It was the heat of the moment
Telling me what your heart meant
Heat of the moment shone in your eyes!
“Rise and shine!” Sarah shouted, as cheerful as her robotic voice allowed her to.
“Huh?!” Steve yelped, confused. Startled by the sudden music he jumped out of bed looking around, searching for the source of the sound. “Sarah? What are you doing? Stop it!” he shouted towards the AI.
“I have read that humans prefer to wake up to music,” the AI replied and turned off the sound.
“Warn me before you do that,” he grumbled and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. “And why this song?”
“According to the data I got by synching with the Columbus, this song ranks in your top hundred most played songs. Therefore you must like it.”
“It’s not bad, but top hundred? Why not take the top ten for that?”
“So that I have a greater selection for the future and can avoid repetitions.”
“Ugh, no more music to wake me up,” he ordered. “And don’t even wake me up, unless I tell you to or there’s something important. Anyways, what time is it?”
“8 AM,” Sarah answered.
“Well, then it wasn’t that bad you woke me up. I have some things planned for today.”
“Your calendar shows no entries for today. What are you going to do?”
“I’ll be on a trip to their capital. Don’t even think about telling me how the regulations don’t allow me to do so and that I should wait for the rest of the crew to arrive whatsoever. I got an invitation from their leader. I couldn’t say no,” he quickly said before she could interrupt him.
“Acknowledged. I’ll inform the Columbus, if I pick up their signal while you’re gone,” she replied. “How long shall I schedule your visit?”
“Hmm… Twilight didn’t tell me how long we’ll be staying there. I would say don’t expect me to be back until at least tomorrow.”
“Twilight?” the AI inquired.
“Yes, you met her yester…” he stopped as he remembered that the records of yesterday were deleted. “I mean, you know her from the audio logs of the first day,” he corrected himself. “But excuse me. I have to get ready.”
As Steve was going through his usual morning routine, he tried to remember his dreams from last night. Normally he couldn’t remember his dreams at all. This time was barely different. The only memories from last night’s dream were unclear images of a strange, unknown creature. It grew larger in a series of images that flashed through his mind, so he must have been approaching it, or it approached him.
The next shots were all of the creature from the same angle and some unclear noises were heard.
Did I talk to it? he asked himself, trying to filter words from the noises he could remember, but it was of no use. A few more images flashed in his mind but none were clear and could tell him who or what he had talked to. The creature remained blurry and unknown.
Stupid dreams. Always getting me interested but I just can’t remember anything useful from them, he thought, trying to clear his mind from the dream and focusing on the breakfast he was preparing right now. There were still eggs left from yesterday’s visit to the market, so he had scrambled eggs again.
In order to keep his mind busy with other thoughts, he gave the ship a final inspection before leaving. He had spent a long time last evening cleaning up every room, besides the second bathroom, until they were all fully usable again. At more than one point he thought about relaxing with a good movie or playing a game, but he didn’t want to postpone his duties more than needed and after completing all of his tasks, the exhaustion from the last two days had finally caught up with him, spurring him to an early and well deserved sleep.
A glance at his watch told him that Twilight would arrive any minute now, so he checked his appearance in the mirror one last time. As he had to represent his people in front of the leaders of this nation he wanted to make a perfect impression.
Hair washed, check. Teeth brushed, check. Ready to meet the leader of little ponies who wield magic and break the laws of physics… maybe?
To follow the protocol, he had even changed his suit to a diplomat’s outfit. It was of the same design as his regular clothes but in a light grey instead of dark blue. Satisfied with his look he left the ship.
“Bye Sarah! See you in a few days,” he shouted over his shoulder as he stepped down the ramp.
Twilight was just coming around the corner of the hill as he set his feet on the ground.
“Good morning, Twilight. Perfect timing,” he greeted the purple unicorn.
“Good morning to you too. You are ready to leave, I take it?” she greeted him back, looking at him from head to toe.
“Yes. Let’s go!” he exclaimed happily.
Twilight led a rather fast pace today, so they crossed the distance to Ponyville in a short time.
The town was already awake as they arrived. Various ponies were wandering through the streets, on their way to their jobs, breakfast or other destinations Steve didn’t know. Just like yesterday he got a few stares, but they were quick to move on with their business, and a while later the train station came into sight. The train was already waiting there. It was short, with only three wagons, pulled by a locomotive. The chimney on top of it indicating that it could be powered by coal or equivalent materials. Considering the small size of Ponyville and the overall small population of Equestria, he figured that a larger train would have just been a waste of space and resources. The few other ponies waiting at the station wouldn’t even fill one of the wagons.
“Look, the rest of my friends are coming,” Twilight said and pointed down the street. Sure enough, there were Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie walking, or bouncing, in Pinkie’s case, towards them. “Where’s Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked after a short exchange of greetings, looking around for the missing pegasus.
“Here!” a voice behind her head shouted.
Twilight yelped in surprise at the sudden, loud noise close to her, as did Fluttershy, who hid her face behind her mane as she let out a quiet, “Eeep!”
Rainbow, who had been hovering behind Twilight, now landed on the ground and began to laugh loudly. “You should have seen your face, Twilight!” the pegasus managed to splutter out between her laughs.
“Very funny Rainbow…” Twilight said, annoyed, rolling her eyes at the pegasus’s prank.
“I know, right? Hey guys,” she greeted the rest of the group as she finally was able to control her laughter.
“Good one, Dashie!” Pinkie Pie cheered, causing Rainbow to puff out more at the praise.
“How long did you wait to pull this off?” Steve asked her, shooting her a grin.
“Oh, not very long. I was about to get here when I saw the rest of you arriving, so I kept on waiting in the cloud there for a minute,” she replied, pointing towards a small cloud above her head.
Rarity cleared her throat. “Would you mind if we continue this conversation inside the train? The road is awfully muddy and I do not desire my coat to get dirty. I just groomed it for this special occasion.”
The group did as Rarity suggested and boarded the train, settling in the last wagon, which they had completely to themselves. They took two opposite booths of the eight available ones, allowing them to talk without the green stained glass, which separated the booths on each side of the wagon, cutting off their conversation.
Steve took a seat covered by a soft, beige cushion, at the window. Twilight and Rainbow followed him into the booth, while the other four ponies settled down in the opposite one. A look at the large windows promised a nice view of the countryside once they got going. So far they had only gotten a clear look at the now empty train station on one side and a small open place between the train and Ponyville on the other.
“So how'd’ ya like Ponyville so far?” Applejack asked him.
“It’s a nice little town you have here. I didn’t meet a lot of the ponies yet, but at least they no longer run away from me. That’s a start. And it’s really quiet here too. I like it,” he replied.
“It’s not that quiet here all the time,” Rainbow threw in.
“Hmm? What happens here?” he asked curiously.
“Oh, like an Ursa coming through, Cerberus paying a visit or the average disaster every month or so,” Rainbow answered casually.
“Most of the time it is just because we are that close to the Everfree Forest,” Twilight quickly added, a nervous tone in her voice.
“What is so dangerous about the forest? I know you said there are a lot of wild animals living in there, but so far I haven’t noticed anything.”
“It’s an area of wild magic. Strange things happen there, and even stranger creatures come from there. The clouds move on their own for example,” Twilight explained.
“Doesn’t sound strange to me,” he replied with a shrug.
“Oh right, it’s the same on Earth,” she remembered. “But here it is not natural. It is not supposed to work this way.”
“And why’s that?” he inquired.
“Discord’s final act before he could get defeated.”
“Discord?” He raised a brow at the strange sounding name.
“He is the God of Chaos,” Twilight began to explain. “During his reign, over 2000 years ago, he tyrannized everypony in Equestria. His magic was pure chaos itself, its power far beyond us. We were never able to comprehend it, therefore we could never counter it. The Everfree Forest is the biggest mark left from him. That’s where Princess Celestia and Luna finally defeated him using the Elements of Harmony. In the moment of his defeat he released a powerful magical blast, which tore up the entire forest. The princesses imprisoned him in stone, revealing their true destiny, and turning them into the first alicorns. From there on they ruled over Equestria in harmony… except for the Nightmare Moon incident.” Twilight let the words stand in the room for a while so Steve could think about them. “They even built a castle inside the forest to clear out the remains of Discord’s magic, but it was abandoned after Nightmare Moon’s banishment,” she added.
Some sort of magical fallout lasting over 2000 years? That must have been one hell of a fight, he thought and stared out of the window at the forest. The train had only just left the station, so they were still near it. Now that he thought about it, the forest did in fact look darker and more ominous than a normal forest should look like.
The ponies passed time by talking about various themes ranging from the newest gossip in town, where Rarity clearly led the conversation by throwing in one story after another, to minor things like the menu changes Pinkie had planned for Sugarcube Corner. Steve didn’t pay much attention to them; instead he stared out of the window, admiring the beautiful landscape as it flew past the fast moving train.
They had left Ponyville far behind them by now, and the railway led them through wide, open fields with soft hills and light forests here and there. They hadn’t passed a single town since their departure, the only indication that this land wasn’t pure nature was the train they were sitting in and the city on the mountain that grew closer and closer in the distance.
I really wonder what Canterlot looks like. The fact alone that it is on a mountain is…
His thoughts were cut off by a sting in his side. He looked to his right, to see that Rainbow had jabbed him with her hoof.
“Huh? What’s going on?” he asked.
“Ah, you are still with us. We tried talking to you for a while now but you didn’t hear us,” Rainbow smirked.
“Sorry, I zoned out a bit. The sight was quite fascinating,” he replied and awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
“Yeah, it’s quite cool, just wait until we’re in Canterlot. I’m sure you’ll like it.”
“I hope it will be nice.”
“Nice?!” Rarity repeated, incredulous. She seemed to follow their conversation after she heard the name Canterlot. “Nice doesn’t even begin to capture this marvellous city. The castle itself is the most astonishing building you could find in all of Equestria. And don’t get me started on…”
“Come on, Rares. Let him see it for himself, no need to hold a lecture about it,” Rainbow interrupted her.
“Oh very well then,” she pouted. “I can guarantee you, you will like it,” Rarity continued instead. “You will even get to meet the princess on your first visit. What an honour.”
“I’m looking forward to it, but now that you are talking about it, there is still a question that I’d like an answer to. Why is this country ruled by princesses? Shouldn’t there be a king or queen?” he asked.
“No, why should there be one?” Twilight countered.
“Where I’m from a prince or princess is the child of a king or queen, who rule over the country. That is, in the countries that still have a monarchy.”
“The Crystal Empire used to be ruled by a king, a terrible tyrant, but we never had one of those here in Equestria,” she explained.
But essentially the same thing, just under a different name then, he just thought and nodded it off. “And before the time of the princesses?” he asked after a few seconds.
“An elected council with members from all three pony tribes. They were also responsible for raising the sun and the moon, a task which no unicorn alone was powerful enough to do,” Twilight answered.
If these princesses are as powerful as she explains, they could easily turn this monarchy into a dictatorship. Who could do something against the two most powerful, immortal beings? he thought after Twilight’s explanation.
“You said you have some monarchies as well. What other kinds of political systems do you have?” Twilight asked after he remained silent for a while.
“Democracy of some sort mostly. Often with a complex voting system and in the end nothing really is the way you like it, but it works most of the time. I have to admit that I didn’t really care about politics most of the time, I spent the little free time I had, between my work and education, on funnier things.”
“Like parties?” Pinkie asked.
“No, I’m not much of a party type. The loud music, alcohol and flashing lights in the clubs made me tired and I’m a very unpleasant person when I’m tired. I prefer small get-togethers on special occasions,” he told her. “But I’m still looking forward to the party you want to arrange. It should be a great way to meet some ponies.”
“Great!” Pinkie cheered, happy at the last part of his speech. “I’m sure you’ll love it.”
I really wonder how these ponies party, he thought, imagining the awkward dance moves the ponies could perform with only their hooves. He had to suppress a smile at the images that flashed through his mind. Then again, he probably wasn’t any better
“How long will we be staying in Canterlot? I would really like to see more of the city,” he asked after a while.
“Princess Celestia didn’t really say, but I guess at least until tomorrow, maybe longer. She only wrote that she would like to talk to you in person,” Twilight explained. “There should be plenty of time for sightseeing after the official meeting, I suppose.”
“Great. I can’t wait to see more of the city.”
“Then look out of the window, silly,” Pinkie said and pointed to her right.
Steve turned towards the window and let out a small, “Wow.”
The train was slowly climbing the mountain where Canterlot was located and now, during a turn, they could get a clear view of the city. A mighty and impressive city, partially located on a giant platform, reaching almost a hundred metres out of the mountain, with large white towers topped with golden roofs reaching high in the air. Steve figured the buildings located on the platform to be the royal castle, as there were many more and higher towers than in the rest of the city, which was located on a plateau at the side of the mountain. Unfortunately he couldn’t observe the town further, as they took another turn, further climbing up the mountain.
“Mighty impressive from here,” he said.
“Just wait until we are there,” Rarity replied with a genuine smile on her lips. “It’ll be even better.”
With an expectant look, Steve stared out of the window waiting for another glance at the city, but the right angle never came. He only saw the passing terrain, mostly the side of the mountain. Soon they stopped ascending and reached a large plateau.
At first, his view was limited by the train so he couldn’t see the town. But the first sign of the city soon came in the form of two small guardhouses, flanking a bridge leading over a river, which they passed. The train reduced its speed, getting slower and slower; their arrival was only seconds away. The backs of buildings came in sight as they approached the train station, until they finally came to a halt, granting Steve his first look inside the city.
“Woah! What’s with all the guards?” Rainbow said and pointed out of the window.
On the station stood about a dozen unicorn, pegasus and earth pony guards. All of them wore a solid golden armour, covering large parts of their bodies. Their helmets covered their head, but a rather short nasal reached only to the base of her eyes. The neck protection reached down to the bottom of their neck, merging with the body armour, covering their entire backs, sides and flanks, aside from a small area around their shoulders so that a pegasus could still use its wings, but at the same time was quite narrow, so it left their entire throats and muzzles unprotected. At their chest a small emblem in the form of a blue star was embedded in the armour. Their legs weren’t covered in armour either, except for their hooves, where they wore some kind of horse shoe. At the top of their helmets stood a crest of the same colour as their tails, mostly blue or grey. They all held a spear in one of their hooves, looking at the train with a serious expression.
“So, uhh… are we going then?” Steve asked. The guards’ presence didn’t surprise him as he had expected some security measures, but the ponies looked rather irritated.
“I guess we should,” Twilight replied and was the first to step out of the train, followed by Steve and the rest of their friends.
As the guards saw them, a unicorn stallion quickly approached them. He was the only one wearing purple armour instead of gold, and the crest sticking out of his helmet was in different shades of blue. From the different colour and the fact that he approached them first, Steve figured him to be their leader.
“Twily!” the stallion shouted, his serious expression turning into a smile as he approached the group.
“Long time no see, BBBFF!” Twilight replied and stepped forward to hug the other unicorn.
BB… What now? Steve wondered.
“Why are there so many guards?” Twilight asked, looking slightly worriedly into the unicorn’s cerulean eyes.
“Order by Princess Celestia,” he replied shortly. “We are here to escort you directly to the palace.” He looked up and directly at Steve. “You are the human, correct?”
“Correct,” he replied. “My name is Steve, if you prefer.”
“Very well then… Steve. I’m Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard. We will be escorting you through town,” Shining Armor explained. “Princess Celestia is already expecting you.”
“We shouldn’t let her wait. Lead the way.”
“Company, move out!” Shining Armor ordered the guards, who quickly formed a circle around Steve and the other ponies.
“You know him, I take it?” Steve asked Twilight and nodded towards Shining Armor, who was walking at the head of the formation.
Twilight nodded and replied, “Yes, he’s my brother. I didn’t expect him to be here. Most of the time he’s in the Crystal Empire.”
“Your brother?” he sounded surprised, but she just nodded. “But why shouldn’t he be here? He did say he was the Captain of the guard?”
“Lately it’s more of a ceremonial title, until they find him a replacement. He rules over the Crystal Empire together with his wife, Princess Cadence, so he has to spend most of his time there,” she explained.
“So let me get this straight. You are the personal student of the princess, while your brother is not only the Captain of the Royal Guard, but also the co-ruler of a country?” She nodded. “Wow, that’s mighty impressive.”
“Thanks,” Twilight replied, blushing a bit at the compliment.
Now that they finally were inside the city Steve could take a look around, though the guards were blocking a major part of his view, especially of the ponies wandering through the streets.
Did the princess order so many guards, so that the ponies here don’t get frightened of me? he asked himself.
He could only get a few glances at the ponies through the leaks in the guards’ formation. Mostly he saw unicorns staring at the procedure. In contrast to the ponies in Ponyville, most of them were wearing clothes; light dresses, covering their chests and backs, hats or other accessories. Overall the ponies seemed to be fancier here than in Ponyville, which was logical as Canterlot was their capital, and from the looks of it a very wealthy city.
The buildings were made of out of a clean white material, which he guessed to be marble, decorated with banners, having large windows framed by golden shutters, and with sculptures standing on several rooftops.
The hoofsteps of the armored guards echoed over the light green cobblestone roads, drawing a lot of attention from the ponies, but as much as he wasn’t able to see the outside, the ponies on the streets couldn’t look in.
The trek was short, thanks to the fast pace of the guards, and it took them only about ten minutes before they stood in front of the castle, which now looked even taller, as he was standing in front of it.
Two guards opened a large iron gate, granting them access to the castle courtyard, and a short walk later two more guards opened a gold-framed wooden double door, revealing the entrance hall of the castle. Half of the guards who accompanied them stayed behind at the entrance, taking position around the door. Inside the hall a red carpet was spread across a checkerboard-patterned floor of white and black marble, leading into various different rooms.
Shining Armor led them up the stairs across the entrance and through more corridors until they finally arrived at another gold-framed door, guarded by two unicorns. A small nod from Shining Armor towards the guards made them open the door with their magic, revealing the throne room behind it.
The room was long and tall, the sides covered by large windows letting in a good amount of sunlight, with stained glass art between them showing what Steve assumed to be the different events of Equestrian history. They continued their walk over the same red carpet as in the rest of the castle, but here the floor was of a clean white. However this wasn’t what caught Steve’s attention.
His view was focused on the large golden throne at the end of the room, elevated on the plateau it was standing on, or more importantly who stood in front of the throne.
Two large ponies with both wings and horns, larger than those of any other unicorn or pegasus he had seen so far, awaited them. The larger one, who was tall enough to be on the same eye level as Steve, if not a bit taller, had a bright white coat with a multi-coloured, translucent, flowing mane. A golden crown and necklace, both ornamented with a large amethyst gem, as well as a set of golden horseshoes, were the only things she wore.
So this must be Princess Celestia, Steve concluded. And that next to her should be Princess Luna.
His eyes fell on the other alicorn, who was a bit smaller than Celestia but still larger than any other pony he had met so far, even Big Mac. Her cobalt blue mane was flowing as well, but wasn’t multi-coloured aside from a slightly brighter stripe, running on the outside of her mane. Her coat was of a dark blue, darker than her mane but not as dark as her crown, necklace or horseshoes, which were close to pitch black. Instead of amethyst, her necklace had an image of a silver half-moon imprinted on it. Her cyan coloured eyes gazed at him expectantly, but she was calmly waiting beside her sister.
As they arrived before the two alicorns, Shining Armor bowed and announced, “We brought you the human as demanded, your highness.”
“Good work, Captain,” Celestia said to him in a calm, almost motherly sounding voice. “You and the rest of the guards can wait outside.”
He nodded and left the hall with the remaining guards.
Celestia turned towards Steve who bowed to her, seeing as this was a greeting towards royalty in this world too, according to Shining Armor’s action.
“Please, rise,” she softly said.
He did as she ordered him to and looked directly into her bright magenta eyes.
“So we finally meet. I have heard a lot about you, Steve, and the description of your looks were quite accurate, yet I’m still a little surprised,” she said. “But excuse me for not introducing myself. I am Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria. But I’m sure you already knew that.”
“It’s a pleasure, your highness,” Steve replied, as politely and formally as he could.
“There’s no need for such formalities. We have some privacy in here,” she replied with a soft smile.
He nodded and said, “I see you already know who I am as well and probably why I’m here. For the time being I’m the representative of Earth and am honoured to bid you our regards.”
And this is the outcome of thinking the entire trip over here about what to say? he thought. That sounded stupid.
“I return the greeting,” she replied softly. “I’m quite informed about you; that is correct, Twilight Sparkle informed me of all her findings. I know you have been through this already, but I would like to ask you a few more questions myself, if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all. What would you like to know?”
The next half an hour he spent answering Princess Celestia’s question, which were almost completely identical to the ones Twilight already asked him, only a bit more focussed on him personally and not humans in general.
Her reaction was unknown to him the whole time, as she never changed her facial expression or let out sounds of surprise. She was simply staring at him and asking one question after another in the same calm voice, while wearing the same soft smile.
Quite a poker face she has,, he thought in between two questions.
“Thank you for your patience in answering those questions,” she said after he briefly described his career path. “And I only have one more… how exactly did you arrive in our world?” she asked.
“I don’t know for sure. After I got shot out into space, my shuttle took a strange route towards… I don’t really know what it was. It looked kind of like a small sun only without the massive heat, radiation and brightness. It could have been a magnetic storm of some sort. I collided with it, resulting in a major system failure, which knocked me unconscious, and caused my shuttle to crash. When I woke up I was here. I tried to contact the rest of the crew since I got here but they must still have problems, as they haven’t replied yet,” he said, worry colouring his explanation.
“I see. I think I have to explain something to you. First of all, I am sure you are wondering why I asked you the same questions Twilight and Luna have already asked you.”
Luna? he wondered.
“Uhm, Princess Celestia, maybe I just misunderstood you, but I’ve never spoken with Princess Luna before,” he told her, looking confused towards the other alicorn. Princess Luna’s face changed to a surprised expression as well, but not because of Celestia’s statement but because of Steve’s.
“Luna?” Celestia turned towards her sister. “You did talk to him, right?”
“Of course we did,” she replied and turned towards Steve. “Thou do remember our visit last night?”
What the heck is she talking about? Visit? Last night?
“Uhhm… I didn’t receive any visit last night. My ship doesn’t hold any records of it either. Maybe there’s some confusion?” he said, looking towards Twilight, hoping she could come up with an explanation, but she was just as confused as Steve.
“Don’t thou remember our visit to thy dream?” Luna asked, irritated.
“What?” he shouted. “My dream?”
“But of course,” Luna replied with a long nod. “We shared a long talk. We made our motives clear and thou agreed with no hesitations.”
She came into my dream?! he nearly shouted out his thought but managed to hold himself back, anger filling him.
“Can’t thee… you remember?” she asked again, her face changing to a worried expression.
“I… I…” he stammered, still processing the fact that the unknown creature he remembered talking to in his dream, wasn’t in fact a creature created by his own mind but Princess Luna. When he finally got a more or less clear mind he answered, “I usually don’t remember my dreams. I only have a few vague memories left and don’t remember who I was talking to, or about what.”
Both princesses exchanged some concerned glances until Luna spoke up again, “It appears to me that the dream of a human is different to that of a pony. This is something I have not noticed, as entering your dream was not different than entering the dream of any of our subjects. And you also showed full awareness of the situation. I made my motives clear, and you showed no concerns.” She stopped for a moment. “I deeply apologize for this action. It was not my intention to retrieve any kind of information from you, and now I doubt the honesty of your agreement, as you might have never believed me to be real.” Her face tilted towards the ground and her voice dropped as she added. “I can only promise you that nothing more than what has already been told here had been said.”
Steve’s mind was still racing, comprehending the fact that his dreams, probably his most private place, had been invaded and he didn’t even know about it. She could have gotten any information she wanted. I have no idea if I would have withheld anything. But still… it looks like this has gotten to her as much as me, he thought at the sight of the saddened Luna. Okay, I just have to play it nice. The rest of the crew’s going to kill me if I ruin the first meeting. But I’ll give her a piece of my mind about that again. Just stay calm now.
“I… uhm… I think… Well, I have no idea what to say about this, actually,” he said. “I believe you that you meant no harm with that. For the future though I would prefer to be contacted in my wakened state.”
“Yes, of course, we will refrain from talking with you in this way again. We are very sorry about that,” Luna once again apologized.
“I have to apologize as well,” Princess Celestia added. “It was our combined idea to contact you during your sleep. Not that we were not trusting of Twilight’s report, but everything sounded so intriguing that we had to see it ourselves. My sister’s ability seemed the perfect way to do that.”
“I understand,” he managed to grind out, though inside he was seething. “For safety reasons alone you would want as much information about me as you could get.”
“I appreciate your understanding,” she replied, the smile returning to her face again. “Now back to where we left off….the reason why I questioned you again.” She made a small pause before she continued talking, “I wanted to hear it myself, mainly because I wanted to hear the honesty in your words.”
“Honesty?” he asked, his anger momentarily displaced by confusion.
“Yes,” she answered. “From all what you told us it appears that you are driven by your curiosity and want to study this world, not harm it.”
“Of course,” he replied instantly.
“And now I know that too. It was important for me to get to know you first, you specifically, not humanity or any other human, so I can tell you the truth.”
“The truth?” he asked, his head beginning to pound at the cryptic answers the princess was giving him. A small glance behind him showed him that the other ponies had no idea what Celestia could mean either.
“It began two weeks ago. After months of research I could finally finish a new spell I was working on. Travelling through Equestria requires time and sometimes events from all over the country require my attention. In order to reduce the travel time I was working on a foresight spell. I figured the limited range of teleportation spells to be due to moving a physical object, but if I only let my vision travel I should counter this problem.
“The sight spell itself was easy and just required a bit of concentration, but it was awfully limited in range, not allowing me to travel much further than I already could. So I paired it with a teleportation spell. My plan was to create a portal through which I could let my magic flow. If I created one end of the portal here in the castle and another one where my attention was needed I could only let my sight travel through the portal, saving me a tremendous amount of energy, as teleporting a physical object over large distances is almost impossible.”
Celestia paused, her voice beginning to lower. “But the spell did not work out as planned. I could control the position of one portal, but not of the other one. It did not even end up on this world, but in the vast emptiness of space. I tried to reposition it, but was not able to find any planets I knew to orientate myself.”
Steve was still puzzling what she was on about, but just let her go on, hoping he would find out what she was talking about soon. “Instead of reworking the spell, so that I could better control the position of both portals, I decided to give further testing to the second part of the spell at first. It worked very well, somehow the vacuum in space or the amplification through the portal must have enhanced the spell, as I could travel extremely large distances with it.
“I began spending my time wandering through the universe, inspecting everything I could find, gathering information about things unknown to our kind, until ten days ago when I stumbled upon something that was more unknown than anything else before. I found… you.”
She made another small pause, glancing over at Steve who had just been staring at her with wide open eyes. “There in the infinite vastness of space I found a large flying object made out of metal. I began following it, first believing it was a meteor, but I found out it was not.”
“So it was you that I saw back then, or rather your portal, which also caused the sudden troubles on the ship?” he asked faintly, unable to believe what he was hearing.
“Unfortunately, yes,” she answered, regret lacing her voice. “I wasn’t aware of the fact that this spell was emitting such large amounts of magic and that it affected you in this way. At the time I did not even know if you had noticed me or not, so I kept following you. But then something unexpected did happen. Another of the spaceships as you call them, a much smaller one, came out of the large one, heading towards me. I pulled my sight back and tried to close the portal but this act requires time. When I was finally able to close it, you had already collided with it and had been pulled through.”
“Pulled through?” he asked, irritated by the last statement.
Princess Celestia let out a long sigh before answering, “I do not know why. I tried letting something else other than magic travel through it, but any solid material was just blocked off.”
“So where am I?” he asked, an anxious note in his voice.
Celestia didn’t look him directly in the eye as she explained, “You did not come out directly on the opposite site of the portal, for which I am grateful, or else you would have crashed inside my tower, but relatively close to the source. I immediately started researching the spells I used for this, trying to find out what happened, and keeping an eye out for your arrival.”
“And?” he inquired as Celestia made yet another pause. This wasn’t the answer he was waiting for.
“I was unable to find out why you travelled through, but I did find out something else. An explanation as to why I was unable to find any known planets. The portal opened a path, not to another point in our world, but to a parallel universe,” she finally finished her explanation.
“Come again?” he said, hoping he had just misheard the words uttered from her mouth.
“I am sorry… but you are not in your universe anymore.”
The words hit him like a hammer. His expression fell to a blank stare. He heard what she said but he couldn’t believe it.
You are not in your universe anymore, he repeated her last words. Not your universe …
The words echoed through his head over and over again, making him dizzy. The world began to spin in front of his eyes and he had trouble maintaining his balance. He fell onto his knees, his hands stabilizing him so that he wouldn’t fall completely on the ground.
The ponies immediately rushed towards him, trying to help him up again, but he waved them off.
“It’s okay… I feel fine,” he mumbled.
He saw the ponies’ mouths moving. They talked to him but he couldn’t hear them. All he could hear were the last words of the princess, echoing through his head.
Not your universe.
“Okay... maybe not,” he was able to say before he passed out on the floor.