“I told you it would work, dear sister.”
I was absolutely flabbergasted. Was I really hearing this right? Or was I simply going insane in this strange place? I just stared blankly like a moron while the two in front of me exchanged concerned glances.
“Tia? What did you do to him? He looks... in pain.” My eye twitched as the darker one questioned the one who did that, thing to me.
“He seemed alright, perhaps he is just in shock.” The white one, ‘Tia’ arched an eyebrow at me and took a slight step forward. “Are you alright? I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
I wanted to say something, anything to let them know I was okay... well, as okay as I could be, given the unusual situation.
“Whahappenmeblergh?” My words all slurred together into some horrible verbal mess.
“I think you broke him, Tia.” My darkly-colored friend teased while nudging the sides of its white counterpart. The white one of the two lightly rolled her eyes before addressing me once more.
“Could you say that a little slower please?” ‘Tia’ asked in a warm voice followed by a kind, patient smile that it did not share with the shorter creature next to it. I gulped before opening my mouth, taking care to speak slow enough to not sound like a raving lunatic.
“What is happening to me? Who are you? How did I get here? Where am I? What am I?” I finished by motioning to myself, a slightly desperate look on my face. The taller of the two opened its mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the darker one before it could speak.
“Perhaps I should tell him, Tia.” She regarded to the other, whom nodded in return. My dark-blue friend turned to me now, a slight smile on her muzzle.
“My name is Luna, and We found you while taking a stroll many nights ago.” She paused to let it sink in, her voice was almost accented in an ancient dialect from what I could pick up.
“‘We’?” I asked, turning to see ‘Tia’ simply watching us converse.
“My apologies, I tend to slip into old speech patterns sometimes. Now, as for your questions...” Luna paused, momentarily rubbing her chin with her hoof. She was about to speak before she herself was interrupted by the other.
“My name is Celestia, and what Luna means is we have similar questions for you.” She smiled while carefully studying me behind trained eyes. I had a feeling something was off about ‘Celestia’, but I couldn’t place my finger on it. I dismissed it and decided to get some clarification.
“What do you mean ‘questions for me’?”
“For one, your question of who we are is the same we have for you.” Celestia replied. “We know next to nothing about you, no name, no identification, family registry, simply nothing.”
“Umm, my name’s Edward.” I flashed an uneasy smile.
“That is a... most unusual name, I must say.” Luna slowly remarked. “Anyways, like I was saying... When I found you, you awoke in a panicked state before quickly falling unconscious. Fearing for your life, I gingerly brought you here.” I blinked and let it all settle-in for a moment. Luna really seemed to care about me, and she didn’t even know me.
“I appreciate that, but... where exactly is ‘here’?
“This is a hospital.”
“No, I mean this land, this region... where am I exactly?” I continued with my questions.
“This is Canterlot...”
“And where is that?”
“Equestria.” Luna answered, her voice slightly frustrated. I silently mouthed the word to myself. This ‘Equestria’ didn’t sound familiar in the slightest. I decided to pursue a different thread of questioning, my location could wait. There were more pressing matters on my mind.
“What happened to me? Why am I a... horse?” I asked Celestia, my voice heavily laden with curiosity.
“You’re a pony. More accurately, you are a unicorn.” She stated quite simply. “Are you not normally like this?”
“No, I’m a human, not some colorful, magic pony.” My voice deadpanned, this was getting a bit old.
Luna gave Celestia a curious glance, which was later returned before voicing a question.
“Edward, pray tell what is a ‘human’?” She slowly asked, making sure she got the word correct.
Are you serious...
“How do you not know what humans are? We stand on two legs, have two arms and fingers and toes.” I stated, once again earning dumbfounded looks that were almost enough to question one’s sanity whether what you were saying exists even.
“We... are unfamiliar with your species, I’m afraid.” Celestia slightly bit her lip in thought before voicing a rather hasty question at me. “What is the last thing you remember before coming to Equestria?”
“I was on a boat with my mother and sister in the middle of the ocean. I ended up going overboard, and when I came back up to the surface, everybody was gone and a storm quickly coming towards me.” I told the two in front of me, hesitant to reveal the foolish reason I even jumped into the doomed sea. “I don’t remember much else really, it’s all fuzzy and taking a while to come back.” I shifted on my hooves, trying to find a comfortable stance.
“So...” Luna began, taking a moment to gather her thoughts. “It was a storm that brought you here then.”
“I suppose so, only thing that would make any sense right now.” I shrugged. “Doesn’t explain why I’m... one of you, and not my normal body.” I looked down to the floor with a slight frown. Celestia decided it was her turn to speak.
“Perhaps, your kind simply can’t exist in our world, and thus you were transformed into a normal unicorn, though you lack a cutie mark.”
“A what?”
“Nevermind that, Edward, it is not important now.”
“Okay then. Have any other strange people like me been found?” I asked, worried about the well-being of my family. “I’m wondering if my mother and sister followed me into—whatever it was that brought me here.”
“Celestia and I shall look into it. For now, we should depart and discuss, an ‘alien’ such as yourself in our world is cause for concern.” Luna stated very matter of factually, before realizing her mistake and raising a hoof at me. “No offense intended, we must be sure Equestria is safe.”
“I understand, I guess.” Makes some sense, they’re just protecting their land after all. I respect that.
“While Luna and I do some investigating, I shall look into a suitable residence for you during your, unintended visit.” Celestia’s wings seemed to slightly ruffle.
What does that mean? Is she angry at me? Nervous?
“I appreciate that, thank you.” The two turned to leave, but not before I stopped them. “Wait! What are you? I get that I’m a unicorn cause the horn and all, and the flying ones are pegasus... but you have both, what are you?”
“We are alicorns, an exceptionally rare breed that command great power.” Luna smiled slightly at me. “We have informed the staff to keep disturbances to you down to a minimum. We thought you would need time to... think things over.”
I nodded to her, silently thanking them once again as Luna turned to leave.
“You are welcome, one of us shall return once we discover something, or find you a temporary home.” Celestia flashed a smile. “I feel you do not appreciate the aesthetic of hospitals?” And with that, she too turned and departed my room, shutting the door behind her in a golden aura that seemed to sparkle.
I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding as the solitude of the room sunk back in. I didn’t mind social situations, as long as they were among familiar people, or I wasn’t overwhelmed by foreign knowledge.
Lucky for me, I got both... I frowned as I went back over to the window and reclined on my rear legs once more, letting everything sink in from earlier.
Equestria? What kind of name is that? Also, Canterlot? Sounds off to me.
Why wouldn’t humans be allowed to stay human here? What kind of force could be at play to do something as drastic as that?
Why have I never heard of an ‘alicorn’ before? Were those two really royalty? Are they princesses, or queens even? What did they mean by ‘commanding great power’?
My thoughts continued to bounce back and forth for some time, not really getting me anywhere other than a slight migraine. After a while a doctor came into my room and asked if I needed anything, it was the same dark-green, tan maned unicorn from before. I asked for some headache medicine, which he quickly brought to me along with a tall glass of water, and a fresh plate of assorted fruits and vegetables.
I pushed the food around on the plate for a while before consuming a few apples and slowly nibbling away at some asparagus.
Why must this stuff taste so vile?
It wasn’t much longer before I began to feel tired, as was reflected by the shadows on the streets growing longer as the day came to a close. I lied down in bed and tried to get some sleep, but not before trying to move something with my magic again. I turned over and tried to ‘push’ the food cart next to the window with my thoughts. After many strained minutes of mental work, I came away victorious!
Well, not exactly... all I managed to do was just barely jiggle the glass of water before a pain lanced up through my skull. I huffed and quickly turned to face the blank wall, quickly falling asleep as my mental exhaustion took hold of me.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Large drops of rain pelted the sea all around me, creating a beautiful symphony much unlike the terror I was feeling. The waves created by the wind were beginning to toss me around, every now and then I’d be forced under the surface of the salty water. This was fear unlike anything I’d ever felt before. This was something that could only be manifested by one’s worst nightmares.
I couldn’t keep this up much longer, each wave sapped my energy and the cold slowed my muscles. It wouldn’t be much longer before I succumbed to exhaustion, or became a victim of one of the many denizens in the dark waters below me. Flashes of lightning were my only source of light in the impending darkness, each one growing more and more dim as I slowly drifted into the arms of unconsciousness, helplessly adrift in this hellish place.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
I awoke in a sweat and with a violent jolt as a short scream escaped my lips. It was all coming back, albeit slowly. Why couldn’t I remember what happened to me in that ocean?
I got out of bed and slowly went over to the cart, before taking a sip of water and peeking outside. It was still quite dark, only street lamps and other buildings to light the darkness. I took one more swig of my water, before climbing in bed and promptly falling back asleep, hoping that this bout of sleep would not be interrupted by more dark visions.
<><><><><><><>
Something tugged at my ear in my sleep and I reflexively rolled over and pulled the blanket further over my head.
“..werd...”
There it was again, that noise that kept invading my peaceful sleep. I tried to mentally block it out in my half-awake state, vaguely aware of anything at all and simply wishing to fall back asleep.
“...ward..?...ake up...”
That voice... It sounded warm and kind as it fell upon my ears.
“... mom?” My throat croaked as I turned over and slowly opened my eyes, which were soon met in a somewhat familiar blinding light.
“I’m afraid not, little one.” A figure of light calmly stated as it gradually faded into the shape of my newly-found ‘friend’, Celestia. “It is time for you to get up, I have some news for you, Edward.”
That woke me up. My eyes opened up the rest of the way and any remnants of sleep quickly fell away.
“What’s going on? Did you find my family? Did you—” I was interrupted by a raised hoof, halting my deluge of questions.
“I am afraid I do not have much news, but what knowledge I do have for you is something I’m sure you would like to hear.” Celestia smiled and waited for my response.
“What is it?”
“I have made arrangements for you to stay somewhere whilst Luna and I sort this matter out.
“That’s great! I’m kinda sick of this room anyways.” I beamed, practically falling out of my bed. I stood up on my hooves and thoughtfully smirked as a thought entered my mind. “Celestia? Where exactly am I staying, if you don’t mind?”
“It’s a peaceful, quiet town I thought would be nice for you. I did not think a large city would be to your forte, considering your peculiar conditions here.” Celestia smiled and looked to me, seemingly waiting for another question, which I didn’t give. “The name of the town is Ponyville.”
Ponyville...?
“Ponyville?” I half asked, half-said to sound out the word. Of all the places I could be staying, it was someplace called ‘Ponyville’? It sounded like something out of some childrens book, but I decided not to complain, I was sure Celestia knew what was best for me. “Thank you, I really appreciate it.” I flashed a smile and a slight bow to her, still unsure of the specifics of her title but deciding to be safe either way.
“So, am I staying at my own house? Or is it an apartment, or a hotel?”
“I am afraid not, you will be staying with somepony I know, somepony I fully trust with your well-being.”
“Oh.” I guess that’s alright... “Umm, who is it?”
“It is my pri—” Celestia paused as she turned her head towards the closed door, distracted by something. She grinned widely before turning back to me. “Ah, here she is now. Edward, I would like you to meet one of my closest friends...” She looked back to the door just as a slight purple aura enveloped it and clicked open. “... Twilight Sparkle.”