaceship. But he was neither a kid, nor was he on an island, and more importantly, the aliens did not try to hide. What did they want from him then? His body? They wouldn’t need to transport him back to their planet in conscious state, let alone let him wander there. A single tranquilizer dart, or a minute application of magic to erase his mind, and there it was, a prime human body all nice and ready for dissection. Much easier to transport than live and resisting specimen. Were they researching his behavior, and dropping him off in the wilderness was their esoteric way of doing so? He could imagine: “hey, fellow pony, wouldn’t it be great if we grabbed one of those monkeys from that one planet and let it run free? Surely it would be amusing to watch, it makes funny noises!” That thought erased all the fake amusement he tried to cheer himself up with. Despite how absurd the idea was, there was a possibility he was nothing more than entertainment for some wealthy alien elite. One he may have met yesterday. Anon shook his head. He was thinking way too much as of late, and the more thinking he did the less he understood. Ergo, he had to stop thinking and do something useful. He wanted to know how he got there? Well, he ought to go and shake the answer out of the culprits themselves. Metaphorically speaking, of course. He wouldn’t want to get microwaved. With the newfound purpose in mind Anon rose from the table and walked towards the stairwell going down to the basement. Last time he saw the pony she went downstairs, so that’s where he would find her. A short descend brought him to a wooden door, and Anon wasted no time pushing it open. The basement was a large room filled with random clutter. Over in the corner there were book of every shape and color piled into towers that leaned precariously towards each other. Next to them were two dozen identical cardboard boxes stacked into a neat wall. Then there was assorted furniture covered by old cloth and left for a better time: Anon could make out the vague outlines of tables, chairs, a dresser, a full-length mirror and even a grand piano. Next to that stood an empty fish tank. The other side of the room was occupied by a huge writing desk. It was covered with, in no particular order: papers, inkwells, writing feathers, shards of colorful rocks, flasks filled with opaque green liquid, bits of copper wire and other metal scrap. Amidst the chaos stood a lonely test tube rack that held a couple empty test tubes. Next to the desk was a metal table with a tool rack mounted to the side and a lamp hanging from above. On the table there was a number of contraptions, one that looked like a microscope, one that resembled a blender and one that… was that a coffee machine? His target was also there. The mare stood near the table, facing away from him, and was staring intently at something on the metal surface. Anon couldn’t see what it was, as the pony was obstructing the view, but she was completely absorbed by her activity, her tail swishing from side to side. There was an item resembling a tiny drill silently hovering near her, with the cord trailing through the air and ending at the tool rack. Walking across the room towards the mare and keeping a careful eye on the drill, Anon realized it was the first time he’d seen ponies use advanced technology in plain view. They had fridges and light switches and stoves, but their wiring and lightning were always hidden in some ways, both inside the house and outside in town, and the houses themselves were made to resemble ones built by people a century or perhaps two ago. But they must’ve considered the basement to be far enough from the public eye to not bother with concealment. As he approached the mare from the side, he could finally see what held her attention. There, in the middle of the table, was a hole of absolute nothingness. Perfect blackness, so deep and spotless it was inadvertently drawing the gaze in, inviting one to lose themselves in the infinite and triggering every alarm bell in the subconscious. After a few attempts to look away failed, Anon had to close his eyes and take a shuddering breath. The mare didn’t seem to be bothered by the hole, so it was most likely harmless, at least as long as he didn’t poke it. He tried slowly opening his eyes and peeking at the thing, but even that was enough to make him dizzy and prompt a grunt. The mare’s ear twitched, then she blinked, then the hole disappeared with a quiet pop. Her tail went still, as did the rest of her body, and she turned her head to the human, who was massaging his eyes and blinking rapidly in an attempt to shake off the afterimage. It took Anon a few seconds to notice he became the new center of attention. That played nicely into his goal, as he could now ask his questions and get some answers. He opened his mouth… and realized he had no idea what to say. Or, rather, how. His mind kicked into overdrive trying to find the right words or correct gestures to express what he wanted to say, but it all was rather simplistic. He was never good at pantomimes, and was drawing a complete blank when it came to high-level expressions such as “why was I brought here” or “how to return back”. It didn’t help that he was dealing with a pony, and there was no guessing what gestures the ponies use for even the basic concepts such as “here” or “there” or “I”. As the human did his best impression of a goldfish, the mare let out a snort and floated the drill back to the tool rack, then glanced at the table. With the hole of nothingness gone, the surface of the table was revealed as a regular if somewhat scratched sheet of metal, with a glowing blue circular mark in the center that roughly resembled dimensions of the hole. The mark was rapidly fading away, and right in the middle of it laid an item that Anon, to his chagrin, recognized. His smartphone – or, rather, what was left of it. The charred piece of plastic and glass shuddered, then slowly rose into the air, held by an invisible force, and floated between the frowning human and the pony, who gave him a strange look. Anon took a hard look at the thing, then addressed the mare, making sure to let in as much annoyance in his intonation as he could. “Yes, it’s broken, your white friend made sure of that.” The mare blinked, then let out a neigh. The smartphone floated closer to Anon’s face, close enough the acrid stench of burnt plastic invaded his sinuses, and then shook a bit in the air, as if trying to accentuate the extent of the damage, which only served to further piss off the human. “Oh, that’s how it’s gonna be, huh?” Thoroughly peeved at the pony and realizing he would get no answers from her, Anon did the only thing he could think of at the time. He turned around and marched back to the door. The pony didn’t try to stop him as he pulled the knob and rushed up the stairs. He quickly emerged into the kitchen, went to the main hall, crossed it and came through the door to the outside. Finally alone, Anon let out a few choice words regarding aliens, ponies, magic and language barriers, then found a particularly thick patch of grass, sat down on it and began contemplating his next move.