//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: My Little Pony: A Giant in Equestria // by Abyssal Angel //------------------------------// Almost as soon as I spot them, I’m spotted in return. The sounds of celebration die off as gasps fill the air. Suddenly feeling awkward and a bit on the spot, I wave sheepishly. “Um… hello… any chance any of you can tell me where I am?” I quickly realize they might not even understand me as they’re still staring. Any other thoughts I might have had are interrupted by screaming. Suddenly it’s pandemonium and chaos as the crowd of tiny multicolored equines start darting every which way trying to escape. I can hear tiny cries of “It’s a monster!” over the din and I wince. Well that could’ve gone better. A handful of the ponies seem to be trying to get the situation under control. To my utter surprise some of them even appear to be wearing armor and have horns. Unicorns? Then I’m distracted by a flock of ponies scattering skyward. With wings. Pegasi. Oh, this just gets better and better. At this point I’d rather get away from all this so the town can hopefully calm down. Unfortunately in the chaos, some ponies are actually running past my feet and I’m afraid to move lest I step on any of them. Suddenly there’s a blue and rainbow blur in front of my face, and I instinctively jerk back from the proximity. Now that I can see it better, I can identify it as a cyan blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail. That’s about all I can see before it shouts, “Get out of our town!” and promptly turns around and nails me in the nose with its back hooves. I stumble back, clutching my nose whilst simultaneously not trying to crush anything. “Ow geez! What the hell? I didn’t even do anything!” I said in a nasally accent. I think the Pegasus is about to go in for another swoop and I prepare to duck. Before I get a chance though, the little pony disappears in a gold flash and is replaced by a white pony with an aurora like mane with both wings and a horn. I flinch from the flash and the possibility of another hit coming from this significantly larger, but still tiny pony. Thankfully this one simply spoke. “I apologize for my little pony’s actions against you. They’re a bit wary after a near disastrous situation we only just recovered from this morning.” I nodded slightly, stopping with a wince when that made my nose hurt. “Ok I can understand that. Sorry to cause any problems.” I lifted my hand away from my nose slowly and spotted blood, while my nose throbbed and I muttered to myself, “Ow, geez, I think that blue one broke my nose…” “Here, allow me to fix that for you.” The white pony’s horn began to glow and with a slightly smaller flash, the pain in my nose suddenly went away. Even the blood on my hand had disappeared. I carefully tweaked my nose. When I felt no pain I smiled. “Wow, thanks! Heh, flying, talking, and now magical, ponies. What a weird dream...” The white pony smiled slightly and said, “I assure you this is no dream. You are in the land of Equestria, my domain and home for ponies as well as others. I am Princess Celestia.” Royalty? A magical, talking, flying, multicolored, Pony Princess. And this is supposedly not a dream? Granted that kick to the face really hurt, and pain doesn’t usually translate very well in my dreams, so I’m inclined to believe the Princess for now. “Ah, your highness. Um… it’s nice to meet you. My name is Matthew. You said this place is called Equestria?” Princess Celestia nodded, “I assume from your asking that you’re not from around here?” I shook my head. “I’ve no idea how I even got here. One moment I was going to bed in my apartment. Next thing I know I’m waking up in this miniature grabby forest from hell. Ah, no offense to your lands your highness…” The Princess chuckled and responded, “Not at all, Matthew. Please call me Princess Celestia. If you would, perhaps we could continue this conversation outside the village? My little ponies are still a bit wary.” I looked around and sure enough, I could see little heads and eyes peaking out from shutters and over window sills or around corners. When I looked around, some of them ducked and hid further. Only a handful (AN: Ha!) are still about, mostly a few white ponies in armor, plus another colorful group, one of which just happens to be the blue prismatic Pegasus from earlier. I nodded sheepishly, “Right. Sorry about that.” Carefully I turned around and made my way back the way I came. Princess Celestia flew forward to hover even with my shoulder at a respectful distance, and asked, “The forest you spoke of, would that be the one to the south?” Not knowing, I glanced in the direction of the forest I’d waded through, then looked up. Hopefully the sun rises in the East here too. “If you mean the one in that direction,” I pointed, “then yes.” Celestia made a clicking noise with her tongue. “I’m sorry you had to wake up in such a place. The Everfree forest is not the most friendly of places to begin with.” “If you don’t mind me asking, why don’t you just… magic the place away or something?” Celestia shook her head, “Not at all. Unfortunately, the Everfree forest is a piece of old magic and is resistant to any changes, magical or otherwise. There are attempts to push back the edges of the forest, but it is resistant and we both gain and lose ground every year.” I nodded in understanding. “Ah. Well, if you happen to need some gardening done, I wouldn’t mind trying my hand at uprooting the forest while I’m here. It might be resistant to magic, but maybe it’ll give way to some aggressive weeding. Heaven knows I’d love to give it a shot after the crap it gave me trying to get out of it.” Belatedly I added, “Ah, sorry for the language Princess.” Celestia smiled, “It’s alright. And thank you for the offer. Could you tell me about yourself? I’ve been alive a long time and I’ve never seen anything quite like you before. Perhaps if you told me about your home, I might be able to help you return there.” “Ok. Well… I’m what you call a human. I’m 26 years old. My home is an apartment in the city of –redacted- in the state of Florida. The Country I’m from is called The United States of America or USA for short. It’s comprised of 50 states. Each state is a size that ranges from small to large sized countries, and I think it’s the third largest country on the planet. Any chance any of that sounds familiar?” While I was talking, we made it outside the outskirts of town and I took a seat on a decent sized hill so I wouldn’t crush anything and rested my arms on my knees. Celestia shook her head. “I’m afraid not, Matthew. While Equestria is not large, it’s not small, and is one of the dominant countries on this planet. There are other lands such as Zebrica to the South East, the Dragon Kingdoms to the south, Saddle Arabia to the East, and the Gryphon isles to the West, but I’ve not heard of America before.” I nodded, crestfallen, “I had a feeling you wouldn’t. Humans have mapped out our entire planet very thoroughly and none of those places you mentioned are on our planet, assuming it isn’t hidden through magical means of course. For all I know Equestria could be hidden in a Pocket Dimension in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean or even in another galaxy!” I was startled by a pat on my leg, and I looked down to see a yellow Pegasus with a pink mane patting my ankle and looking up at me sadly. I smiled, wiping my face and whispered, “Thanks.” The little thing startled, and ducked her head shyly. She might’ve said something, but I could’ve just imagined it. The six ponies at the party that hadn’t been panicking, including the one that smashed my nose, had followed along and were arrayed behind the yellow Pegasus. Some guards were standing by as well, keeping their spears pointed down but still facing my direction, ready to bring them up and defend their Princess and her subjects if necessary. I can’t fault them for their vigilance and hold back a nod of approval at it. At my scrutiny, a purple unicorn trotted forward and cleared her throat nervously. “G-Greetings! I’m Twilight Sparkle! These are my friends Fluttershy,” The yellow Pegasus slowly shying away from my ankle squeaked adorably and seemed to shrink in on herself, “Applejack,” The orange one with the yellow mane and tail in a ponytail with a cowboy hat tipped said hat and said “Howdy.” “Rarity,” The white Unicorn with the stylishly curled mane and tail dipped her legs in what I can only describe as a curtsy and said, “Charmed.” “Rainbow Dash,” the cyan pegasus with the rainbow mane and tail from earlier just gave a ‘hmph’ and looked away looking sullen only to get nudged by Applejack, but Twilight just continued. “and Pinkie Pie-“ Whatever Twilight was about to say was interrupted by an explosion of Confetti and Pink as the vibrantly Pink pony assailed me with a song, welcoming me to Ponyville. At one point I think she’d fired a colorful blue cannon as well and I soon had a miniature cake in hand. (A.N. - Yes, Pinkie sang the Welcome song from the show.) I was both bewildered and amused at the Pink one’s antics, and everyone’s looks ranging from gobsmacked to resigned made me want to laugh even more. Pinkie stood on my knee, glancing between me and the cake in my hands, and said, “Weeeeeeeelllll?” she drawled it out slowly and everything. Bemused, I asked, “What?” Pinkie huffed and said, “You gotta eat the cake! How else will I know if you’ve been properly welcomed and ifyouhaven’tbeenproperlywelcomedthenwemightnotbecomefriendsandifwemightnotbecomefriendsthatwouldbesosadanditwouldbejustawfulandpeoplemightthinkyou'remeanandothersmaycryandtrytohurtyouandtheprincesswouldhavetobanishyoutothemoonandthenwe’dhaveagianthumanonthemoonandthenthemoonmightcrashandeverythingwouldbeDOOOOOOOOMED!” It took me a few seconds to process all that. Even then I’m not sure I got it all. I raised my eyebrow, now even more amused and asked, “All that just from not eating a cake?” Pinkie nodded decisively, and responded, “It may be one small step for you, but it would be a giant leap for us, so please eat the cake? Eat it!” I stared wide eyed at her. “Did you just?- No, nevermind…” I shook my head and popped the cake in my mouth. Immediately an explosion of sugar and strawberries hit my tongue. I took my time chewing it and savored the flavor, letting it easily wash away thought of random ponies randomly paraphrasing famous moon landings. With the cake being so small, it kind of reminded me of those fancy desserts you get at fancy restaurants that are made for their flavor. What were they called again? Petit something I think. As soon as I finished, I looked down only to see Pinkie staring at me expectantly. I smiled and said, “It was delicious. Thank you.” Pinkie smiled so wide her eyes closed, “You’re welcome!” She then hopped off my knee and bounced back over to her friends. I was a little worried she might get hurt by the fall, but at the last moment I thought I saw Pinkie slow just before she hit the ground. Not sure what to make of that, but hey, magical ponies right? Who knows what they can do? To my left, Princess Celestia held a hoof to her lips giggling, looking for all the world like she’s trying not to. The blue winged pony with a horn next to her was also smiling, but seemed to shrink slightly when she noticed my gaze on her, then seemed to firm up after a glance at Celestia next to her. Huh. Wonder what that’s about? Seeing my look, Princess Celestia forced herself to stop laughing and cleared her throat. “Matthew, this is my sister, Princess Luna. She just went through an ordeal so she’s not feeling too well.” I frowned slightly in concern, “Hello Princess Luna. I hope you feel better soon.” The blue Princess ducked her head a little but nodded without saying anything. Princess Celestia looked a bit worried, then turned back to me, “I’m sorry Matthew, but I must take my leave. Rest assured I will do all in my power to see you safely returned home. If I may, I would like to return and speak more with you in the coming days, as any information may help.” I understood that she wanted to get Luna home and nodded, “That’s fine. Thanks for settling things back there.” I vaguely waved back in the direction of the town square. Princess Celestia nodded happily, “You’re quite welcome.” She then turned towards the group. “Twilight Sparkle.” The purple unicorn Twilight stepped forward, “Yes Princess Celestia?” Celestia seemed to take a serious stance and spoke, “In addition to your lessons in the magic of friendship, I would like for you, and any of your friends who are willing, to watch over Matthew here and see to it he is looked after. I will leave a pair of guards here to help in this endevour. I would also like you, Twilight, to learn more about our guest here and send me reports on what you learn that I may better be able to determine where he comes from that we may send him home. Who knows, you may even gain another friend. That is, if he’s willing?” She turned to me as she said this. I nodded and said, “That’s fine. I’m perfectly willing to stick around and try not to make a nuisance of myself. I wouldn’t mind making a few friends on the way either.” Celestia gave a gracious nod, “Thank you. Until we meet again. I hope you have a wonderful time with your stay here in Equestria.” I nodded in turn, and Celestia turned and she and Luna got onto a chariot some guards drew up. Just before they left, Luna turned back to eye me, and gave a small nod of courtesy. I nodded back, wondering if she’d lost her voice. Soon after that, they were gone.