Space Ponies
By Boss Hoss
Chapter 2, Meet the Brony
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It was a nice, sunny morning thanks to Rainbow Dash's effort at keeping the skies clear.
Enjoying the warmth of Celestia's sun, Twilight was laying out on a park bench near the fountain, reading.
Eagerly, Pinkie bounced up to her "Twiiiilight! Guess what!?"
Not even turning to look from where she concentrated on the book, the lilac unicorn replied in a bored tone "*sigh* what, Pinkie?"
Pinkie's ears went back in disappointment. Twilight did not even TRY to guess! She glanced over to a nearby bush with two dark blue eyes the color of Rarity's peering back at her, depending on her.
Her resolve given a boost, Pinkie leaned in close, turning her head to get between Twilight and the book. "You know when I say I think we're being watched? I had one of those Doozy feelings and finally went to take a look, and I brought one of them back with me!"
Scott watched as Twilight sat up, wide eyed with one of her eyebrows arched. "Wait, what? One of those "Space Ponies" you tell us about?!"
Pinkie giggled "Welll... he wasn’t a pony, he says he's a Brony...or, well.. I guess he's a pony now since he got here... Sco-ottt Come out come ouuuut!"
Shyly, He stepped out from behind the bush Pinkie had hidden him behind, still a bit wobbly on his new hooves. "Um, H-hello, Miss Twilight Sparkle, I'm Scott."
Suspiciously, Twilight stood up from the park bench and came over, her eyes narrowed.
As she got closer, her eyes suddenly widened in surprise as she noticed the strange unicorn stallion was a blank flank.
Despite what animator goofs show to human viewers, Twilight Sparkle had never seen an adult blank flank before.
Twilight looked into his dark blue eyes with growing unease. "Okayyy... Scott, right? This... this isn’t some elaborate prank by Pinkie and Dash, is it..."
The stallion twitched his black-tipped ears, accompanied with a shy smile and a Fluttershy blush on his cheeks "Well, if anyone would believe me in my first few minutes here in Ponyville, you would.
As Pinkie says she told you and your friends, a number of people on my world watch the adventures of you… umm, Elements of Harmony for entertainment.
Everyone pretty much believes it light, heartwarming, satisfying fiction, by the way.
However, for me, this..." He waved a hoof around, plainly meaning all of Equestria. "...Confirms a lot of current scientific theories about Alternate Worlds.
My favorite theory was that many worlds of fiction are actually the writers tuning in on the right wavelength to someplace else.
To be honest, I never really felt I fit my world and hoped this was so."
Twilight blinked, and then went wide-eyed in surprise.
Though it had started to sound like a bizarre joke... After all, who would watch a silly bunch of ponies like her and her friends, when the Princesses were so much more interesting? His story had just made a quantum jump in believability.
Alternate Worlds was a branch of theory not in any books in Ponyville, but in the Libraries and Laboratories back in Canterlot!
Staring and going “Hmm” thoughtfully, Twilight rubbed a hoof on her velvety chin and peered at him with narrowed purple eyes.
Scott's heart skipped a beat as those slightly glossy purple lips of hers, a shade darker than her hide. -Relatively thin but elegant lips that had not been visible from the other side of the screen, did the most adorkable pout as she examined him from mere inches away.
His nose caught the scent of waffles and maple syrup on her breath.
Twilight murmured "Curiouser and curiouser..." as she floated a scroll and quill out of her saddlebag to take notes in a running commentary.
Walking around him slowly, the purple unicorn examined the stallion more closely.
While uncommon, the stallion's colors were not unheard of. His hide was bright bay, bordering on blood bay. She noted reddish highlights on his hide, shimmering in the sunlight as he moved, appearing as a red outline to his form.
Twilight also noted he had black "sock" marks on all four legs. -Even the front half of his muzzle was also black. It was longer than her own muzzle, slender and squared off in a masculine manner, similar to her brother’s.
His shiny black mane reminded her of Braeburn's in style, but with a long, unkempt lock at the base of his neck that would probably look better in a ponytail.
Around his neck was a leather thong with a bronze pendant. It was quickly enveloped in a purple nimbus as she lifted it to her eyes for examination. Said pendant was about an inch across and was marked with three stylized mares wreathed in swirling "knots", appearing much like the decorative scrollwork here and there around Canterlot, or the Princesses in the book about the Mare in the Moon.
Satisfied for the moment, Twi hmmmed and decided to observe his mental reactions, "Okay, er, Scott. You have my undivided attention. You claim to have been something else, so have you seen yourself yet?"
Scott shuffled a hoof sheepishly at the memory of his arrival, when he had quickly found to both his relief and mortification he was still anatomically correct since it was Pinkie who had helped him out of his clothes.
"Only my immediate front and around my flanks. I was a... er, "maned", furless bipedal creature with many digits on the ends of his limbs, kind of like Spike does... called a human. We are distantly related to chimpanzees if such exist on this world.
You can imagine it was a surprise when my clothes ripped from my... um, transforming body on arrival."
Pinkie Pie giggled and bounced in a circle around them both. "Yeah! I had to help him out of the clothing confetti. He looks sooo much better without explody clothes on. In fact, he looks wayyyy better as a pony, period!"
Stifling a giggle at Scott's sudden blush at the last part of Pinkie's statement, the purple unicorn nodded to the fountain, "All right, go take a look..."
Scott clopped on over and peered at his reflection, his eyes going wide "Oh!~ OhMyGosh!OhMyGosh!OhMyGosh!"
His face grinned broadly, so much it hurt, but he could not stop even if he wanted to. Tears of joy coursed down his fuzzy cheeks.
He turned this way and that to see his face and head, even reaching up to prod the horn on his forehead he had not noticed until now. He even swung his red-outlined flanks around to see them reflected over the edge of the fountain. "I.. I'm... ME!... I'm my... ponysona! I look exactly like I just drew myself! I'm Scott Skybright!"
As if saying the name completed a circuit, there was a tingle and flash at his hips and he leapt forward like he had been poked! -Right into the fountain's pool with a splash.
Sputtering, he stood up in the water and arched around to look at the stylized four point star in an oval on his hips "I... I have a...a Cutie Mark?! How... how did..?"
Grinning in sheer joy, Pinkie Pie put her hoof around Twilight's shoulder, as the unicorn looked on with her mouth hanging wide open in stunned shock.
"Wow Twi! I had never seen a smile like that on anypony but me, the day I saw Dashie's Sonic Rainboom and got my cutie mark! And now HE has a Cutie Mark right after smiling like I did! Can we keep him? Huh? Huh? Huh? Can we? Puleeeeeze?!"
Scott chuckled sheepishly "I don’t know about keeping me but can I stay? In Equestria? I really don't want to go back now that I'm a pony... Words cannot describe how much I don’t want to go back..." he finished with a shudder.
He thought to himself about the reasons, not the least of which the strong likelihood of being studied to gory and painful destruction in the inevitable secret government labs, but he wasn't going to mention that reason if he could help it...
Shaking her head to clear it, Twilight looked at the stallion uncertainly. "Well, after you got that Cutie Mark, I'm not sure you can go back. Or if you do, I seriously doubt you would turn back to what you were before.
That is some serious magic that's tied with the fabric of Equestria there. Not even Princess Celestia herself can make a Cutie mark appear or disappear -that I know of.
You must have accepted who and what you are when you said that name."
His ears perked forward as he digested that information, then he rose up on his hind legs and started dancing around, squeaking out "YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!YES!"
Pinkie got so caught up in the moment she jumped into the fountain and started dancing and chanting “YES” with him.
After a minute of this there was a crowd of ponies surrounding the fountain, looking at them oddly. He finally stopped and looked around sheepishly. "Um, Hello... I... Uh, finally got my Cutie Mark..."
To his surprise, some of the crowd stomped their hooves in applause at his achievement. Others made various remarks of understanding and the crowd started to break up. One older mare came on over to the edge of the fountain and nodded sympathetically "How ever did you stand it so long, as old as you are?"
Scott blandly looked at her "Not very well..."
Passing by, the Cutie Mark Crusaders quickly turned their scooter and wagon toward the fountain, with Scootaloo buzzing to a quick stop with a sound like a 2-stroke chainsaw motor.
Wearing a stunned look on their faces, they gaped at the newcomer and gazed at him with sad, puppy-dog looks. Applebloom voiced their thoughts exactly "Did we hear raiht? We…we might be blank... ‘fer YEARS!?"
With this announcement, they all looked at each other and started bawling in unison.
Twilight gulped and made shushing noises as Scott looked on uneasily "No, no, it's okay! He's a special case..."
Pinkie leaned in between them and put her hooves around them, winking "Yeah, he's actually done better than anyone at getting a Cutie Mark! He's only been a unicorn for a half-hour and he's already got one!"
She quickly hugged them close and set them back down. "You should get yours any time now if he's anything to go by, so turn those frowny faces upside down."
The CMC gave Pinkie a stunned look, then Scootaloo raised an eyebrow skeptically "...For a half-hour?! What was he before, a frog?"
Pinkie giggled and started to reply "You Silly-fillies, why, he was a Space..."
Thinking quickly, Twilight put her hoof in Pinkie's mouth and laughed nervously "Ah-heh-heh.. We will all explain later girls, just trust me and bear with me and Pinkie, okay?"
Knowing they weren’t going to get anywhere with Twilight for now, they replied in a dejected monotone "...okay..." And left with a look that meant they would be spying on the newcomer until they got the whole story.
Mentally cancelling her schedule for the rest of the day and shuffling it off at least to tomorrow, Twilight turned to the newly minted stallion.
She pointed at him with a hoof to get his attention "All right, you might as well come out of the fountain. First things first, you are going to get a physical from Nurse Redheart, and then I need to run a few tests of my own.
Naturally, I will send letters to the Princess about you."
Scott nodded. "Of course."
"Rest assured, I want to find out everything you can tell me about your world at some point in all this. But first, I want to try and figure out just why in the hay an alien, Species; Human, would transform into a Unicorn pony -without somepony there to cast a spell.
It makes absolutely no sense! Even Pinkie appears to be stumped by this. Pinkie! The most impossible pony I know! -Um, it's not an inherent ability, right?"
Sighing, Scott shook his head, "Afraid not."
Twilight's mind raced, wondering if this strange transformation had anything to do with the recent descent of Ponyville into becoming the temporary Chaos capital of the world. -Said event occurring during Discord's escape almost two months ago. Or maybe-
Derailing Twilight's train of thought, Pinkie pie stepped between them, then winked and honked Scott's nose "Oh, you sillies! What's important now is we have a sad, lonely, unicorn pony in desperate need of a party!
If you are really, really, really good for my bestest Smarty-McSmartypants friend, while she keeps you too busy to wonder what I am doing... oh wait! TMI!! Um, aaaanyway if you are good, you'll have an Emergency Welcome Party waiting for you afterward!"
With a wry smile and headshake, Twilight nudged the stallion toward the town Hospital and looked back at Pinkie. "You're going to give him a party anyway..."
Pinkie waved her hooves and giggled "Well DUH! I mean really, that's why I brought him here. But if he's really good for you I'll make it even better."
Giggling, the dayglow Earth mare turned to Scott and scruffled his mane with her flexible hoof "Now do whatever Twilight says, okay?" and bounced off toward Sugarcube Corner.
She spoke out loud to herself to make mental notes "Oooh yeah! A welcome party! Wait! He just got his Cutie Mark! Do boy ponies have Cutieceñearas ?..."
Scott watched Pinkie leave, then smiled as he started walking again "I knew she was going to give me a party, that's one of the highlights of the show. She throws parties for everypony that shows up."
Twilight suddenly stopped shock-still, forcibly reminded by that casual statement that he represented beings that watched them for entertainment! Possibly even watching her as she… The mare shivered as the full implications hit her like a hammer.
Scott stopped a moment later, his ears twitching in sudden thought about his mistake, thinking. 'Way to go big mouth!'
Sheepishly, he turned to the mare with a touch of worry on his face at upsetting her. "I am so sorry, Miss Sparkle. I really should have explained sooner.
Before I go on in detail, do you have... Um, moving pictures of plays or sports broadcast over the countryside to glass-screened receiving devices?"
After a moment where Twilight took a deep breath and let it out. She made a note in her scroll to teach him how to control his ears before Rainbow Dash somehow ropes him into a card game, and finally nodded.
"Please, call me Twilight, Scott. You are going to be in Equestria for the foreseeable future anyway, so we might as well be on a first name basis while I study you.
As for devices like you describe? Hmm, usually that means crystal balls, but real ones are too expensive for the average pony.
On the other hoof, there are experimental technomagere' devices here and there in the labs of eccentric ponies and griffons. -Mostly curiosities at this time.
We have movies in a theater over on Mane Street, and weekly plays in the park or the town pavilion instead."
Scott nods, seeing a look of worry gnawing at Twilight "Okay, well, the shows we see about Equestria are like movies except these are generated by artists entirely inside... um, "computing machines" based on what the writer gives them, and voices and sounds recorded onto the images by teams of actors and technicians.
Since it was aimed at young people up through college age, there are no embarrassing personal details except ones that would get a safe laugh.
It follows you and your friends for over a year now, starting with your warning to Celestia of Nightmare Moon coming back and your quest to rescue Celestia from captivity and the world from a cold death of endless night. ...And all the wild and crazy adventures between then and... Um, now, I guess."
Twilight sighed in relief, looking visibly relaxed already. "So nothing showing details of my... personal life?"
Scott stopped and sat back on his haunches, and then raised a hoof while placing the other over his heart "Nothing more intimate than the comic slapstick and life lessons learned during your first sleepover. No bodily functions, anything racy, following you to the bathroom, or anything like that. Stallion's Honor!"
Sighing in relief, Twilight smiled and hoofstepped a little more casually "That's good to hear, I had sudden thoughts of my rump in everypony's face when I take care of my body or other business. That just really creeps me out to even think of..."
Scott mentally gave a sheepish chuckle and kept his cool, hoping he kept his ears upright as he tried to stop watching her tail for peeks underneath. -Heck! He had to fight to not look at everypony's tail!
He prayed never to have to reveal or explain "Rule 34" fanart and "shipping"...
On the other hoof, if the writers suddenly noticed him in Ponyville as a background pony, he at least hoped the fanbois would draw him with decent equipment. That thought brought a silly grin.
Twilight turned as they reached the town Hospital, then looked at him with narrowed eyes and an impending smirk "…And what's that smile for?"
Scott flustered a moment, then sheepishly came up with a likely explanation.
Unfortunately not a good one when being escorted by a mare, as he mentally facehoofed a moment after it popped out of his muzzle; "S-sorry, I'm a stallion now, and some passing mares distracted me..."
Twilight had a suspicious look for a brief moment as his face scrunched up like AJ telling a lie, she then giggled and shook her mane while she rolled her eyes. "Boys!"