Twilight Sparkle felt entirely too wobbly with her wings. She was doing better, and knew it, but hovering still felt really unstable. That said, all her knowledge on the subject was from books and what she had been told, so considering that she was brand-new at this she was doing pretty well. Or at least Rainbow Dash thought so.
“That looks pretty good,” Rainbow Dash said, “Not the most stable hover, but I’ve seen worse on ponies that have been pegasi their whole lives!”
“Ditzy Doo?” Twilight asked, rolling her eyes.
“I didn’t say it, you did,” Rainbow replied defensively. “But really, you’re doing great. Are you comfortable?”
“No,” Twilight said simply. “This is a lot more… concentration-intensive than just standing is.”
“Well... that might be because you’re too stiff,” Fluttershy said, hovering nearby. “Try to relax some. You might be overthinking it. Just a little bit?”
Twilight nodded and took a deep breath, holding it and straightening her back a bit before letting it out. She felt her altitude drop a little bit, and compensated. Fluttershy smiled. “There you go. Now, try to come over here and tag my hoof.” She held up a hoof, and Twilight shifted her wings so that she had some forward thrust, and flew over to Fluttershy. Twilight reached out and touched Fluttershy’s hoof when she was close enough.
Twilight giggled. “You know, this is starting to feel easier, more natural.”
“That’s good,” Fluttershy replied. “I bet you’ve always had trouble in gym class, huh? You think about everything so much, it’s easy to forget that sometimes the body seems to have a perfectly good idea of what it’s doing.”
“It does?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah,” Fluttershy replied, “Haven’t you tried to play… um… actually, you probably used magic for that.”
“Statistically speaking? Most likely,” Twilight replied.
“Or… well, do you remember what it was like trying to walk? It’s kind of like that. You have no idea what to really do, but you want to do something and your body just kind of figures out how to do it on its own.”
“Fluttershy,” Twilight said with a blink, “Foals learn to walk when they are tiny. There is no way I could remember that.”
Fluttershy blinked back. Rainbow Dash, having heard the whole exchange, trotted over to where the pair was floating. “Wait, Fluttershy, you should know that!” She called up to the pink-haired pegasus, “It’s not like you can remember what it was like to learn to walk.”
“Um…” Fluttershy looked down and away, awkwardly. “I can. Kind of. It’s all really vague, but I kind of remember the feeling of it.”
Rainbow Dash let off a “Huh?” and Twilight thought about it.
“Fluttershy,” Twilight said carefully, “If you don’t mind my asking, what is your first memory?”
Fluttershy took a moment to think back. “I was in a comfortable place. And then there was a lot of moving, and then things were very uncomfortable. That’s all I remember.”
Twilight was knocked out of her pondering by hearing the sound of Spike calling her name. She turned to see him running across the grass toward her. She landed, letting the baby dragon get to her and take a minute to catch his breath.
Huffing and puffing, Spike handed Twilight the scroll. “Twilight… Princess Celestia… wants… you, Fluttershy, and Liz to come to Canterlot right away.”
Twilight looked over the message. “Oh my,” She said, “This sounds important. We need to find Liz right away. She’s either looking for or hanging out with Cica, most likely.”
“No trouble!” Rainbow Dash said, “You know as well as I do that it’s just a-” She was cut short by Fluttershy placing a hoof on her back.
“Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said in a polite yet stern voice, “You know what Redheart said. Not until you’re cleared.”
“But…” Rainbow Dash looked at her friend, who wore a concerned look. “But…” She looked at ponyville, with the roofs she knew so well. “But…” She looked up at the clear, blue sky.
There was one cloud up there that the weather team had missed this morning. ONE cloud. Just SITTING there. Waiting to be busted.
Rainbow Dash let out a noise halfway between an exasperated sigh and a moan of boredom and futility and flopped onto the ground. She then got back up, stated “I’m going to go talk to the nurse,” and rushed off.
Fluttershy watched her friend go. “Oh dear… I’ll meet you at the train station, okay Twilight?” Twilight nodded understandably, and Fluttershy headed off after Dash.
“Okay,” Twilight said, turning to Spike. “Where would Liz and Cica be right now?”
Spike shrugged in return. “How would I know?”
“Now, dear, I think it goes much better with your mane than the blue one did! It gives you something of a presence, too, draws the eye to you.”
Liz shook her head. “I appreciate it, but it isn’t as durable as my old vest. I chose that vest because it was durable and had a lot of little, useful pockets. Not just because I liked the color.”
Rarity sighed and rolled her eyes. “Really? I don’t want to be rude, dear, but the truth of the matter is that the giant insect has a better fashion sense than you do.”
Cica, hovering nearby and sporting a silver-and-gold bowtie, let off an amused buzz.
Rarity went over and picked up Liz’s vest with her magic. “However, I see what you mean by durable. It’s stretchy, but not too much so, rather thick, and made out of… some bizarre fabric that I’ve never seen before.”
“It’s synthetic,” Liz replied, taking off the red, orange, and yellow vest that Rarity had produced for her. Where did she even get it from? It’s not like there’s a lot of vests in the shop!
“Synthetic?” Rarity asked, trying to figure out what that meant. “You mean to say, conjured magically? Why, the thought of that is ridiculous. Being able to conjure fabric out of thin air… being able to dictate its color, tensile strength, durability, and weight by magic when you create it… being able to custom-design patterns without worrying about whether the weaver will mess it up… never having to worry about whether anyone will notice if I use the slightly-wrong fabric ever again… Luna in trousers! I need to look into this!”
Liz blinked. “No… um, we don’t have magic where I come from, it’s created by technology.”
“What kind of technology?” Rarity asked eagerly, wide-eyed at the possibilities.
“I don’t know,” Liz said, “But chances are that magic is the closest thing you have here.”
“Then one way or the other,” Rarity said, “I will have to look into this. But first, I think we should try something in green for you. Green… and grey, perhaps? No, no, to drab. Still, some kind of neutral tone… probably either tan or brown would be better. And come to think of it, brown in particular can come in a variety of quite durable fabric.”
Liz sighed. “What was wrong with black and blue again?”
“It doesn’t work! Trust me on this! And since you want your vest to add color, you are going to have to use something other than your current scheme of red and white, but it has to go with red and white!” Rarity turned the vest over. “Actually, maybe black-and-blue CAN work. It would just have to be a different shade of blue, with black relegated to highlights or patterns…” She put the vest down, and began to make sketches on a piece of paper.
Liz sighed. “Is the real issue that it’s the vest I came into town with? Do you take pleasure in updating people’s wardrobes?”
“I do!” Rarity said, earning a chuckle-like buzz from Cica. Rarity showed Liz her notebook. “Now then, which of these designs do you like the most?”
Liz looked at the designs with another sigh. “Rarity, I’ll be perfectly honest with you… huh. Actually, I like number 3.”
“See?” Rarity said with a smile, “was that so hard? Fashion can be a lot of fun if you don’t get stuck in the rut of what the ‘trends’ are. The Canterlot ponies don’t get it. Trends are exactly that: trends. The real glory is not in making clothes that fit the trends, it’s in making clothes that start the trends! If you make a fashion that is good enough, people will notice and dub you a genius, especially if you don’t get on the bandwagon!”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Liz said, “I’ve never been a real close follower of creative pursuits or things with trends.”
“What, aren’t there any trends among… whatever it is you do?” Rarity said, realizing half way through speaking that she didn’t actually know what it was that Liz did.
Liz had a sinking realization that she maybe should have explained the Pokémon world to all the ponies at the same time. “Um… I’m a Pokémon trainer, and there generally isn’t trends in the ‘such-and-such is trending’ kind of way. And there are good reasons for that, but I just finished explaining it to Twilight not too long ago, and it’s rather long-winded.”
“Ah, say no more,” Rarity replied, “I know that people can be surprised by how in-depth the fashion world is. It’s a lot more complex than most ponies realize.”
“That seems to be true for most things,” Liz said, “I once heard it said that sub-cultures tessellate infinitely.”
“That sounds about right,” Rarity said with a nod. “At least in the fashion world; and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s true in other things as well.”
The conversation was cut short by the noise of the front door opening. “Rarity!” Twilight’s voice called.
Rarity went into the next room, and looked at Twilight. “What’s wrong, dear?” she asked. “You look like you’ve been sprinting all over town.”
“I have been,” Twilight said, “I’m looking for Liz and Cica, but they aren’t anywhere around the fringes of Ponyville, Sweet Apple Acres, Fluttershy’s house, I even checked at Sugarcube Corner to see if Liz had been there, but she hadn’t! So I’m here asking you, if you’ve seen her, just maybe? Please?”
“Twilight, I’ve been here the whole time,” Liz said, stepping into the room. Cica flew out the door after her.
Twilight blinked at the pair. “Oh! Oh. You’re here. That’s good. That’s very good. Very good! Get your stuff together and get to the train station, okay? Okay!” Twilight didn’t wait for an answer, instead immediately rushing off.
Liz blinked at that. “What? Why?”
Rarity sighed and shook her head. “She’s like this sometimes. It’s best to just do what she says, so that we can keep her from getting… twitchy and giggly.”
“Twitchy and… okay then.” Liz said, pondering that mental image. That was not something she wanted to see. “I’ll take my old vest, then, and let you ponder ways to improve it while I’m gone.”
Liz looked at the train. It was very colorful, but more than that it was very old-fashioned. A steam engine, not an electric, high-speed, or even diesel engine. It wasn’t a very large engine, either. It rather reminded her of the ways that trains are presented in children’s shows. Actually, now that she thought about it, the quaint village-cottage style houses, the brightly colored talking ponies-
Liz shook her head strongly, forcing herself to not finish that thought. Such a thing was NOT worth pondering, for sure!
She saw Fluttershy fly towards her. “Hello Fluttershy,” Liz said with a wave.
“Hello, Liz,” Fluttershy replied and landed. “It’s good to see that Twilight found you.”
“Yeah, apparently we were at the last place she expected. And she barely did more than tell me to come here before running off again.”
“Yes, Twilight is always very nervous about the Princess,” Fluttershy explained, “Underneath the way she acts in public, Celestia is a very informal and forgiving pony, really, but Twilight never quite-”
“Wait,” Liz cut in, “I’m sorry to interrupt, but, Princess?”
“Yes, Princess Celestia,” Fluttershy said simply. “Didn’t Twilight tell you about her?”
“No!” Liz said, “I don’t know a thing about how your government works! It’s not like I’m an official of any sort! And for that matter, how did she know I was here?”
Fluttershy blinked, and then frowned. “Oh dear.”
Liz was about to say something more, when Twilight appeared in a flash of purple light. “Perfect!” Twilight declared when she saw the two. She had a pair of saddlebags loaded down with books, quills, and parchment just from what Liz could see. “Help me remember while I’m there to pick up a book on teleportation. Maybe next time we go to Canterlot we can jump straight to the front steps of the castle!”
“Twilight, did you tell Princess Celestia about Liz, and then not tell Liz about Princess Celestia?” Fluttershy asked in a chiding voice.
Twlight’s initial reaction was a “No!” but after a moment to think back on their conversations corrected that to, “Er… actually, I guess so. Um, hey, the train will be leaving soon, so why don’t I apologize and explain once we’re on board, huh?”
The trio got on board and Fluttershy immediately headed for a train car further back on the train. The next-to-last car on the train was completely empty, so they took seats there and Twilight apologized. “I’m sorry, Liz… ever since I first came to Ponyville, I’ve been writing letters to the princess on a regular basis. And everypony knew it, too, so I guessed it slipped my mind that you wouldn’t.”
Liz sighed. “I just don’t think I want the government involved with this! It’s confusing enough as it is! Wait… how regular? Are they official letters, or personal ones?”
“Um… mainly personal,” Twilight said. “I’ve been her personal student for years now, so we know each other quite well. I suppose you could call them official letters, but they aren’t governmentally official at all. I use a sending spell to send them to her directly, completely avoiding the postal system.”
“Um,” Fluttershy spoke up, “Technically Spike sends and receives them with his dragon fire.”
“Yes, right.” Twilight said with a nod. “You know, I bet I could learn the sending spell myself, though. I’m fairly sure Spike wouldn’t mind not having to send and receive all the time.”
“Anyway!” Liz said suddenly. “I have not-very-long to learn all the correct ways to meet and talk with a princess before I go meet her. I don’t want to make a fool of myself or offend anyone!”
“Calm down, there isn’t really a set etiquette for it.” Twilight said to try and reassure Liz. She placed her hoof on Liz’s shoulder to try and reassure her. “Or, well, there is, but really only the Canterlot nobility follow it. For the most part, all you have to do is bow when you first see her, and then if she does something particularly royal. Apart from that, just be polite.”
“Oh,” Liz said. “That’s a lot less complex than what I was expecting.”
“As I said earlier,” Fluttershy said, “Celestia is rather informal herself. I sometimes wonder why she bothers with all the Canterlot upper class stuff in the first place.”
“Well,” Liz sighed, “What does she want to see me for?”
“Um…” Twilight used her magic to pull a piece of paper from one of her bags and looked over it. “It doesn’t say in her note. I’m willing to bet it’s about your home world, and maybe even going back to it. She’s more powerful than any unicorn, so she’d be the one to talk to about it.”
“Okay,” Liz said, and leaned up against a window. “I guess I’ll just… have to wait until we get there, and try not to worry about it.”
Liz decided to distract herself by watching the scenery go by. Grass, trees, a group of… brown Miltank?
Cows, they were called in the books. Not ‘Brown Miltanks.’ She was a long way from home, and in a way every time she saw an animal that was rubbed in.
The scenery passed, and in time they began to climb some kind of mountain. About then was when Liz thought she heard someone say her name. She looked around, half-expecting it to be her imagination, but Fluttershy was there and seemed to want attention. Fluttershy deflected her gaze and ‘ummed’ very quietly, almost too low to hear.
“What is it, Fluttershy?” Liz asked. She was talking a bit quieter than usual, because she didn’t want to scare the little pegasus. Well, Fluttershy was just as tall as Liz was, it just often seemed like Fluttershy was smaller than she really was from the way she acted.
“Well…” Fluttershy said shyly, “I know that after that long conversation earlier, you might not want to talk about things so soon, but… I’m wondering, a little… what is it like to be human?”
Liz blinked. That was not what she was expecting. “What do you mean?”
“Well,” Fluttershy fidgeted hesitantly, “I’m not quite sure, I guess. I think… your body. Maybe… does it… feel very different in some way? Is this making any sense? What did it feel like to be a human, as opposed to, you know, being a pony?"
Huh. Liz looked at her hoof, at the end of a leg where an arm was supposed to be. She remembered what her hands looked like, but for some reason imagining them on the ends of her arms was weird.
That’s silly, Liz. You’ve been a pony for all of, what, four days now?
She closed her eyes. Feet. Legs. Hips. Torso, shoulders, arms, hands, neck, head. It was simple enough. It was what she had lived with her whole life.
“I don’t remember,” She admitted to herself. The fact that she said it aloud meant that Fluttershy heard it, too. “Why can’t I remember?”
The city of Canterlot is amazing. It’s beautiful, it’s busy, and it has a variety of stores and ponies not seen anywhere else in Equestria. As a general rule, whatever it is, you can find one in Canterlot.
Liz, originally from a big city herself, would have felt right at home if she hadn’t felt like an alien in her own skin. The feeling as hooves hit the street, the feeling of the mane on her long neck, the feeling of her tail; it was all so… familiar. Like she had grown up with them.
That made no sense. She was bipedal by nature, with arms and legs and digits and only hair on the top of her head. Okay, some on her arms and legs and body, but certainly not the coat of fuzz she had right now. The tail in particular had no basis in anything from a human body! It should be immensely weird to have! But it didn’t. If felt natural.
But on the other hand… oh the irony; she couldn’t remember what hands were like. Even trying to imagine it was impossible, or far too weird. Why was that unnatural?
Liz registered that Twilight said that they were approaching the castle, and even looked at it. But she was too preoccupied to really appreciate the white marble palace stretching into the sky, or fully register the handful of historic fun facts that Twilight recited on a whim. Something was wrong in her, she was sure of it. She was sure of it because she felt so right in a body that was not her own.
Something was horribly wrong, in short, because an already horribly wrong situation felt not wrong at all.
“Princess Celestia!”
Oh right! Visiting royalty. That’s right.
Liz managed to bow only a beat after the other two did, getting a good idea of how to bow as a pony by watching them. Liz got a good look at this princess… and she was huge! Almost twice as tall as any other pony that Liz has seen so far.
“Twilight, Fluttershy, it’s good to see you both,” Celestia said. The other two relaxed and stood, and Liz wondered if she was okay to stand now or if she should wait to be mentioned. One way or the other, she didn’t have to wait long as Celestia looked at her “You must be Liz. Welcome to Canterlot; I feel we have much to discuss.” Celestia was smiling warmly, and she made Liz feel at ease despite her towering physique and the fact that her mane was a perpetually-flowing rainbow of colors. Liz straightened up to hear what she had to say. “Before we start into anything lengthy,” Celestia said, “First there is a matter of an unusual creature in Canterlot. That is why I called for you, Fluttershy. And Liz, I understand that some creatures from your world may be in Equestria? Would one such creature be a collection of metal balls, screws, and magnets?”
Liz stopped herself from gasping. “Actually, yes! Oh… it’s causing trouble for the power company, isn’t it?”
“It’s causing trouble for a company that uses power,” Celestia agreed. “Permit me to show you the way.”
Celestia strode through the streets, accompanied by a number on ponies in armor. They must be some kind of guard, Liz guessed. That wasn’t important right now. What was important was that another of her Pokémon had been found… and she realized as she walked through the city, that Canterlot didn’t have any power lines. In fact, all the lights she had seen in Ponyville had been something burning or magical. Forward, Liz saw a pair of unarmed guard ponies guarding an alleyway. Princess Celestia stepped up, and they stepped aside wordlessly. “In here,” She said to Liz and Fluttershy.
In the alley itself, a pair of ponies examined a trio of metal spheres with eyes, with horseshoe magnets and screws attached. It was magnetized to a metal box on the building, and stuck to it was a hefty wrench, a lighter, a crowbar, and a pair of spears that Liz recognized as the kind that the guards around used. Fluttershy’s initial reaction was to approach carefully, of course, but Liz skipped straight to rushing forward and hugging.
“Ohm! It’s good to see you! Thank goodness-“
“HEY!”
Liz spun around to see a tan pegasus with a dark brown mane frowning at her crankily. From the look of it, she didn’t get enough (if any) sleep last night. “Is this your… magnet thing?” she asked, clearly very cross about this entire situation.
“Um, yes,” Liz said, “It is.”
“Then I assume you could explain why this… magnet thing is stealing lightning out of our building?”
“It’s a Magneton,” Liz said, “it feeds on electricity. It’s like food and water to it.”
The cranky pegasus blinked. “Seriously? That’s your angle?”
Fluttershy walked up. “Well… he doesn’t have a mouth, but he still has to get energy somehow. I guess that makes sense.”
‘Ohm’ made a noise similar to what a dying computer speaker makes, and Fluttershy took a step back. That was a rather creepy noise, and what’s more, she actually understood it. “He says that he’s very sorry, but there wasn’t electricity anywhere else in the city, so he had to feed off of your building.”
“He HAD to?” The pegasus burst out! “Seriously? COME ON! It didn’t even occur to him that this was private property and that he is stealing? A rare resource, at that!”
Fluttershy frowned. “At least try to understand! What if you wound up in a city, full of strange creatures, and you were in the middle of a desert, so there was no water, and you just happened to come across a building with a clean, clear pool of water on the side?”
After thinking about that for a moment, the pegasus sighed. “Okay, point given. But… he’s been on there since last night! It’s almost… what time is it, Fuse?”
A unicorn standing nearby took a look at a watch he had on. “About five.”
“It’s almost five in the afternoon! Does he really need that much? I mean, leave some water for the electric fishes, guy!”
The Magneton made more noises, and Fluttershy translated. “It points out that there are no other electric sources for miles as far as it knows, so it needs to stock up in order to be able to make a journey to a better source. Also, it clarifies that it does not have a gender, and as such wants to be referred to as gender-neutral.”
The pegasus blinked “Gender-we aren’t exactly speaking Germane, here! Our choices of gender-neutral pronouns are a bit lacking! Know what, I don’t care. Just… take it and go. And give me back my lighter.”
Fluttershy nodded and turned to Ohm. “Um, we probably should go, before we cause a ruckus, please?”
“Ohm,” Liz said, “Maybe some ponies somewhere else can find some storm clouds for you. They can push clouds around, you see.”
Ohm hesitated for a moment, and then detached from the building. The various tools and weapons fell to the ground with a racket, except for the lighter. The lighter, directed by a horseshoe magnet, floated back to the pegasus. The pegasus snatched it out of the air, muttered an insincere ‘thanks,’ and stalked off.
Fluttershy, Liz, and Ohm stepped back out of the alley to where Celestia and Twilgiht were waiting. “Very good,” Celestia said, “Fluttershy, if you could take it somewhere out of town, I think it would be a good idea. Twilight and Liz still have some things to do here.”
“We do?” Liz asked, unsure of what to make of that.
Fluttershy looked between Ohm, Celestia, and Liz before answering. “Of course. Come on, Ohm, Cica is back in Ponyville. Maybe we can find a way to get you on the train.” Ohm was unsure about this, but a reassuring wave from Liz convinced him, and he went with Fluttershy.
“Twilight,” Celestia said, her smile disappearing, “Luna is in the library right now. You are going to have to go talk to her; I’m afraid we’ve found some royal paperwork for you to do.”
Twilight “Oohed” and, much to Liz’s confusion, smiled. “I’ll go right away!” She said, and trotted off.
To her guards, princess Celestia said “Don’t worry about us,” and they dispersed in a professional manner. This left Liz alone with Celestia.
Celestia smiled again. “Liz, could you please walk with me?”