Chapter 6: Really
Remember, time travel is possible. I wonder how Einstein would have received that little bombshell. Einstein, eh? I wonder how many ponies would know of him. Probably only Tempora. Through all my adventures, through the griffon kingdoms, the dragons, the archipelago, and all that jazz, I was starting to lose bits and pieces from my old world. Sure every now and then, a little piece might pop up. A song, a phrase, a pop culture reference, but I knew that ever so slightly I had gotten used to the language and the culture of Equestria.
So much so, that one day I caught myself saying ponyisms quite naturally, without consciously debating whether or not I should stick to my own mannerisms. Sure, there were times when Harmony the human could say somebody, someone, everybody and nobody would bat an eyelid, and sure Harmonica could do the same… but I found myself slipping more and more into the tics of Harmonica and less so of Harmony. When I realised this, it felt mildly disturbing, like watching a part of me slip silently away in the night.
I wondered of these things in my spare time, in the hours of twilight when it was not yet morning or not yet night. I reflected that it was a time of brooding.
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I must have looked strange among the company I kept. Celestia sat with me on the right, Luna on the left, Discord opposite of me, with Twilight somewhat enviously staring at me, though I didn't know why.
I stroked Celestia and Luna on the head and they seemed to enjoy it, though at the beginning they initially resisted.
"Harmony," Celestia mewled adorably. "We're not foals anymore."
I gave a light-hearted chuckle, intensifying my ministrations. Luna and Celestia moaned and the remaining company started looking all degrees of embarrassed and uncomfortable. I offered it to Discord but he shook his head and waved his arms in a frantic refusal, but I noticed that it was after a disparately long hesitation. Twilight looked supremely uncomfortable when I even suggested the idea. She shook her head, her eyes going wide.
“No,” she said, glancing back at Celestia and Luna. “No… thank you…”
I shrugged and went on to belly rubs and the like. The sisters were putty before my fingers. Luckily, the carriage was first class, reserved specifically for royalty. I raised my eyebrows at that, but Celestia had insisted that the carriage was a gesture on behalf of the railroad services, after a generous donation and expansion funded by the Royal Treasury and partly from Celestia’s personal fund.
As the train car ride started, the questions flooded through too.
“So,” Twilight began, in the silence that ensued, save for the moans of pleasure from Celestia and Luna. She tried to keep eye-contact with me, but every so often her pupils slid sideways to stare at my fingers. She kept her focus admirably, though. “How did you meet Princess Celestia and Luna?”
I shrugged. “Didn’t they ever tell you? I would think that the history books would have mentioned something about it.”
Twilight glanced around. Everypony had frozen in their seats. Suspiciously, I glanced at each of them.
Twilight cleared her throat. “I thought you could shed some light on the issue, you see most of the record from the past was destroyed during Di–“
“Well would you look at that!” Discord interrupted, gesticulating out the window. “You can see the rainbow falls of Cloudsdale from here!” Twilight rolled her eyes but peeked out the window anyway. She loved to watch the rainbow falls from Cloudsdale every time she rode the train to the Crystal Empire.
Luna shifted in her seat to give me access to the window. I sighed and made my way to the window. To be fair, it was an amazing sight. Think rainbows that you see normally, except more intense in colour than you would ever imagine and then those colours plastered all over the skies. It was pretty breathtaking to be honest.
“All right,” I said. “This was worth seeing.”
After a while, we lapsed into a somewhat awkward silence. I came up with an idea.
“Anypony want to play old maid?”
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We ended up playing some serious poker, instead. I had to give it to Discord, his conjuration magic was top notch. I sniffed the chips. They had a hint of something extra, something multi-focal magic didn’t have. I heard a throat clear loudly.
“Your turn Harmony,” Discord prompted me. He held his cards loosely in his hands.
Sweat beaded on my brow as I considered the odds. They weren’t good considering I have a queen and a three. The flop gave me a low pair. Chance of getting a royal was roughly two-thirds, even less for a queen.
I tested the waters.
“Five bits,” I challenged, throwing the chip onto the table with a plink. A somewhat calm smile spread across Discord’s lips as he called my chips almost nonchalantly. Was he playing me? I didn’t know. Dang it.
“Fold,” I muttered in disgust. Discord cheered and flipped his hand, taunting me with a whole load of nothing. I growled muted oaths under my breath.
“You win this round,” I conceded. I flicked a gaze to Twilight who looked a little smug, considering.
“Yeah, yeah,” I said, waving at the unicorn. “Just because you didn’t want to play doesn’t mean you can judge me.” Twilight still kept that grin on her face. I ignored her at that point.
“One more round!” Celestia and Luna exchanged glances as I battled Discord again.
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I lost, by the way. Though I blame the luck of the draw. Also, I’m fairly sure that Discord cheated. Somehow. I shook my head doggedly. As the game wrapped up, I went back to stroking Celestia and Luna, if only to see Twilight’s uncomfortable expression replacing that smug one she had earlier.
After a couple of minutes, Discord loudly announced we were in the Crystal Empire. He yawned, stretched and complained that he should have teleported all of us there, it would have been quicker. Celestia explained that the last time he did that, things… they looked at me as they hastily amended the statement, happened. I wasn’t really happy about being kept out of the loop, but I kind of accepted now, it annoyed me, but I understood that knowing about the future and changing the past was a dangerous proposition.
Anyway, we made our way towards the Crystal Palace, which was as impressive as it sounded. Also, no kidding that the Crystal Empire lived up to its name. There were crystals everywhere. Crystal walls, crystal doors, crystal ponies… I kid you not, crystal ponies. I don’t even see how that worked. Apparently, or so I was told via a helpful exposition from Twilight, the Crystal Heart was some ancient artefact that somehow allowed for that to manifest itself like that. I don’t get it, but that’s how it is.
As we approached the palace, my mouth hanging open most of the way, the surrounding ponies gave us a curious look. I guess seeing the Royal Sisters, Discord, Twilight and an unknown creature walking around might have sparked their interest. It was refreshing to see the looks of befuddlement and curiosity. It reminded me of the first time I arrived in Equestria. Gosh, now that I thought about it, that was a long time ago. I skipped a step thinking about it.
“Something wrong, Harmony?” Luna asked me, her face scrunched with concern. I shook my head. “No,” I replied hesitantly. “Just… something on my mind.”
Luna nodded sagely and broke off, trotting ahead.
“I’m going ahead,” she called back to us. “I have to address a rising need…”
I turned to Celestia. “You know, she used to be so cute when she asked me for permission to go to the toilet. I guess it’s a foal-thing.” Celestia rolled her eyes at me. I chuckled. “Yeah,” I continued. “It’s certainly less endearing now than it was when she was a foal.”
As we approached the Crystal Palace, Discord snapped away, leaving a disembodied voice behind. “I think I will sit this one out.” I looked around in surprise. That was a new trick. “See you later, Harmony.” Twilight mumbled something under her breath but I just shrugged and continued to follow Celestia’s lead.
“Now Harmony, I know you’ve been waiting for this moment and from the tale you’ve told us, I understand why you’d want to see her.” She gave me a sympathetic look. “Bear in mind though, Princess Cadence does not know who you are, so please don’t get too disappointed.” I nodded mutely. What could I say to that? Celestia was right, even if Cadance knew who I was she had every right to refuse seeing me. Our fates that briefly twined together was only temporary. It was only fate that brought us back together in the distant future that allowed another chance meeting to occur. I should be grateful.
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We waited in line to see the Royal couple. Twilight insisted on this, although I felt she would defer to Celestia if she chose to cut the line and move to the front. I stayed patient, even though I was rearing to go. A little wait was better than never seeing Cadance again. I told myself that waiting a little longer was worth it. So I passed the time with some whistling.
*Pffftt* *pfffffffffffft*
Did I ever tell you I couldn’t whistle?
*Pfftttttttt*
“Will you stop that?!”
‘Cause I can’t.
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After achieving the goal of annoying Twilight again, I stayed silent and waited in the line like any normal human would. As any normal human would know, that involved conversation.
“So,” I began, to which I was met with a fierce glare from Twilight. Seems like she wanted me to stay silent. Nope! “What’s your job?”
Twilight still looked a little annoyed but she answered the question anyway. “As I’ve stated before, I’m the Princess’ student and I’m also Ponyville’s local librarian.”
I nodded. “A librarian and a student. Looks like you have a love for books.”
Twilight finally smiled. Probably the most genuine smile I’ve seen for the last few hours. “Yes,” she chirped, her eyes positively sparkling with bibliophilic fervour. “Books are the best!”
“Hang on,” I said, scrounging around in my pockets. “I think I have something on that topic.” I was sure I brought it along. I sighed. Maybe not. I was hoping a smartphone was on me but I think I left it behind. Oh well, the sensitive electronics could have been damaged by the thaumic interaction anyway. Plus, Dad’s invention had some serious lightning effects as well. “Never mind,” I eventually muttered and shrugged. “I left it back home.”
Celestia looked puzzled for a moment, then her eyes cleared. “Oh! Are you talking about your computer?” I looked at her in surprise, it wasn’t exactly what I was talking about but I was surprised she knew about it.
“Hang on,” I said. “I thought I only showed Discord my computer. It wasn’t even working at the time.”
Celestia smiled at the memory. “Mother showed us some of the technology from your world.” She grinned. “It was very impressive.”
Before I could say anything in response to that the line lurched forward and I realised we were at the head of the queue. The guards nodded to Twilight and I and bowed deeply to Celestia. The doors slowly swung open, lit with a gentle luminous glow that was mirrored by their horns. The guards to either side of the door saluted us and I walked in to the royal court, trailing Celestia for the introductions.
We made our way to the dais, stopping a good way from it as we waited for the chamberlain to announce us.
“Announcing Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle and Harmony,” the grey coloured stallion called out, reading from a levitating scroll. He bowed to the Princess and Prince sitting on the throne and stalked out.
I looked at the couple curiously. When I heard Cadence was married I was expecting the Prince to be an alicorn, but I guess I was mistaken because the white-coated stallion was just a unicorn. If I had my family trees right, that stallion was Twilight’s brother. If her brother was anything like Twilight I knew we would probably have a problem.
Cadence and her husband approached us, all smiles. She spoke first, addressing me.
“Ah,” she greeted warmly. “You must be Harmony. I’ve received forewarning of your request to see me and I’m curious to find out why.” Her husband cleared his throat. “Oh but where are my manners?! I am Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, you can just call me Cadance.” She gestured to her husband. “This is Prince Shining Armor, my husband. He used to be Captain of the Royal Guard.” At the introduction Shining nodded at me, giving me a polite smile. I sensed it was a little less genuine than Cadance’s… or was that my imagination?
Celestia cleared her throat. “Princess Cadance.”
“Auntie.”
“It has been a long journey, and there are still petitioners outside, might we retire in one of the guest rooms and convene later?”
Cadance looked surprised and then grinned ruefully. “Yes, yes. Of course. Notify the steward and he will direct you to appropriate accommodations.” She turned to Twilight, grinning spectacularly.
The next thing that happened left me flabbergasted and with a healthy dose of awkwardness.
“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves and do a little shake!”
I gaped at Celestia. “What’s this?” I made a helpless gesture. “What is this?!”
Celestia giggled at my mortified expression. “Princess Cadance used to be Twilight’s foal-sitter. This is a small song they made up together to get closer to each other.”
I stared at Twilight. Without turning, “How does Twilight know so many ponies in power? Just who exactly is this mare?”
Celestia gave me a teasing grin. “I’m sure if you ask Mother back in your time, you’d know the answer.”
“Uhuh. So she’s got a pretty heavy destiny, this one?”
Celestia nodded, her expression unexpectedly tinged with a hint of sadness. “Yes,” she whispered, so that only I could hear. “More than she knows.”