//------------------------------// // Human Presence // Story: Just Passing Through // by Deep Six //------------------------------// Alan’s eye’s darted from one pony to the other trying to quickly think up an excuse. “Well you see it’s… Um… Magic,” Alan stuttered out nervously. “Yeah magic! That’s how I knew her name.” Twilight looked around at her friends around her and saw that they were confused as well. “But you were just told that you had magic a little while ago. How could you use that magic when you didn’t even know you had it?” “It’s magic I don’t have to explain shit…” Alan looked around the group again and saw that they didn’t buy it. “Ok maybe it wasn’t magic it was… A good guess! Yeah I looked at her and I guessed that her name was Fluttershy!” Looking around again Alan saw that they still didn’t believe him. “Look even if I told you how I know, you would never believe me.” “But-um Lying isn’t good you shouldn’t hide things from others you should tell them the truth. But you know whatever you want to do is fine…” Fluttershy spoke quietly from behind Applejack avoiding Alan’s gaze. It was at this time that Alan’s heart exploded from over exposure to cuteness. Quickly recovering Alan started to explain. “Well it’s like this…” Alan was suddenly interrupted by the door behind him opening. Alan thanked his lucky stars for the interruption and turned around to see who it was. Standing in the doorway was none other than the Royal Princess of the Night: Princess Luna. Alan could only stare with his jaw on the floor. “WE WELCOME THEE ALAN OF HUMAN LAND TO THE WONDEROUS NATION OF EQUESTRIA. WE ARE PRINCESS LUNA, RULER OF THE NIGHT. WE HAVE BEEN SENT BY OUR SISTER TO BRING THY TO SEE OUR HUMAN ROOM.” “Uh Princess…” Twilight said stepping in front of Alan. “Remember the volume.” “OH WE ARE SORRY HOW IS… This?” Princess Luna asked while entering the room. “Better. Now you said that you were going to take us to the human room. I’m sorry Princess but in all my years living here I have never seen any… Human room,” Twilight said. Alan shook his head to remove himself from his daze. “Yes Princess what is a human room? It sounds kind of... Evil.” “Yes, well it is a guarded room that only Princess Celestia and I know of. It contains all kinds of human artifacts found in Equestria over the last 1000 years. We have been informed to take you to this room before our departure,” Luna said turning to the door and motioning them to follow. Going down the hall Twilight trotted alongside Alan. “Don’t think that you managed to wiggle out of your explanation.” Alan laughed. “I know. It would just be easier to explain when we got back to Ponyville.” Twilight gave Alan a strange look but shrugged and started to move over to talk to Luna. They travelled down till the end of the hall and went down a winding staircase. They went lower and lower for several minutes. Eventually they reached the bottom and came upon a large black door with many carvings on it. The carvings were all depictions of what looked like a human attacking ponies and then the human being killed by guard ponies. It made Alan and the girls uneasy looking at it. In the center of the door was a hole much like the one in the door that guarded the Elements of Harmony. Luna stuck her horn in the hole and used her magic to open it. Stepping in the room Alan could see many book shelves to the left and what looked like many display cases on the right. Using her magic again, Luna lit the torches on the wall. A gasp swept through the group as they looked at the items before them. On the book shelves there were many books. Some of them looked very old while some looked relatively new. In the display cases sat many different objects. Some held clothing looking like they were from many different eras. Others held cups and other household items. Alan was amazed by this and went forward to look at the cases. The other ponies also went and started looking at the various objects. Twilight being the bookworm she is, went and started on the books. All the other ponies went the cases to look at the things in the cases. Princess Luna followed Alan. “So human, what do you think of our human room?” Luna asked. “It’s interesting… I mean you have clothes that look like they’re hundreds of years old and books that look the same.” Alan turned towards the Princess. “Where exactly did you find all this?” Luna smiled before walking past him and started looking at the other cases. “These artifacts were found around Equestria. Found by ponies they were brought here to show them to Celestia. She took these items and erased their memories of the object so that they could not remember. Princess Celestia wanted all evidence of the human who visited long ago to be locked away so that the ponies may forget the horrible happenings of that time. That is why she locked you in the dungeon when you arrived. She didn’t want the same to happen to the ponies. She wanted to be sure you were not a threat to our land. As of right now she is informing the press of your arrival and that you are not a threat. From what we have seen it is not going very well.” Luna stopped and turned towards Alan. “We warn you. There will be some ponies who will not take your presence too kindly. Be careful.” Alan smiled at the Princess. “I will… Now before I ask you anything else I just want to know… What is in those bags over there?” Alan pointed to the corner where several bags were sitting. Luna trotted over to them and motioned him to follow. Opening the bags revealed… Socks. Large bags filled with human socks. Alan looked at them for a second while frowning. “So that’s where all the left ones go…” Turning back around, Alan saw that everypony was gathering around one glass case. Curious, Alan walked over to see what it was. Inside was a suit of chain mail along with a Viking era helm. The chain mail was missing pieces and looked very battle worn. The helm had a large hole at the temple and various scorch marks all over it. Luna stood next to Alan and took a deep breath. “That is the armour of the human that came a thousand years ago…” Luna turned to Alan and looked up at Alan. “Do you recognize this armour?” Alan nodded. “Yes. This armour belonged to a Viking. But don’t worry! Nowadays there are only descendants of them.” Rainbow Dash nudged forward so that she was directly in front of the group. She had her face pressed right up against the glass. “Vikings? That’s a stupid sounding name… But at the same time it sounds kinda scary.” Alan just nodded before turning and walking towards another case. This one was filled with the Vikings weapons. Princess Luna followed. “We do have one thing to thank the human for.” Alan turned around to face her. “Oh?! And what would that be?” Luna walked up to the case containing the weapons and continued. “Before the human came we only had unicorn magic and our strength to protect pony kind from threats. We duplicated his weapons and used them as our own. Using them we managed to defend ourselves in ways that we never could before. It was because of these weapons that we have had such a long period of peace.” She turned towards Alan. “They have an intimidation factor that brute strength cannot compare to.” Alan smiled at the Princess. “Well that’s one good thing.” Alan though felt somewhat uneasy in the room. They had so many items from the human world, yet they hid it. It was like they wanted to shield Equestria from the humans. Alan looked at the ponies looking at the cases. Pinkie was bouncing from case to case looking at whatever could be used in a party, Rainbow Dash was staring at the armour and weapons and Rarity was going over the clothes. Looking around though, he could see Applejack wandering through the cases while Fluttershy was stuck to her like glue. Not seeing Twilight, Alan wandered over to the book cases to see if she was there. Coming around one of the shelves, Alan found Twilight surrounded by books. Twilight was going from book to book looking frustrated. Alan managed to walk up without her noticing. “Something wrong?” Alan asked. Twilight jumped into the air, surprised at the sudden company. “ALAN! Don’t do that! You scared me half to death!” Alan couldn’t help himself and bust out laughing. “OH wow Twilight! That was too funny! But in all seriousness, what’s wrong?” “It’s just that… I can’t read these books.” Twilight said, staring at the ground. Alan was confused and took one of the books in front of her. “But these books aren’t that hard! I mean this one is only a kid’s book!” Twilight threw her arms in the air in frustration. “I just don’t get it! I look at the words and they look really weird like they’re in some other language!” Twilight stopped talking and looked at Alan. “I think I know. We may share a common language speaking… But our writing systems are completely different!” Alan thought about this for a second before looking Twilight in the eye. “You know if you want, when we get back I could teach you the human alphabet.” Twilight turned and nodded. “Yes that would be lovely.” Twilight quickly put the books back in the proper spots before heading back towards the display cases. Alan started to follow her but his path was blocked by Rainbow Dash. “Oh hey Dash! How are yo…” Alan was silenced by her hoof in his mouth. “Don’t you act all friendly with me! I know what you are.” Alan spat out her hoof. “Oh? And what would that be?” Rainbow scowled at him. “You know what you are! You’re a spy! You came here to begin a human invasion. You want to enslave all pony kind!” Alan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. None of this was true. He didn’t even know why he was here. For all he knew it was just some kind of dream. “Okay none of that is true. I don’t know why I’m here. I was going home to visit my family for a few days before I suddenly appeared here! I never asked to be here! I never asked to be taken from my world and thrown in a dungeon just for being me!” Alan said angrily. Suddenly realizing he didn’t mean to burst out like that he hung his head and apologised. Dash took a step back during Alan’s rant and just stood there through it her mouth hanging open. Coming to her senses she started to talk. “Well I guess I’m sorry for accusing you of being a spy. But don’t think I won’t keep my eye on you!” Dash turned to leave but suddenly stopped. Looking back at Alan she too looked at the ground. “Oh and sorry about the whole… Kicking you as soon as I saw you thing.” Alan looked up and smiled. “Don’t worry about it. It wasn’t my first time being hit in the nuts and it probably won’t be my last.” Rainbow’s head snapped up and looked up at Alan with a look of horror. “I hit you where!?!” Alan chuckled nervously. “In the nuts, but don’t worry about it! I’ll probally still be able to have kids.” Dash turned and trotted off. She was feeling worse now than she did earlier. She knew how important manhood was to a male. She was certain that Alan would get his revenge later on. She made a metal note to keep an eye on him from now on. Alan looked around at the books for a few minutes before heading back over to the display cases. Noticing his arrival, Princess Luna motioned for him to join her. “It is time for us to leave. We have been informed by Princess Celestia that the meeting with the press have concluded and we are to meet her upstairs to await transportation to Ponyville. Now follow us.” Alan took one last look at the room filled with human things and followed along. He couldn’t help it but he felt that something bad was going to happen. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ It's late, I know, don't tell me. Things got busy with final exams and visiting family. I wrote most of this chapter on my way home on the ferry so at least I did something productive while I was gone. I'm back home now so I can get back to my normal schedule. Things will get better. Plus I re-did some stuff with the plot later on in the story so it will be different than what I originally planned on doing. Enjoy and see you in a bit!