//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 : Perspective 
// Story: A Twilight Landing 
// by MerlosTheMad 
//------------------------------//

	



"Is it safe?" The girl asked the other, before reaching out with a curious hand.

"Y-yes," The one with purple hair answered hesitantly. "I believe so, anyway...I guess I can't say for sure, I'm rather inexperienced in this field."

"It's warm... I guess that makes sense though, all considering."

"Indeed, although I'll admit to never seeing anything quite like this before."

"No? I've seen stuff like this all the time, just not so up close and personal..."

Twilight looked away from the cart sized impression in the ground and over at Jo. She was curious and speculative over that last comment. "What do you mean? I thought that 'magic isn't real.' How could you have seen gems like this before but not magic? Oh, and by the way, this proves that it is real." Smiling victoriously, she began studying her purple hued crystals again, which ever so slightly shone in the afternoon sun.

The target of Twilight's smug remarks looked up from where she was hunched beside the crater in her backyard. 

"I meant I've seen fake stuff like this before, like on TV, not in real life though..." Jo drifted off and stared again at the shining abyss before her. It is however, really pretty... It had an almost hypnotic quality to it. Still, my backyard is now a massive crater. 

What looked like sparks flew off the tips of the larger crystalline examples occasionally. From the long abandoned veggie boxes to Jo's old maple, was a scorched and muddied pit. It sank several feet deep into the Earth and was nearly fifteen feet in diameter. Along the rim, bright purple crystals glowed and glittered.

"I don't know what TV is..." Twilight muttered back, crossing her arms where she sat on her butt in some charred grass. She waited for an answer, then noticed Jo had become oblivious once more and smirked. "Weeell, since you aren't denying it, I'll assume this definitely proves magic is real for you. Let's go back inside and start figuring out how to get me home to Equestria!" Her hands tossed themselves up above her victorious grin, the pose maintained itself even after Jo glared back at her.

"Hardly," Jo grated. "I'll admit though, this is very... unexplainable. But then, if it came from space, it makes sense that this stuff is really weird to begin with." Jo stood up, dusting her hands off as she did. The crystals had left a touch of stubborn glitter on them.

"What about me then? How do you explain me?" Twilight crossed her arms, something that she rarely ever did as a pony, but was quickly coming to find felt more natural as a human.

"You? You're just plain weird." Jo said the words nicely enough that Twilight laughed, and was followed by the speaker. "I dunno," Jo said more seriously. "But believing that you're the meteor that caused this crater would be accepting that you could be just what you say, or anything for that matter; from E.T. to Twilight Sparkle."

"E.T.?" Twilight cocked her head to one side questioningly. 

"..." Jo scrubbed a hand over her mouth while she thought of a response. You'd have to have lived under a rock your whole life or really be an alien to be this clueless.

Twilight beat Jo to speaking. "It might be easier figuring out a way to prove things to you, if I understood the terms you use... We can start with 'E.T.' and the out of context manner in which you say 'space'. What exactly do you mean when you say space? The space of what?" She stared up at the sky and twirled one finger absently as she spoke, as if asking the sky or directing something around her.

"Alright, alright. I'm not going to have the same argument over again." Jo spun on one foot with her hands on her face in disconcerted inner turmoil. To say that it was difficult trying to make sense of things, or Twilight at all, would be an understatement. As a result, she was willing to give anything a shot now—that included playing along. "Forget the space thing, you win." She sighed, "You're Twilight Sparkle, for now anyway. I mean it this time, too."

Twilight clapped her hands joyfully with an ear to ear grin. "Progress!" After her celebratory moment, she opened her eyes and found Jo grimacing at the ground. "You really still don't believe me though, do you? Please... don't lie this time Jo... I'm not angry about that by the way; it's just, well, the truth is almost always better than even a protective lie. There are very, very special circumstances when you can lie and it's the right thing, but they're rare." 

Jo looked up, frowning, and met Twilight's cool demeanor stare for stare. "I know that, geez... I dunno, fine, I'll tell you why I did then, too. Besides being a little out of it, I was afraid you were actually crazy. I thought maybe you would eat my cats or something if I made you angry. I was playing along and postponing things because it seemed like the best choice at the time." She relaxed once finished, resting her hands on her hips and leaning back.

The laughter caught Jo by surprise. Twilight was clutching her middle and laughing uncontrollably on the ground.

"Oh, well, I guess that makes sense!" Twilight pushed herself upright again shakily, still giggling slightly. "I forgive you then, Jo, hehe." 

Jo smiled wearily but chuckled along as well. "Thanks, what's so funny about that though? I thought Twilight Sparkle wasn't keen on being thought of as nuts." 

Twilight's laughter petered out at that, and looked suspiciously at Jo. "I have questions about how you know my name to begin with... but I suspect it has something to do with you humans' and your 'not magic'. We'll get to that, as for what I thought was funny," she chuckled a little again. "It was you mentioning me eating cats as a joke! This whole time, I was assuming that you were carnivorous, or at least omnivorous." Her hand went up to her chest and a show was made of breathing out in relief. "That would have sure been awkward if I'd made that assumption out in the open."

Jo stared blankly at Twilight.

"I wasn't sure at first, but it's a relief to know your sharpened teeth are intended for cracking gems. I'm not sure what I'd do if I ever had to eat meat to survive." Twilight paused to shudder and make a disgusted look. "Well, anyway I'm glad eating animals is not considered normal behavior. It's not a legitimate concern that a crazy human would eat your cats though, is it-?"

"Alright," Jo interrupted Twilight. "Stop right there, I'm not doing this. Twilight," She took a deep breath, ready to try and take matters... such as they were, seriously. "If I'm going to play it straight with you over all of this, then I'm going to do just that. From now on, I'm not treating you like a normal, human girl, that is possibly insane. What I will be doing now, is treating you like a... an alicorn mare, from Equestria. An alicorn mare that is stranded on earth... An alicorn mare that has to learn pretty much everything from the ground up about Earth—that's my planet by the way," Jo thudded her foot on the dirt ground to indicate what she meant. "And apparently my reality too, and the rules that go with it. Because, Honey, I'll tell you right now, straight up, that if you're from the place you say you are, absolutely nothing here works like that... for the most part."

Twilight nodded her head and wore a calm smile throughout Jo's spiel. "I can hardly wait, Jo! I mean, I'm incredibly scared and possibly in shock about being away from home like this... The farthest I've ever been before was the trip to Tartarus' gates I made the year before last." She took a breath and held a hand up to Jo. "I'll keep a level head and listen to everything you say though, Jo. I really can't thank you enough for all of your help with this debacle."

Jo wore an expression that probably said she didn't know what to think. "You're welcome, it's the least I could do for...for someone who's stranded, I guess." She hoisted Twilight up to stand on two legs, something that seemed was quickly becoming easier for her. 

Upon gaining what balance she could, Twilight was surprised by the familiar up and down motion her arm made as Jo maintained her hold of it.

"Might as well start over I guess," Jo said, sighing at the same time. "Nice to meet you Twilight Sparkle. I'm Jo Faux, the human." 

"...The pleasure's all mine. Nice to meet you Jo the human." Twilight gave a thankful smile to her friend.

...

After a pause, Twilight asked, "What did you mean by alicorn?"







Jo and Twilight had gone inside the house to figure things out, mostly because Jo wanted to get Twilight a chair. It became obvious after five minutes that standing on two legs wasn't the order of the day just yet for the pony turned human. So, they had begun doing a back and forth of questions, when they weren't consistently getting side tracked...that is.

"Yes, well I'm not sure exactly what else to call it. The humongous crater maybe? My little impact zone?" Jo tapped a finger on the table impatiently after hearing Twilight mince details with her over what to call her landing site. Apparently it was vastly important to work out the names and meanings of words properly before they could press on. The issue had come up as a priority after it was clear that alicorn wasn't a word to be used to refer to princesses, apparently it would be like calling the President 'finger nail' on Earth. They were simply "the princesses". 

While listening to Jo's retort, Twilight inspected her hand, which was flat along the side of the glass of water she had in her possession. "Sorry, I know it isn't that important right now, I just get picky over details when I'm nervous... Right, not that important right now ahem, anyway I- I- achoo!" Jo cringed back as Twilight interrupted herself with a sudden sneeze. "Doh, ah 'on't suppose you have a handker'ief?"

Jo leaned back in her chair and grabbed a box of tissues. "Yeah, here you go. Guess I was right, I think you might have caught a cold last night after all, if you're sneezing already...unless you're allergic to something around here."

Twilight seemed appalled by the idea, made evident by the widening of her eyes. "A cold!?" A bellowed honk of her nose followed. "Allergic? I don't know...I guess anything's possible."

You can say that again... Jo grimaced at the sloppy job her guest did of wiping her nose. I suppose if someone that used to have hooves was in these circumstances, they would be this clumsy. She was doing her best to stay convinced that Twilight was who she said she was by thinking such things, but it was still hard—even with having a desire to believe it on her side. 

Twilight coughed and reengaged in the conversation, setting aside the tissue. "I've never had any before, and it isn't even winter. But, I guess my body's completely different now that I think about it, so that wouldn't matter." She sighed and looked across at Jo. "So, ahem, as I was saying." Twilight cleared her throat. "By the way, those little paper wipes are very nice...I'm guessing they're disposable?"

Jo tapped a finger and nodded patiently. 

"Right, well besides what to call the crystal node I was asking why exactly it was so difficult for you to even consider believing me. You're obviously very familiar with the fantastic and magic, I suspect this is the case on a culturally wide scale, as well, given that you're just an average citizen and not of a profession of any remarkable nature, which I believe to be the case..." Twilight leaned forward, stroking her chin in wonder while scrutinizing over Jo.

Jo, soldiered through the surmise of Twilight's observations meritoriously. Yeah that's me, average. She took a somber breath to answer Twilight when it became clear the other girl had trailed off to let her answer the out spoken question, and accompanying theory. 

"Right...well, the answer for that is two fold, actually." Jo began, "The reason I found it so hard to even consider you weren't some abuse case from a county over or a prank was simply because..." The words stalled out, despite her best efforts, speaking as if teaching the most basic common knowledge to an alien wasn't easy for her to do. 

"Because, we humans are so familiar with magic, not to mention fascination with the idea of it. On Earth, that's just what it is, our imagination. Literally almost every person, all eight billion or so of them, knows about or has thought up their own fun little ideas and stories. Catching on yet?" Jo raised a critical eyebrow at Twilight, but kept up her pace. "We have literally thousands of tales and takes on made up creatures like dragons, or fake concepts like time travel." She had to raise her voice a little their to keep talking, as Twilight tried to speak up with what was probably a protest. "Honestly, until some hard evidence shows up, only the crazies will ever think it's more than made up stories, anyway. Now I know you're going to say it's all real, for now, I trust you know better than me so let's skip that part and talk about an explanation for how this happened now, instead." 

Twilight sat back with a slightly dumbfounded look. "How did you know what I was going to say? Well, I guess it is pretty obvious..."

Jo kept her face schooled to disconcertion, rather than laugh at the ridiculousness going on in her head. I hope Twilight isn't taking the fact I've watched too many damn movies for my own good as wisdom...then again, she already thinks the microwave is a magic oven, so whatever.

"Well, alright, I guess that makes sense then," Twilight began, reclining in her chair into a relaxed posture. She raised a finger and pointed it at Jo. "You all believe magic isn't real because you've either never seen any, or it doesn't exist here. Worse, you've popularized it as a part of your culture and its credibility has eroded completely as a result." 

Nodding to herself, Twilight began to wrap up her external thoughts. "Fascinating, I guess the next order of business is that explanation of my arrival then. I can't quite give one though Jo, I meant it when I said my memory's fuzzy on that. I remember landing, which wasn't pleasant by the way... and everything up until I woke up yesterday...or earlier today. All I know is that I was conducting some kind of experiment." She held both hands up to either side of herself in a shrug, and glanced up at them before placing them back on the table. 

Jo put on a concentrated look while listening, then smirked at hearing the last bit, "It wasn't Discord then? No ancient evil involved that banished you somewhere you would be stranded?" The web designer couldn't help but grin sardonically and laugh. It didn't last, Twilight's deepening look of concern and question made her sober up a little. Yeesh, tough crowd. She thought.

"Jo," Twilight began, ignoring the sarcastic questions. "That's another thing... How about next, we talk about why you know so many specific details about Equestria? Why is it you, and I'm guessing humans in general, know so much about ponies." Her eyes closed and one of her hands waved in a circular gesture. "Now, I've already surmised that your world is some kind of parallel to my own, where instead of my race, yours is the dominant. I don't mean to sound presumptuous but humans bare a striking resemblance to the primates of southern Zebrica...that supports my theory, I'd hazard to guess that ponies exist in some form here, as well..." This time, Twilight slowed a bit, searching to see if she'd dealt insult. "So, with that theory in place it stands to reason that many of the creatures on either of our worlds are similar. The only mystery, is why yours is aware of mine, but not vice versa." 

"Psch, simple." Jo had been expecting this one, she shrugged off essentially being called a monkey and continued eagerly. "Equestria, ponies, your world? All of it exists in mine, but as a fairy tale, fiction, it's an animated theater piece intended to entertain people- sorry, humans. To simplify things, we'll say that it's made by 'human magic' and then distributed. Just like I said yesterday, you aren't real, or shouldn't be, by all rights." Holding up both hands, palms out she demonstrated as best she could what she said, finishing with a finger pointed at Twilight.

"I was afraid of that..." Twilight said, a little breathlessly.

A bit of quiet reigned in the room after Twilight didn't say anything in response.

Jo had nothing to follow up with, nothing that seemed fitting at least. "Uhm, sorry Twilight, I didn't mean to upset you. I just... I have seen, so many shows, and read so many stories about fake worlds crossing over with other fake worlds, that this is just...not something I can flick a switch for to treat it like normal. I'm really sorry." Shaking her head from side to side managed to keep her from meeting Twi's gaze as she spoke.

"It's okay...l understand completely, we have stories in Equestria, too. Although, you make it sound as if all humans do is tell stories." Twilight chuckled nervously a little. 

"Pretty fair assessment, actually..." Jo muttered.

"Hm?" Twilight raised her eyebrows questioningly, having not heard. 

"Nothing..."

"Oh, it's your turn by the way, to ask a question that is." Twilight held her hand flat against her cup again, touching its palm to the side and moving it away slowly, then frowning at both the cup and the appendage.

"Alright, how about, what exactly are you doing?" Jo met Twilight's confused eyes when she looked up. "Your hand there, what are you doing with it?"

Twilight's mouth drew into a frown. "Just thinking about things...everything is probably different here if magic doesn't exist, even stuff I've always taken for granted. Take this for example," she gestured to her hand. "In Equestria, there are dominant, submissive, reactive, subjected, and passive elemental and magical forces at work. Combinations of these allow ponies to exert their will on the world and nature around...them..."

The lost expression on Jo's face made Twilight slow down.

"Sorry, I'm big on lecturing...did you have a question?" Twilight smiled weakly.

Jo shook her head in response. "No, I get the gist, it's just incredible to hear in person I guess. Surreal is the only way I can describe it. Give me the short versions though, Twilight, I don't want to wrap my head around that stuff, especially if it doesn't have bearing for us right now, no offense. I think after this one we should stick to just showing you the ropes around here..." Stopping for a brief pause, she continued speaking with a sudden afterthought. "And yeah, I know you love your lecturing." She couldn't help but smirk ruefully again. 

Twilight nodded sagely along with Jo's logical procession of thoughts, then shuddered again when Jo brought attention to her life being a public affair. The implications of this hadn't quite appeared yet given the weighted and philosophy thick nature of the afternoon.

"That sounds like a good idea to me, I'm eager to get an idea of...what I have to work with, so to speak." Twilight tried to wear a confident look, but wasn't sure of what she'd managed to put on. "To put it simply, in Equestria ponies, all ponies, can use magic to interact with their environment in some way, at the most basic level this involves direct contact with their body." She held up the water mug with her fingers to demonstrate. "I wouldn't need these to pick something up back home, to put it simply."

"Magic hooves," Jo mused aloud at understanding finally, she shook her head and laughed. "Alright then, your turn, the table's all yours for questions Twilight. Ask away."






Jo had never regretted words she'd said before quite so profoundly. What followed next was an almost completely uninterrupted stream of questions and theories from Twilight. If nothing else, she had at least proven that she lived up to her name. 

Twilight had at first begun with simply asking for a quill and parchment, which Jo had granted her somewhat in the form of a ballpoint pen and paper. It had been this simple gift that in that moment, caused what looked to Jo as nothing less than an epiphany of world changing proportions. 

Twilight had stared at the ring binder filled with blank sheets of paper as if she'd uncovered the ark of the covenant. What made things worse, was that although Twilight now had her means to record things, she couldn't use them very well...

Jo had foolishly attempted to play 'scribe' for her guest, at least until the pain in her hand reminded her that she had two laptops to choose from which she could use instead. It wasn't easy getting away from Twilight though, even for that brief reprisal. Since this had begun for Jo, the other girl had been a bottomless well of fascination over things, and questions about everything to do with them. 

Twilight's curiosity extended to what seemed like everything she could think of. 

Jo pointedly didn't change the subject, or add anything that might derail Twilight, she merely answered simply and typed what was asked of her. For the most part, Twilight seemed to cover the most mundane of topics first, which Jo was thankful for. She answered questions that were obviously the most important to Twilight, first. Those pertained to whether or not humans could have some kind of technology—Jo finally got around to explaining that was the best word to describe human 'tools'—that could get her home immediately or at all. Suffice to say, she was disappointed by the answer. 

That disappointment was fleeting though, and Twilight again berated Jo about everything, from the avenues of human research to methods by which she could carry out on her own. 

Jo had mentioned there were theories that might bear fruit for Twilight, and the possibility that such things could exist already... albeit in secret and controlled by the government. She then had to briefly explain that the government was no where near as useful or agreeable as Princess Celestia, and that they wouldn't be any help whatsoever. 

Twilight had been hesitant to believe her. As well she should, Jo thought, but still did so. Twilight asked for a better explanation of the human government later, too. 

Afterward the brunt of that had passed, Jo had hesitated over explaining, or even mentioning the best immediate source of information: the internet. The internet, such as it is, was a taboo unto itself. Decades of existence and being at the mercy of human deviancy and what not, as well as Jo's familiarity with both it and Twilight's curious nature, made the idea of her going near it worrisome. But told her she had, and only by making a valiant argument that it was too complicated and disorganized to actually find anything relevant did she dissuade Twilight from pressuring further to gain access to it. 

Of course, this also caused the pony made human to begin arguing that she should begin organizing the internet for mankind right away, which had Jo caught between horrified and finding the claim of capability hilarious.

The surface of mankind's achievements scratched only the surface—the ones pertaining to the situation anyway. Twilight moved back to the mundane, and asked about how so much of Jo's furnishings and belongings bore the make of a master artisan if there was no magic. She had been disappointed by the explanations of factories and mass production. But, this also brought the pair back to something Jo had mentioned—and Twilight had forgotten—earlier.

"Eight billion humans?" Twilight stared with a shocked expression at the eight, followed by multiple zeroes she had forced Jo to write in order to double check they were on the same page. "Are you sure that you humans haven't simply...it's, that doesn't seem possible, how do you provide for them all? Your world must be far larger than mine...or you have almost no wilderness to speak of."

Jo ignored the rumble in her stomach, she took note it getting late which this most recent turn of questions. "Probably the former, then. We have hundreds upon hundreds of miles of empty land, even not including the oceans and the fact they take up like, seventy percent of the Earth or something. I think our planet's eight thousand miles all the way across in a straight line?"

Twilight's eyes bulged a little, then her face soften. "Wait, waitwaitwait, okay, a lot of what you said there raised several red flags with me." The girl facing Jo raised both her hands in a steadying motion, and stared for a moment. Her mouth worked continuously, until finally words came. "Let's start small, what's a mile? Is that close to a kilometer?"

Jo deadpanned at Twilight. Of course, ponies are metric, that makes perfect sense. She couldn't help but slap her forehead and groan. 

"Jo? What's wrong?" Twilight asked earnestly.

"Nothing, sorry, just...dealing with everything I thought I knew about reality collapsing around me." Jo leaned back and looked over at Twilight, who had moved to sit next to her and the laptop ever since "The Great Notening" as Jo thought of it, had begun. 

When Twilight didn't respond, only raised a curious, and worried eyebrow, Jo explained. "Discovered another parallel is all. We have the metric system on Earth, too. We also have other systems of measurement like the one I just mentioned, but I doubt you would know about those, or what 'feet' are. I'm fine, I just get this feeling of brain vertigo every time something weird comes up like this..."

A sad frown bent Twilight's expression. "That sounds serious, is that an expression or a human ailment?"

Jo laughed, which came out as a snrck sound. "Ah, expression, rule of thumb with humans, if it sounds too ridiculous to be true, it is. We're incredibly unremarkable most of the time."

Twilight put on a look of relief and spoke on. "Alright, moving back to the topic at hoof then," Jo chortled inwardly at that one, still giggly from before. "You said that your...planet, I'm assuming that means continent or land mass, was how long across?"

Jo started curtly, "Well, in kilometers, roughly twelve thousand around-" and was cut off quickly.

Twilight held up a hand and pointed it at Jo. "Okay stop right there, you said around. Care to explain that please?"

Jo scratched the back of her head, unsure how to feel—again—at what was being implied. Rather than explain though, her thoughts skipped ahead to the question that she herself had thought of. "Twilight, is your world...flat?" 

Twilight's eyes bulged, more than before, her thoughts obviously following Jo's own. "You can't be saying that Earth has a different shape!?" 

Jo groaned and leaned forward onto the table into her arms, her head narrowly missed smashing itself on the laptop.

Twilight went on. "Your world can be traversed from one side to the other!? That just...how does it-!? In the name of Celestia..." In the wake of her exclamations, her eyes creased at the mention of her mentor's name. An earlier thought from the 'car' ride returned to her. "So, how did you say your sun and moon are controlled by your people?" 

Without picking her head up, Jo gave the explanation she had from earlier, but expounded upon it. She went on to back-brief Twilight about the state of Equestria as well, making sure that the show had truly gotten those bits correct. Ignoring the mind shattering implications of several team members at DHX and Lauren Faust getting all these little details right about a world that really existed, there was a sense of ease to be had by the two girls at figuring something out. 

Limp as a wet noodle, Twilight sat in her chair beside Jo, staring at the bizarre contraption on the ceiling called a 'fan'. "Jo, your world makes no sense at all, no offense." She muttered, not that it helped her cope all that much.

Jo mumbled out between her arms, "None taken," but remained face down. The two had filled in the gaps for one another to a satisfactory extent, at least as well as could be done, anyway. It was mostly unspoken at this point, the two had been talking so long they were beginning to arrive at and conclude things simultaneously, as well as pick up on when the other had done so.

The echoing rumble of Jo's stomach entered the room, answering the call, Twilight's own tummy growled back.

"I think I'm hungry, Jo." Twilight said, blushing and hesitantly looking at her friend. 

With significantly less recompense over formalities—while trying saving face—Jo finally sat up and yawned. "Aayeah, me to, apparently. Take a break then? We should order out, I'm starved."

Twilight watched Jo get up and meander to a device on the wall, which she picked up in one hand, then looked back towards her. 

"Well?" Jo asked again, looking at Twilight expectantly.

"Huh? O-oh, I don't really know what you mean by 'order out'. Are...Am I to understand there is a food delivery service?" Twilight sniffled, her nose running again, and reached for another tissue while she spoke.

"Thaaat's the long and short of it, are you okay with eating whatever- uhm, oh." Jo's mind finally caught up with what she was thinking and saying, as well as the issue that she'd neglected to address as of yet. Dammit. It was a simple thought, but it summed up how she felt towards the situation she faced quite well. That situation being, a herbivore, trapped in an omnivore's body, living with her, a girl that had no misgivings about eating the flesh of tasty little animals. 

"Twilight," Jo began hesitantly. "I'm going to come clean with you on something right now, and I just want you to know ahead of time that I am deeply, sincerely sorry. Because I basically, unwittingly mind you, did a pretty mean thing to you." 

Twilight finished blowing her nose and began paying complete attention to Jo, managing to catch the apology. "Hm? What's wrong?" She asked simply, looking at her trustworthy, helpful, but above of all understanding new friend. Her eyebrows wrinkled into a questioning look.

Jo heaved a sigh and temporarily hung the phone back up. "Earlier this morning," she spoke quickly. "I fed you a sandwich that had meat in it. I was going to say something before, about the time I said I would start treating you like a pony after you gave your theory about humans and gems, but I got side tracked and-"

An ear piercing shriek filled the room for about two seconds, but no longer. Twilight stared into space at nothing, frozen at having heard her friend's confession. "I- I- I- I-" She was unable to move past the single syllable. "I ate what!?"

Well, not the worst reaction I guess. Jo thought, approaching the girl warily. "Twilight, it's okay, you don't have to worry about humans being carnivorous, we don't have to be, exactly..." She wracked her brain over what was best to say first, about what Twilight might be thinking. "We're not monsters though, or anything, so don't think any less of us, for that...at least." 

The other girl was obviously not listening, or she gave no sign of it.

Jo knelt besides Twilight and patted her hand. "Hey, you awake in there? It won't kill you Twilight, I mean, philosophically speaking everything dies sometime too anyway, right? Aren't there other animals that eat meat in Equestria?"

"Not ponies though!" Twilight shouted simply, still looking at the wall. Her eyes were ringed with shock and several other emotions. "I ate another living, breathing, thinking creature!? What...what will Celestia do to me? I'm an abominatio-hah-hah-hah-onnnn..." She fell into her hands and began sobbing right before Jo's eyes. 

Unsure of what to do exactly, Jo patted Twilight's back weakly. "I'm...sorry Twilight, that's my fault, you don't have to blame yourself for that one." She tried to think of ways that she could lessen the impact of this for the girl. On the show the animals were talking, sort of, and expressive. So does that mean they were like people? Jo didn't really know where to start on that subject, she imagined the old community had the ins and outs of it in a sort of fandom 'bible', but she'd only ever watched the show and hung out with a couple other fans. 

The sobbing heap in front of her didn't seem angry, though. "I'm really, really sorry Twilight...but it's okay, the animal would've been eaten by someone else if you think about it logically, and they didn't exactly suffer or anything either...and I could be wrong here with this but animals on Earth aren't smart enough to really know suffering or hold enough awareness to be considered 'alive' in the sense that you, or humans are."

Twilight hiccuped and looked up at Jo from her tear filled palms like she was crazy. "Bwa-what?"

Jo winced a bit at the pitiful form before her, but explained. "Well, I'll just ask, are animals in Equestria as smart or...I dunno, let's say, self aware? Like ponies?" That feeling Jo had been getting all day, the one telling her that what she was saying was absolutely crazy, went off again. Luckily, she was getting better at ignoring it.

"Well... It varies, of course, but that's not the point. Consuming another creature to live is just wrong!" Twilight sniffed loudly and paused before wiping her nose on her arm, then reached instead for the tissues. "Uggh, I'm a mess, I'm sorry Jo I didn't mean to lose it." She took in a shuddering breath. "I don't know if I'll get over that anytime soon though... Anyway, it depends, intelligence varies a great deal amongst Equestrians. Generally though, almost every creature, big or small subsides entirely off either plants, or gems." When Jo merely squinted her eyes, Twilight added, "I think some others eat bugs...?"

"What." Jo's mouth thinned into a line of confusion. 

"I-it's part of Starswirl's theory's of Relative Harmony and the make up of reality." Twilight blew her nose again before continuing. "Basically, harmony is maintained by magic, and magic provides for harmony. The only forces that act outside of this balance are creatures that lean towards chaos, there are some exceptions...but most are monsters that have been banished to Tartarus over the ages. The rest almost exclusively live in places like...say, the Everfree Forest."

Jo felt her knees start to fall asleep from where she still knelt, enraptured by the madness Twilight was sharing with her. So she's saying that magic means her world can say balls to what makes sense, is that what I'm getting out of this? From any standpoint that valued logic or sense what Twilight was saying made no sense. To prevent the over population of herbivores, carnivores existed in nature to stem their growth. That's basically how Jo knew the world balanced itself and maintained its "Harmony".

Well, if there's any silver lining to this, it's that I can look forward to her losing her mind when she learns about Earth's ecosystem. "What about gryphons?" The question came out suddenly, surprising even Jo. "They eat meat right? They're a combination of two predatory animals, they have to." 

Twilight blinked, then put on a thoughtful look directed at the ceiling. "Predatory? By that do you mean a carnivore? No animal is strictly carnivorous unless it's evil, Jo." Twilight expression was dead serious. "I'm not really the expert on gryphons though, I can't say for sure... If Rainbow Dash were here she would probably know, she used to have a friend named-"

"Yeah, Gilda."

Twilight looked down at Jo in shock. "How diii- I take it she was in the theater thing too, then..." The reply she got was a tired nod from Jo. "Alright, Jo, let's take that break. Just get me something with plants that I'll enjoy, I don't care what. I need to be left alone for a bit, if that's fine with you." 

Jo frowned sadly for a moment, then asked, "...You don't hate me for that, do you?" She stood up and walked backwards towards the phone, remaining engaged. The look she got back from Twilight was confusing, as it was not only shocked, it was incredibly shocked, and embarrassed. 

"Hate!? Hat- No! I don't hate you, why in Equestria's name would you think I hate you, Jo? Was it something I said? Was- was it- Did I do something culturally offensive? I had an idea earlier that humans might communicate in some fashion by way of smell but I wrote it off after it became clear your nasal cavities weren't developed enough to allow for that and the mixture of the smells I did get made no sense but-"

"Twilight," Jo interrupted, then did so again when that didn't work. "TWILIGHT!" The silence that entered into the room was deafening. After a moment, the lone natural human continued. "I take it 'hate' is a big taboo in Equestria, apapap!" She held up a finger. "Don't get into details, later, after food. Just nod if I'm right."

Twilight did so.

"Okay, moving on, I'm going to get you some broccoli with mushrooms and noodles. I'll get the same, I guess, so that I don't offend you..." Jo crossed her arms and frowned when Twilight tried to speak up again, but let her do so. 

"You can get whatever you like Jo, don't mind me...I mean, it's disgusting and horrible I think, but there are plenty of creatures that do...do eat others." Twilight withheld that those creatures were typically not intelligent enough to know better. She began washing her hands over one another nervously. "Sorry, no offense."

Jo sighed and rolled her eyes simultaneously. "Gee, thanks for making me feel like nature's most sinful creation." Her eyes squinted slightly after crossing over a couple thoughts about what humanity really did have to offer, making her statement not entirely untrue. That's going to be a can of worms alright, human society...yeesh, I hope she can survive that. I'm really starting to wonder how accurate the show was in regards to everything. If they're as 'cutesy' and 'innocent' as a kid's show, this will be...something, alright.

The web designer ordered the food, while fending off more apologies from Twilight. The latter of things made Jo feel bad, given that she was certain she was the one that owed an apology if anyone did. 

The Chinese take out arrived and not much else of merit occurred. Although, Twilight did oversee the manner in which Jo paid the poor man, who became the target of several questions before he could get away. The unicorn had almost exploded into another kick of questions aimed at Jo about human cultures, after discovering that Earth had more than just a few. Her host was able to redirect her back to food though, and it was forgotten, for now.

While they ate, Jo showed Twilight some of the laptop's other uses, such as music playing and movies, as well as adding that they could watch the 'theater' that depicted her and her friend's adventures. There was some silence to be had while showing Twilight some of the pictures of the show online—safe pictures. She didn't want to watch it just yet, though she did express interest in searching the episodes for clues at a later time.

Jo stayed off the topics that she herself was most curious about while they waited. For instance, she had thought, If this is the real Twilight Sparkle, there is a forest, nay, a veritable ocean of questions that any brony worth their salt would be chomping at the bit to ask her. A guilty smirk had adorned her face right after, followed by, Oh boy, let the running of the horse puns commence...