//------------------------------//
// Teacup 
// Story: Not Here 
// by ulcuran 
//------------------------------//

As I turn to look I see myself, again. 

‘’Hello, buddy.’’ He says in a tone as if he is looking at a lifelong enemy. 

‘’Wha-wh-’’ I try to say something, anything to him but no words come to my mouth. 

He walks towards me with a heavy stride each step feels as if they are shaking the world around me. I barely manage to stand up straight. 

‘’What? The animal can’t talk?’’ He says with a low chuckle. 

‘’I’m no animal!’’ I say trying to defend myself. 

‘’Sure, of course, you are not. What was my name again?’’ He stops in front of me and I have to bend my neck to look him in the eye. I open my mouth to answer but before I can even get the first syllable out he cuts me off with a shout. 

‘’WRONG! I have a human name! You on the other hand-’’ He gestured towards his right hand. ‘’- have the name of a dog! Quite fitting if I do say myself.’’ He smirks at me. 

‘’What would you have me do?! Want me to give them our real name?’’ I was angry, what the hell does he want me to do? 

Wait, why is he holding my hand? I try to get out of his grip but it is too strong. He brings my hand up and I’m forced to go upright with my back legs. 

‘’What is this?’’ He says while shaking my hand. 

‘’My han-’’ 

‘’WRONG! I have a human hand! You on the other hand-’’ He gestured towards my han- hooves. ‘’- have hooves like a horse!’’ He screams and throws me back onto the ground. I land on my back with a heavy thud. He walks towards my back and… fuck! That hurts! W-why is he backwards?! 

‘’What is this? Huh?!’’ He is holding my tail! I didn’t know that I was such a bastard! 

‘’It-it’s my t-tail.’’ 

‘’YES! THAT IS A TAIL! JUST LIKE AN ANIMAL!’’ He shakes me left, and right and drops me onto the ground again. 

‘’Fuck you! I didn’t want this! I am human! I just need to find a way to turn back into on-’’ He stomps on my neck with his foot and I feel like the whole world fell on me.

‘’Oh no you won’t. You are going to die in this world as an animal.’’ He pushes even deeper, I can’t do anything as my vision gets darker and darker but squeak out a small whimper. 

‘’I’m… human…’’ The last thing I hear is a snicker. 

‘’You keep telling yourself that.’’ Then everything goes black with a crack. 



‘’Agh!’’ I woke up with a sharp gasp. While panting heavily I touch my neck with my hoov-... hands. Looking up I see Moonlight approaching me with a worried look in her eyes, ah is that the milk from earlier? Looking over her back I see that she is indeed carrying the white nectar of life on a tray with an empty glass beside it. She drank hers, didn’t she? 

‘’Laika! Are you okay?’’ Moonlight says when she arrives beside the bed and puts the tray on the nightstand. She gets the glass of milk and holds out the glass for me to take. 

‘’I…I’m okay, just a nightmare,’’ I take the glass and drink it in one go. Woah, this is some good milk…wait, I hope the cows realllllly don’t talk in this place or I don’t think I will be able to drink milk again.

‘’Oh, do you wanna talk about it?’’ She asks in a concerned tone. 

‘’NO!-’’ Moonlight gets startled and jumps back a little, whoops. ‘’I…don’t really want to talk about it, let’s just forget it okay?’’ 

‘’O-okay, but are you sur-waaghh.’’ I flick her nose. 

‘’Don’t worry about it, now let’s eat some breakfast!’’ I rub my belly which growls in response, good boy. ‘’I’m starving.’’ 

At the mention of breakfast, Moonlight’s ears perk up, and her whole demeanor changes. This maid man, I should get them ice creams soon, but my debt is piling I still have those five carrots to pay, ughhhh. Maybe I can poison them? I would be ridding the world of a devil. 

‘’Ohhh yesss, let’s get some breakfast! I hope it will be as good as the pancakes!’’ I hope so too Moonlight, I hope so too. 

‘’So? Where do we eat?’’ 

‘’I was about to head to the kitchen to bring us some food but somepony scared me.’’ Huh, somepony… taking a deep breath I try my hardest to smile. 

‘’Sorry, can you get us some breakfast, please?’’ 

‘’Wellll, since you asked so nicely, guess I'll do it.’’ She waves me goodbye as the door is closing and I can hear the noise of her hooves hitting the marble flooring getting further and further away, and now there is silence. 

Getting out of bed I look around the room and it is still the same as last night only now with the addition of two empty glasses, one on the table and one on the nightstand. My gaze falls to the balcony. I wonder if the barrier is back again. My curiosity gets the best of me. With slow steps, my feet make the same sound as Moonlight…
*clip-clop-clip-clop* I only hear that sound nothing else, not the winds or anything else, my ears only hear that horrendous clip-clop I am so focused on it that I don’t even realize that I am already on the balcony and I hit my muzzl-...nose, on the railing. 

‘’Ow…’’ I saw while rubbing my nose. The balcony still looks the same, did they actually forget? If so then SCOOOOORE! One more escape path. If not, eh, that’s how it goes. Okay, be careful now I don’t want a repeat of yesterday. At a pace that would leave a snail astonished I get up on my back legs and slowly extend my hand. My hand get stopped and a different colored barrier appears this time dark blue, and at the place my hand touched the same effect shows itself as waves appear and spread out over the barrier.

‘’Huh, looks like they didn’t forget.’’ I rub my hand and look over the barrier disappearing from view again, it’s different this time. Did Luna make this one? Eh, no matter still can’t get through it. Shrugging my shoulders I decide to look around and see what the city and castle has got for me.

My first target is the window I crashed through I look over and, huh, there is some ponies with wings, they were called pegasus or something like that right? Anyway, there are some pegasus with hardhats on carrying a huge mosaic glass. They are already replacing it? Looks like they work fast or that Celestia had some in storage, but who would keep extra mosaic glass? Weird. 

I watch the pegasus wor-holy shit! The glass slipped out of their hands, it’s going to fall! 

*whooosh* 

Three pegasus with blue suits and googles appear out of nowhere fly toward the falling glass at mach one speed, and catch it. What. the. fuck. They carry the glass back to the worker pegasus and they all cheer. 

‘’Woooo! The Wonderbolts are awesome!’’ 

‘’They saved the glass!’’ 

‘’Did you see how fast they were!’’ 

The ‘Wonderbolts’ go away as fast as they came and the worker pegasus puts the glass back in place although they go about it more slowly than when they first tried. The Wonderbolts huh? Are they like the Air Force or something? Hey, wait a minute! Why the hell did they not catch me?! Or even stop the balloon? 

*knock-knock* 

My thoughts get interrupted by a knock on the door, looks like Moonlight is back. 

‘’Come in.’’ I say not looking at the door, I just continue watching the workers they are almost done. I hear the sounds of someone making their way toward me, huh, I thought Moonlight would talk, but she is unusually quiet. 

‘’Moonligh- Oh, hello Luna.’’ Looking over my shoulder I see Luna. 

‘’Greetings Laika, were thou expecting the maid? Did we disappoint thou?’’ She asks with a sly smile. 

‘’Yeah-ow!’’ I promptly get smacked in the back of my head. 

‘’Hmph! Thou will have to make do with us.’’ 

‘’Sorry, sorry-’’ I laugh a little while rubbing the back of my head. ‘’I thought Moonlight came back with breakfast.’’ 

‘’Did thou forget? We will be dining with mine sister this morning.’’ She asks and looks towards where I’m looking seeing the pegasus workers. 

‘’Right, right… Uh let me tell Moonlight first then we can go.’’ 

‘’Don’t fret over the maid, we have already informed her of thine feast with us.’’ 

‘’Uh, thanks.’’ She nods and looks over where I'm staring at. I point with a hand towards the workers and ask.

‘’You guys are already replacing that window? Did you keep like, a spare or something? hehe.’’ 

‘’Actually yes, we do. Thou wouldst not believe how many times we need one.’’ 

Oh, okay, I’m not going to ask about that. It’s like the white house keeping extra doors because their doors get busted a lot. 

‘’Okay, so when are we going to have this ‘feast’?’’ 

‘’Right now, we were on our way to pick you up.’’ 

‘’You know you could have sent someone to bring me to you and your sister, I don’t think princesses should pick up commoners from their rooms, think of the headlines!’’ 

‘’We are a princess of the people not of the noble.-’’ Luna says with a proud voice ‘’- And thou are not just a simple commoner thou are a friend of the Princess of the Night!’’ 

‘’Oh? That’s your title? It fits you.’’ I mean she is dark blue and has a Moon uhh what were they again? Cutie mark yeah, she has a Moon cutie mark. For god’s sake, her name is Luna. If she was anything but the Princess of the Night it would be a crime. 

‘’W-we thank thee for thine compliment.’’ Luna says and quickly turns her head back, but I can see the barest hue of pink. ‘’Follow us, let us not keep our sister waiting any longer’’ Luna begins walking to the door and I start walking beside her. I get to the door by myself and realize that Luna stopped. I look over and see that Luna is glaring at my bed, huh? 

‘’Uhh, Luna?’’ She doesn’t hear me or she is hearing and not responding, it’s like a cat looking at a corner of the room. 

‘’...’’ No response.

‘’Luna?’’ I ask getting closer. 

‘’...’’ Still no response.

‘’What is there like ghosts haunting my bed or something?’’ I stand beside her and look at what she is looking at and see nothing just the bed, well the sheets are all over the place but that's about it. 

‘’...’’ She is literally going to murder those bed sheets with her stare alone. 

‘’LUNA!’’ 

‘’WAH! …Laika?’’ She gets surprised and realizes that I’m here too. 

‘’Is my bed haunted or something why are you staring at it like that?’’ I ask finally able to break her out of her trance of glaring. 

‘’No…no, you don’t have to worry about it, it just reminded me of something.’’ She says in a flat tone, but I can sense just a tiny amount of anger? I don’t think she will answer me even if I ask her, so let’s just let it be. 

‘’Okaaay?’’ 

We leave the room and start walking the halls of the castle. Passing by some guards and maids or other kinds of servants some of them get spooked? Weird, are they scared of me? I mean I understand the maids I guess, but the guards? They can kick my ass. 

‘’Don't pay them any attention Laika.’’ Luna says while looking and walking straight ahead not paying any attention to the other ponies. 

I realize that some of them are not looking at me but at Luna, are they scared of her? I mean, she did threaten the dungeon when we first met, is she giving staff the same treatment? If so then their reactions are uh, somewhat understandable. 

When we walk through some of the parts where there is no one but us, I can only hear that damming sound. 

*clip-clop* 

It makes me realize that, yes I really am a talking horse and yes I am walking with the princess of the talking horses to eat breakfast with the other princess. 

‘’The gardens are just beyond this door.’’ 

‘’We are going to eat in the gardens?’’ 

‘’Yes? Will that be a problem?’’

‘’No, no, quite the opposite actually.’’ 

Luna shows me a small smile and opens the door. Alright, let’s do this. I see that the gardens are really big, like enormous big. There is a huge fountain with a pony statute on top which is spitting water from its mouth. To the left of the fountain, a path leads to a place with a grand table and chairs, and in one of the chairs ‘Celestia’ herself is sitting. 

Luna and I make our way to her sister and when she notices us she smiles. 

‘’Ah! Welcome, I thought Luna kept you all to herself.’’ ‘Celestia’ giggles, and gets up from her chair. 

‘’Sister!’’ Luna exclaims, and her sister laughs more.

I look at the table and it is covered with food and drinks. What catches my eye is some delicious-looking eggs. Oh god, if only there was some bacon. Before I sit Celestia talks again. 

‘’I’m sorry dear, but I forgot to get your name before when we first met, You can call me Celestia.’’ She says with a soft smile, it makes me feel weird, I don’t like this. I avoid her gaze and answer her.

‘’Uhh, It’s Laika, nice to meet you.’’ 

‘’And a pleasure to meet you too, I hope to become your friend, any friend of my sister is a friend of mine.’’ 

‘’Sure.’’ 

‘’Ah, sorry, you must be hungry, let’s eat!’’ Finally! My stomach is killing me. 

We sit on our chairs and I start digging in, I can hold a fork, well I hold it like a caveman but still, it's better than nothing. 

‘’So Laika I heard that you saved Moonlight?’’ Celestia says and Luna's eyes narrow a little and she stops eating. 

‘’Hmm? Ah yeah.’’ I say with a gulp and finish the eggs on my plate. 

‘’I, thank you for your bravery, You saved her life.’’ 

‘’Well I almost died but Luna saved me, hehe.’’ I say a little embarrassed. At the mention of her name Luna’s ears perk up and she smiles at me. 

‘’Yes, when Luna told me what had happened I thought about changing your rooms, but she changed my mind.’’ She did? Hell yeah, thank you, Luna! I mouth a thank you to her and she nods with a smile.

‘’Uhh, yeah, I’m happy in my room, would rather not change it.’’ 

‘’I understand, after your heroism, I would not dream of it.’’ Is she trying to butter me up? Hmm. 

We talk more and Celestia doesn’t seem that bad honestly, but she did call me ‘’my little pony’’ which is still weird. When I asked her if she could deliver my thanks to the chef she giggled and said. 

‘’You're very welcome dear, I didn’t know that I made breakfast that good.’’ Did she make these? These are delicious! I thanked her again.

We continued our breakfast and I ate a banana, not going to eat apples after what happened. Celestia’s horn glows and my body becomes tense for just a moment but I realize that she is just levitating a tea kettle and some tea cups and I relax again, yeah I could go for some tea right now.

‘’Would you like to drink tea with us?’’ Celestia asks as she starts pouring the tea into the cups except one and waits for my answer. 

‘’Yes please, some tea would be nice.’’ 

Celestia doesn’t say anything but she smiles and pours me tea and levitates the teacup in front of me. It smells like, lavender? I like black tea but eh, I’m not going to ask the ruler of a nation to get me a different type of tea. Celestia and Luna’s horns glow and they drink the tea while it's in the air. 

How do I hold this? I should be able to right? 

‘’The doctor says that you should be able to get out of those bandages in a few days, isn’t that great?’’ Celestia says something but I don’t hear a lot of it, I’m just focused on the cup. 

‘’Yeah, that’s great.’’ I reply without thinking. Let’s try this. I try to hold the cup with shaky hands and it falls. 

‘’Oh, let me get that for you.’’ Celestia brings a napkin and wipes the table before filling the cup back up. 

‘’Thanks.’’ Fuck, okay let’s try this again, I should be able to do this, I’m a human, and humans can hold teacups with ease.  

‘’Would you like some help with that dear?’’ Celestia asks in a motherly tone. 

‘’NO!.. I mean no thank you.’’ I try to hold it again this time a bit more successful but it falls again on the plate with a crash, and both Luna and Celestia are looking at each other and then at me. 

I will hold it, I’m not an animal, I can hold cups... Trying to hold the empty cup again results in a crash. 

‘’Laika let us help you.’’ Luna tries to hold my tea cup with her horn and it floats in front of me. 

‘’Luna, let it down.’’ I say in an aggressive tone. 

‘’Laika, please, everypony needs some help sometimes…’’ Luna says with a soft, friendly smile. 

…every…pony? 

‘’I can hold a teacup on my own! I’M NOT AN ANIMAL!’’ My reaction makes both the princess pull back and my cup slowly lands in front of me. I try to hold it again but this time instead of falling, it shatters from the pressure I’m putting on it. 

‘’Laika!’’ Luna rushes to my side and tries to tend to me with Celestia slowly coming over. 

‘’Oh dear.’’

‘’...’’ I look over my bloody han-hoof… I can’t even hold a teacup.

Maybe I’m really an animal? A human would be able to hold it, but I can’t, not here…