//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: Discussion // Story: Fabrication // by Bomber //------------------------------// The already fatigued human was caught by a pair of pegasi guards in only a matter of moments. Despite getting a decent amount of sleep, Blake was still exhausted from the events that took place in the course of the last few days. He quickly found out that his legs would barely respond under physical exertion, and it was because of this he was inevitably captured with ease. “Ha! Gotcha!” one of the guards exclaimed as he tackled Blake onto the ground. “Congrats,” Blake mumbled, feeling the wind knocked out of him. Lyra and her six companions caught up to the scene the instant that Blake was forced onto the polished floor. Both Rainbow Dash and Pinkie began to fill with laughter at the sight of the struggling human. Lyra sighed as she was disappointed in the fact that Blake even dared to attempt such an idiotic thing. She knew that this would certainly not help his case in trying to gain his freedom. “Alright, it’s back to the ‘guest room’ with you, buddy,” the guard that tackled him said in a rough tone. Together, the two pegasi forced the human back onto his feet and began leading him through the castle interior, not allowing him to take a step out of line. Surprisingly, Blake allowed the guards to drag him. He wasn’t attempting to fight back, and he wasn’t suddenly falling into a state of trauma. As the guards were about to round a corner, they were halted by the Princess of the Night herself who must have coincidently been passing by. “What are you doing with him, may I ask?” Luna queried, motioning at Blake with one of her hooves. “We found him outside the guest room without permission, Your Highness. He tried running but we caught up to him in no time at all,” the other guard replied, standing firm like he had just captured some big prize. “I see,” Luna said, trotting around the guards. “If both of you would just follow me and bring him to the dining hall, that would be splendid. My sister and I would like to try to converse with him again.” When she noticed the other seven ponies watching everything unfold, she continued, “And you all may come too if any of you are hungry.” They all nodded, accompanying the princess as she cantered lithely through the hallways. Any passersby glanced curiously at Blake as they trotted, as the sight of him was still so new and otherworldly to any of the ponies who hadn’t seen him before. It wasn’t going to be long before the rumor spread throughout the city that an alien was residing within the Canterlot Castle. Either it may cause an uproar, or it may cause the entire city population to flood inside the castle, trying to get a glimpse at the being from another world, or maybe even another universe. They made it into the dining hall, where it was completely devoid of any life besides the other co-ruler of Equestria. Celestia was levitating a small cup of tea, gently blowing on it, trying to cool off the piping-hot drink. “I see that my little ponies are finally able to join me this fine morning,” Celestia smiled, taking a sip from her tea. “Guards, you may let go of the human. I doubt he’ll be doing any harm.” The two pegasi nodded in acknowledgment, and let Blake go from their iron grips, pushing him lightly. Blake stumbled forward a bit, but quickly regained his balance. The guards smirked, inciting Blake into sticking up his middle finger towards the guards. They bore looks of confusion, as they didn’t understand the gesture. Blake grinned, turning his attention away from his previous captors. “You may now leave the room, Captain Steele and Private Pyros,” Celestia said, dismissing the guards. They bowed their heads in respect and left the dining hall. There were now only ten individuals in dining hall, a significant difference from the first time Blake ate a meal in here. This only added to Lyra’s ever growing list of questions. Why would Celestia dismiss all of her guards? It would only make her more vulnerable to attack from the unstable human. “You must be either very trustworthy or very foolish if you’re gonna shoo off all of your soldiers like that,” Blake stated. “I’ve lived for over a thousand years,” Celestia said, taking another sip of tea. “I’ve learned many defensive spells that can leave you completely immobile until I call off the spell. I’ve also even learned ones that can set you aflame.” She leaned in closer. “I think I know a thing or two about self-defense.” “Touché,” Blake said, seating himself onto a random chair. “But princess, I thought that the human was immune to any forms of magic—” Twilight interjected before Lyra stuffed a hoof into her mouth, cutting her off from saying anything else that would give Blake any suspicious ideas. Once Twilight calmed down, Lyra removed her hoof and seated herself next to Blake. The rest of the ponies were quick to find their own seats around the now shortened dining table. “Ooh! Hay fries, my favorite!” Pinkie said cheerfully, stuffing her face with numerous amounts of food. “Hay fries?” Blake asked. He stared into the plate of food that lay before him. It was nothing but a huge pile of crispy hay. “You mean as in actual hay?” “Yeah. Is there something wrong with that?” Lyra asked. Blake pushed the plate away, and then reached for the pile of fruit that sat in the middle of the table. He grabbed a juicy looking pear and examined it. “Hay is something that I can’t really digest,” he answered, taking an enormous bite out of the green fruit. “Well ya can’t just be eatin’ fruit all the time,” Applejack said. “Why don’t you try a daffodil sandwich? Ya can’t go wrong with that.” The orange cowpony slid a plate containing a delicious sandwich across the table, stopping directly in front of the human. He looked at it suspiciously with one eyebrow raised. He lifted one piece of bread to more fully examine the contents in between the two pieces of bread. Looking unsatisfied, he slid the plate away from him as well, taking an extra bite from the pear. “Same thing applies with flowers,” Blake explained. “I can’t eat it unless I want to spend hours in the bathroom puking vigorously.” “You didn’t seem to have this problem with this wonderful selection of food last time, darling,” Rarity noticed. “I guess it was just stuff that I could eat without getting an upset stomach,” Blake shrugged. “Do you have any particular requests for a meal?” Luna asked. “After all, you are our… um, how should I say it… you’re our special guest, and I’m sure the castle chefs can prepare a meal in no time.” Blake pondered for a moment before replying, “I could go for a hamburger right about now.” The Princess of the Night eyeballed him curiously. “What is this hamburger you speak of? It is something that I have never heard before.” “Makes sense that you wouldn’t know what it is. It’s something from my world, after all. I was just hoping that there was a chance that you guys would have them here too. If that’s not an option, then I guess a nice, thick steak would do me good,” Blake requested, hoping that his choice would be available. “I’m afraid that I don’t what steak is either,” Luna said, trying to figure out what kind of strange foods Blake was talking about. Blake suddenly looked depressed. “You seriously don’t have steak?” he sighed. “Well, you’ve got to at least have bacon.” Luna shook her head, not understanding anything that he was saying. “There’s no bacon here?!” Blake exclaimed. “Mother of God... Wait a second… I’m suddenly getting this strong vibe that ponies are herbivorous. Dammit, I should’ve figured since ponies are plant eaters back home too.” “Yeah, ponies are herbivorous,” Twilight confirmed, nibbling on her stack of hay fries. “Well that sucks,” Blake said, finishing off his last bits of his pear. Once he felt it was finished, he set the core on the plate of hay fries. He wiped off his hands on his clothes, trying to get rid of all the stickiness of the fruit. “Why is that?” Lyra asked, almost afraid to say the question, because she was almost positive of what the answer was. “Humans are naturally omnivorous,” Blake said, causing all the ponies to stop what they were doing and turn over their attention to him, either with faces of disgust or mouths gaped wide open. “So yeah, we eat both plants and animals. I can tell by your reactions that you think that this is sick and wrong. Whatever you may think, I just want to let you know that I don’t really care. Unfortunately, meat is necessary in the human diet, and it is unhealthy for us to quit at any given time. If worse comes to worse, then fine, I can change my diet so that I become a vegetarian if it really upsets you all that much. It’s possible for humans to not eat meat; it’s just that it’s not recommended.” Fluttershy looked as if she was about to have a heart attack. “But what about all of those poor animals?” she asked, on the verge of tearing up. “How can anypony be so cruel as to eat such cute little critters?” Blake shrugged his shoulders. “It’s not our fault we crave the flesh of other animals,” he said as if it were no big deal. “But doesn’t it torture ya’ll when ya hear the screams of innocent critters when ya kill ‘em?” Applejack asked, astonished. Blake chuckled quietly as if he had just remembered a funny joke. “Erm… no. Animals where I come from aren’t exactly sentient. Like ponies, for example, can’t talk and communicate the same say you guys do. They can’t build houses or fly or do magic or anything. They’re simply just… ponies. Nothing more, nothing less.” “So, humans are the only sentient creatures where you come from?” Twilight asked. “Yep, all seven billion of us,” Blake replied. “Wow… that’s a lot of humans,” Twilight said. “Indeed,” Blake agreed. “Blake, I kinda just need to know… do humans eat ponies?” Lyra asked. Blake laughed. “No, you don’t need to worry, most humans don’t eat ponies. Honestly, I think that pony meat would be completely disgusting.” “So you’ve never eaten a pony before?” Lyra asked. “Never,” Blake assured. Everypony in the room let out an enormous sigh of relief. Blake smiled and leaned back against his chair. This then reminded Lyra that this was actually the first time that Blake was openly talking to ponies other than her, even if it wasn’t the most desired subject. Was Blake finally beginning to have a change of heart? Was he finally becoming more trusting of other ponies? Or maybe it was just that he needed a few days to adjust to a new world. Whatever the case, Lyra was happy that the human could finally come forth with open arms. “I have one quick question,” Dash declared. “Something’s just been bugging at me for the past couple minutes, and I need to ask something.” “Fire away,” Blake said. “Do you eat meat raw?” Dash asked. “No, for a few a few reasons,” Blake said. “One, we’re not that barbarous. We don’t just kill like a bird or something and then stuff it into our mouths. That’s just… weird. Two, raw meat is just plain disgusting and it’s hard to swallow. And three, raw meat tends to have a lot of bacteria that will give us nasty diseases if we don’t kill it off first. So yeah, we always cook our meat before we eat it, because the heat kills off most of the bacteria and such.” “Does this rule apply to all humans?” Dash asked. “Hell no. It varies from where you are in the world. Different cultures lead to different styles of food. I know that there a few places where people in Africa will eat bugs, because they hardly have anything else to eat. It’s very unfortunate, but that’s life for ya. It sucks.” “Blake, I have so many questions about your world,” Twilight said, levitating an enormous checklist in front of her face to study. “First of all, do you—” “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Blake interrupted, holding up both of his hands to signal the purple unicorn to shut her mouth. “That scroll must be a mile long. I understand that you’re very interested in well, me, but we’ll be here for days if I try to explain every question that you must have on there in full detail. Also, I’m not a walking encyclopedia. I highly doubt that I can answer everything that you have for me either. I’m just one person, and my knowledge is very limited to only stuff I’ve learned in school, which I’m not even close to finishing yet.” “But the princess told me—” “I don’t know what she told you, but whatever it is, it’s probably wrong. Again, I don’t know everything about my world. Not even close to that. I mean, I’m only one individual. For example, what if I tried to ask you about every single little detail about your society and different cultures work here in… uh, Equestria? I’m sure you couldn’t do it, right?” “Yeah, I suppose so,” Twilight said, drooping her head a tad. “So now you understand what kind of position you’re trying to put me in. Please, for now, let’s just stick to one subject for the time being. It’s not like ponies are the only ones with questions here. I have plenty myself, but I can worry about that later,” Blake said. He then turned to the two co-rulers of Equestria, gesturing in their direction. “I assume that there is a reason you two decided to bring me here instead of stuffing me back into that disguised cell,” “Yes, there is, as a matter of fact,” Luna said. “We would like to discuss your future here in Equestria.” “My future?” Blake repeated. “Both Princess Luna and I have been discussing for the past few days about what we should do with you,” Celestia clarified. “As much as we would like to keep you here for the rest of eternity, mainly so we can study and learn from you, we figured that basically we would be keeping you imprisoned for your entire life. That wouldn’t be fair, to keep a soul captured like that when it hasn’t done anything wrong.” “You obviously don’t know what I’ve done, then,” Blake mumbled quietly, only loud enough for Lyra to hear. “So we’ve decided that we should talk to you about how you would like to go about your life,” Celestia continued. “But before you speak, know that under your current circumstances, we can’t exactly let you go free right away. You’re still too unpredictable, and I don’t want to risk you harming any of my little ponies, whether you mean to or not.” “I guess I understand. To be honest, I don’t really trust myself either at the moment,” Blake said. “I remember you saying just a second ago that you were still in school. Is that correct?” Luna asked, making sure she heard right. “Yeah, I still got two years of high school left, and then I head out to either a college or university. The amount of time I spend there depends on what I want to do for a living. It could be from anywhere between two to eight years,” Blake said. “But that seems so late to be figuring out what you want to do for the rest of your life,” Twilight said. “What do you mean by that?” Blake asked. “Ponies find their special talent while they’re still just children. It’s normally then that pony decides what they’d like to do for a career or occupation when they get older. Our Cutie Marks even show what our special talent is,” Twilight said, pointing towards her Cutie Mark. “So is that like some sort of inauguration or something?” Blake asked. “When a pony finds out what they’re good at, you tattoo some sort of symbol on their ass to signify that?” “Nah, it just sorta appears,” Applejack said. “Just like that?” Blake asked, snapping his fingers for emphasis. “Just like that,” Applejack said. “Well, I have to say, that’s really… what’s the word I should say… interesting,” Blake said, scratching his chin. “Wait… what’s a tattoo?” Lyra asked. “In a sense, it’s similar to a Cutie Mark,” Blake said, feeling awkward about saying “Cutie Mark”. “But it doesn’t magically appear. How we do it is that we inject hundreds of tiny little nails filled with ink into our skin. It then comes out as some sort of design like your Cutie Marks.” “That must hurt a lot,” Dash figured. “I’m pretty sure they do,” Blake said. “I guess I’ll never find out though, since I’ve never really been a big fan of them.” “I think we’re starting to get a little off topic now,” Luna interrupted, trying to halt the conversation that was veering from its original course. “So let’s start back where we were before, and work our way from there, shall we?” Blake nodded his head in agreement. “So you said that you were still in school?” Luna asked again for the second time. “Yep,” Blake replied again for the second time. “If you’d like to, you may stay here at the castle until you finish your studies. If you can stay on good behavior during that time, then we will let you go wherever you’d like to without a fuss,” Luna began. “In the meantime, we’ll have our researchers begin to look for a way to bring you back to your home. We don’t know how long it will take, but I’m sure that—” “Who said that I wanted to go back home?” Blake challenged. “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand,” Celestia said with a frown. “I thought that you would want to return back from where you came from as soon as possible. Would you care to explain why you want to stay?” Blake didn’t reply, as his eyes began watering up. He covered his eyes with his hands, wiping away any tears that attempted to stream down his face. Lyra herself suddenly felt mellow, just as Blake was. The other ponies in the room watched the crying human with awe, not muttering even a whisper. They knew that Blake was emotionally unstable, but Lyra was the only pony that knew why he would suddenly change moods. So, Lyra began retelling every memory-dream that she had over the course of the last several days, explaining them in extreme detail. The reactions from the listeners varied from pony to pony, but most of them were either frightened, scared, or didn’t comprehend. Blake’s story, Lyra knew, was very dark. There wasn’t a single book or novel that she had ever read that was frightening as the challenges Blake had to overcome. The tale took a little over an hour, and she wasn’t once interrupted. “So you see,” Lyra concluded, “that he doesn’t have any place to return to. Like I said before, his family was… executed, and he’s been trying to cope with this for the past while. He’s been suffering from PTSD, and you all have seen how that’s been affecting him. It also explains why he has either sudden emotional or violent outbursts anytime somepony says or does something to trigger any memories.” The mint-green unicorn drank a large glass of water in one go, because her mouth was as barren as a desert from talking for so long. “It makes sense,” Twilight said, jotting down several notes on a rather large scroll. The purple unicorn had been recording everything Lyra had said to the letter. “I agree,” Luna said, looking as if she were taking mental notes in her head. “Is there any way to relieve him from this horrid disorder?” Rarity asked. “The poor thing must be tearing himself up from the inside-out.” Nine pairs of eyes turned towards Blake, who was staring into the ceiling, lost in his own river of thoughts. He had said nothing in the past hour, and it was likely he wasn’t listening to their conversation at all. It was almost like he was dead, as he lay unmoving. The only sign to signal that he was still alive was the steady beat of his chest rising and falling. “I’ve noticed that he’s slowly been getting better over the time he’s spent here,” Lyra stated. “Unfortunately, I think the only thing that will mend his PTSD is time. I believe that he’ll fall into these states of depression periodically over the next month or so. However, I’m pretty sure they’ll start becoming few and far in between when he can finally bring his senses to reality, and to also forget about the past and live in the present. Maybe the best thing to do for now is to try and find things to keep his mind occupied so that he doesn’t try to remember his recent memories.” “And that’s one of the reasons why we were planning to have him study in the castle library,” Luna said. “But I must ask, why didn’t you tell us what you’ve been learning about him until now?” “Because, I’ve still been trying to piece it together,” Lyra said. “I only relive his memories while I’m asleep, and even then it’s still only a small fragment of it. The memories can be anywhere from ten to thirty minutes long, and it’s complicated trying to figure out everything that was going on. It’s like reading one page of a book, skipping ten pages, then continue reading. Then you try to figure out what happened between that portion of the book. I bet it would get rather confusing. I’ve just been thinking about this long and hard, and I didn’t really finish putting together the puzzle this morning when I talked with him.” “How did you do that?” Twilight asked, not believing her. “I thought he was in his room all day. Well, until he picked the lock and escaped, that is.” “Long story short, I can communicate with him telepathically,” Lyra said. Twilight’s jaw almost hit the floor. “But how?” she asked. “Telepathy is something that even I can’t do yet!” “Again, it’s a long story. And I’d rather not explain how for private reasons,” Lyra said. “Okay…” Twilight said, still not convinced. “Oh yes, my dear sister has told me about your bond with Blake,” Celestia said. “Something like this hasn’t happened in over a few centuries. This is very intriguing if I do say so myself.” “I know, but the idea I can do something like this still seems extremely farfetched,” Lyra said. “Can you control this telepathy?” Celestia asked. “No, I can’t,” Lyra sighed. “It happens at random times, but the times that it happens have been increasing lately. Even though I can’t now, I’m sure that I’ll be able to do it in the future.” “I don’t believe you,” Twilight said firmly. “I don’t mean to brag, but I’ve been studying the highest levels of magic for most of my life! And the few times I’ve tried a telepathy spell, I only end up getting an enormous headache for an entire week. How is it possible that you can just randomly perform this spell without getting any side effects?” “I honestly have no clue. But can I convince you if Blake confirms that he can communicate telepathically with me as well?” Lyra asked. “I really don’t want this argument to go on much longer. I don’t really see a point to it.” “Fine,” Twilight said in a gruff tone. Lyra softly poked at Blake several times with her hoof, trying to get his attention. He didn’t respond, as his body continued to lay unmoving as if he were a living statue. Come on Blake, snap out of it, Lyra thought. What do you want? His thought rang through her mind like a bell. Lyra smiled, knowing that she got him to snap out of his trance. Is that all? Whatever. Blake sat upright in his chair. His eyes had the faintest hues of red still residing within them. He rubbed them, which must’ve stung at least a little. His gaze scanned across the room. “Which one’s Twilight, again?” he asked, scratching his head. Lyra pointed towards the purple unicorn in reply. Blake’s eyes locked with hers. He inhaled before saying, “Yes, we can communicate through our minds. Now you know.” He then placed his elbows on the table, clenching his two hands together and resting his head on top of it. Twilight huffed, clearly bemused. She muttered several words under her breath. “I guess that settles that little debate, then,” Lyra said, happy to get it over with. “Blake, since you’re finally back with us, would you mind joining this conversation again?” Luna asked. He shrugged, obviously not caring. “We haven’t received a reply from you yet.” “About what?” Blake asked, not moving to meet the princess’ gaze. “Whether or not you’d like to study here at the castle for the time being,” Luna said. “When I think about it, it seems like I hardly have any other options,” Blake said. “I doubt that anybody would hire me if I tried to get a job, until word spreads around that there’s an alien living among them. Maybe it actually would be possible if you two pulled the strings a little, but I’m sure that any of my co-workers would feel weary around me. Now that I consider it, I guess it’s the best idea to just stay here for a while until all the other ponies feel comfortable around me or whatever. So yeah, I’ll study here for a while. It’s not like I have anything better to do.” “Then I guess it’s settled,” Celestia said. “Welcome to Equestria.”