//------------------------------// // Decisions // Story: Reasons For Home // by Sera-Pony //------------------------------// CHAPTER 3: DECISIONS I was almost disappointed at not being woken up in the middle of the night (first time that has ever happened in my life, mind you). Not a single peep from the radio systems through the whole night. Due to my change in location, and the ships still fairly tight design, I had no alarm clocks to wake me up in the morning. As a result it was already fairly late upon my awakening. I started my morning, well morning in relative to having just woken up anyway, as part of a new routine. After a few minutes I had injected myself with stimulants, sent out another broadcast for help, and was resting in the office chair next to the radio console, ready for my day to begin. Despite that to an outside observer I probably looked very relaxed in the moderatly comfy chair, I was still worried over the video I had seen yesterday. It was not so much what the video contained that was really messing with my head, but the fact that I could not really remember whether the video was even reality or some sort of dream, or hallucination like those ponies from the days before. Even after the stimulant had finished its job, and I was feeling well, and a little bit restless I was determined to remain in the radio room. I was still eagerly awaiting the call that would change the rest of my life for the better. Perhaps my life could have been different, perhaps someone may have even ended up calling in asking for my coordinates had it not been for the innate stubborn trait of these "hallucinations" to keep existing despite my eternal arguments. It was fairly late into the afternoon when I began to hear some sort of thumping sound on the outside of the ship. I figured that, due to the fact that the ship had just landed on soft ground, and sat there for much longer than it was designed, it would be making some thumping sounds over time so I thought little to nothing of the sound, and continued with the important task of shuffling through radio frequencies. It was not until long after thumping from outside the ship stopped that I finally decided that obeying my stomach's pleas for food were no longer able to be ignored. With impeccable timing, just as I stood up and began to make my way into the main hallway, a unicorn "hallucination" teleported straight into my path... The sudden appearance of that... thing shook me up quite a bit, and took food off of my mind for another few minutes. .....The universe.... It does not like letting me get tasty food..... “What are you doing in here?!? The unicorn wasted no time in starting conversation "Yesterday you said you would be outside waiting for us!” Her voice was a bit distressed, and she was quite quickly. I was taken aback by that. I had promised that I would meet them outside? I did soon remember what I had said the night before, but it was still not of importance. There was a far more important question at hand “How, and why the heck did you get in here!” I asked, feeling suddenly insecure inside the large ship with multiple locked, airtight doors. I truly want to know what my life would have ended up as if the ponies had just been nice, and stayed figments of my imagination. I can assure you though, I've been off of those stims for a while now, and am quite healthy enough to assure you. They were not in any form, shape, or way fake. Nevertheless; had they not existed, and instead humanity was still kicking I could have ended up having quite a better day. “I teleported myself in. I'm sorry, but I had no other choice! I tried everything that I could. I even tried knocking on your door, and sending off bolts of light to get your attention!” She rapidly scanned the surfaces of the radio centre, until her eyes stopped on the digital clock embedded above the radio. After seeing the time she then said, “You need to hurry, Princess celestia is waiting outside to speak to you right now!" PAUSE: Did she just say princess? As in royalty? “Princess?” I asked for a repetition, feeling that I may have misunderstood. Heck, I was wishing that I had misunderstood. “Yes, Princess Celestia, the ruler of the sun. I told her about you, your ship, and your stories about humanity in a letter that I sent to her yesterday night. She was so intrigued by what I said about you and your ship that she was standing outside my door practically demanding for me to take her to you. And now I am wasting time explaining this while she is waiting!” “So... Is this the same princess that, according to you, raises the sun and the moon every day?” I inquired, not wanting to meet the type of person who would tell their subjects such a lie. If one thing had not changed in that video it was that the sun had not stopped moving. “Yes, that is her. She might get impatient if you make her wait too long... We have to hurry!" She was still glancing between myself, and the clock. Her actions were scaring me, This was definitely not a "nice" leader. "Ok, you go ahead and tell this princess that I am coming out." I stated. "I need to get... prepared to see her." By prepared I meant that I needed both food, and weapons. I had still not eaten breakfast, and I definitely was not going to go out into the open with that "sun goddess" with no forms of protection. Due to how nervous, and jittery Twilight was acting I guessed that I was going to need to be very careful. Despite the fact that I had never met one, I was pretty sure that I did not mingle well with tyrants who think they are gods. “Great! Please hurry, I will tell her that you will be out here soon.” Twilight said with a grin. She sounded very relieved at finally having something proactive to report. Her horn was soon glowing, and with a flash, and a jaw dropping onto the floor, she teleported out. As soon Twilight had finished teleporting, and I got my jaw off the floor, I ran straight to the kitchens as fast as the narrow hallways would let me. As soon as I reached my destination I hastily began to search for anything useful, whether it be food or some sort of a weapon. Being the room of microwaves it was; all I found inside of the "Kitchens'' was a bunch of useless, cheap, plastic, and very dull knives. I did however find some food in the same place it had been for the entire trip. Grabbing a handful of dry cereal, and hastily spreading it onto a piece of bread (I am a great chef) I made my way to the pod room, still moving as fast as I could. If I could not get a useful knife than I needed some sort of weapon to replace it. The contents of the emergency kit inside the pod room would not have made good weapons either. Lighter; could work, but not really. a few doses of emergency stimulants; again not really feasible as a weapon, and I needed them for the future. Scissors! They were large enough to at least do a bit of damage. I quickly stashed them in my pants pocket, and continued looting the box for something else of use. The only real thing of use I found was the flares. Although probably useless for injuring anything, they could make a pretty good distraction. I grabbed a few of them, and stored them in my pants pockets, just alongside the scissors. The next thing I did was to go to the bedrooms, and check my appearance in one of the mirrors. Although I doubted that my opinion on clothing, and appearance would be appreciated by royalty; it was still worth the effort. As soon as I finished making sure that I looked civilized, and that my weapons were well hidden in my pants pockets; I made my way to the airlock. I was panicking a little bit as I opened the front door. A thousand "last minute" questions began to run through my head. Most of them had to do with self defence. Was there anything else I could have with me? Was I overlooking some sort of weakness? What if I had to leave the ship? The panic increased tenfold when I entered the space between the airlock doors, and a hundredfold when I began opening the external airlock. Despite all of the thoughts, and the general panic inside of my head I was looking, and standing straight up as the outer airlock door began to open. As it reached the point that I could see through it I was met eye to eye with a pony unlike any of the ones I had met up to that point. The first thing I noticed was that we were meeting eye to eye without me looking down. This pony was as tall, if not taller than a normal horse. The very next thing I noticed was the incredibly strange hair. The hair on all the ponies I had seen were certainly strange, but all could have been done on a human with some hair dye. This was different; The princesses hair was not only translucent, but it was almost flowing through the air as if it was some sort of liquid. There was no wind, but it was waving around like a flag. The final thing I took note of before events began to occur was that this pony had not only a abnormally long horn on its head, It had a fairly large pair of wings on its back! Flying magic pony with wavy hair.... I was in a 6 year old girl's dreams for sure. Despite all my expectations, stepping out of the pod was not dramatic by any means. The only one of the group standing outside of the pod that really noticed my arrival was the hair-flowy one, much to my liking, I was never much for being the center of attention. Therefore it was rather unfortunate when the... Hairy... one decided that I was meant to be the center of attention, and bluntly pointed out my arrival. "Excuse me Twilight, Is the the creature that you described in your letters," Said Celestia. This question served two purposes: Actually being a question, and getting the entire group to immediately begin staring at me. “You are correct.” said Twilight, after looking up at me. “I am very sorry you had to wait for so long for him to come out.” “Don't fret. I have plenty of time set in todays schedule for this... Meeting.” The "Princess of the sun" then turned her head so that it was facing me, and began speaking. “Hello, and welcome to Equestria!, My name is Princess Celestia. My sister Luna, and I govern this land, and ensure lasting peace and prosperity for our subjects. Would you mind telling me your name?” My god... Did one of the ponies just address me without leaving me in a state of amazement or confusion? For the first time in what seemed like a week I was actually able to speak without thinking. “Hello Celestia, I am Lewis Jameson..... Also I am sorry about being so late.” I replied. The concept of a tyrannical leader were starting to dissipate. The flares were starting to feel really awkward in my pockets. “I am very sorry to hear about what has happened to you. If there is anything you need from us ponies all you must do is ask,” Said Celestia. “I don't think there is much you are able to do really. Do you perhaps know of any human settlements near here?" I asked "I am verry sorry, I do not know of any human settlements in, or near Equestira. I can however order any royal guards to be on the lookout for any strange cities, or any creature that matches your description. We may be able to find your rescuers before they are able to find you." Celestia stated with a bit of pride. "Although any sort of help is appreciated, I don't think that will be necessary." I started, remembering the fact that I was a bit in the future, and there was likely no rescue party anyway. "All I can do right now is wait, and hope for the best." "In that case I am sorry that we cannot help you get home. Although the term human does seem strangely familiar to me... Perhaps there is something in the royal archives about your species. You never know with a library the size of the archives." She quietly laughed at that comment, Probably some sort of joke about the "Royal Archives". "It would probably be worth your time to look.," I said. I was originally going to say that it was almost impossible, but I then remembered what I had learned last night. Humanity could be to ponies as dinosaurs were to man. The thoughts were starting to get to me, I really did not like having to think about this. “Although, seeing you is reminding me of something. Although I can not quite remember what it is, I seem to remember having seen a creature like you in the past... Perhaps one of the creatures from the royal gardens?!” Said Celestia. Her voice was a bit less royal than it had been a few moments ago. She seemed to be lost in thought....... It was during the silence that Celestia was using to ponder what I was reminding her of an echo'ee voice rang out through the forest. "Whatsamatter Celestia?" It said. "Can you not remember the very thing your ignorance made you forget?" I personally did not recognize the voice, and was almost not even surprised by it (I was adapting quickly to the situation I was in i guess...). The ponies, however, were incredibly surprised, and even scared by the voice. Amid many gasps of what I assume were terror Celestia addressed the voice. “It cannot be. Discord! Reveal yourself at once!" She ordered. Obviously not amused at the playful tone of the voice. “What’s wrong Celly? Are you not happy to see me again? Have you really come to hate me so much that you don't even say a simple hello? I mean really! I have never hurt you or any of your precious ponies.” It was obvious that the voice was taunting Celestia. I felt a little guilty about it, but I really wanted to hear more from the voice. It seemed to know things... “Discord. I have no patience for these games. What are your intentions,” Celestia not so kindly asked. “You never were much fun.” The voice commented. “I guess you can have it your way. I am here only to deliver a simple message from someone you once knew well. You see this creature in front of you? You are to bring him to the Far-Mountains, There is a... creature... That would very much enjoy a meeting with him.” This statement immediately made the voice go from something that I was mildly interested in to something I did not want to continue speaking. I had no idea what this "creature" was, but I had no plans on doing so. “As if you are in any position to make demands. On what grounds are we to listen to you”. “Oh Celestia, Celestia, Celestia....” A creature that looked ripped straight out of some sci-fi movie appeared inside Celestia’s personal space while speaking the words of the voice. I could only describe the creature as a genetic experiment gone wrong. It looked somewhat like a dragon, a bird, and many other things combined in pieces into one strange creature. Not really so much gruesome looking, or even disturbing. It was just... Freaky. “You assume that I expected to just tell you ponies to just do something out of the kindness in your hearts? No, no no no. I have a little inspiration for these "elements of harmony" over here.” The creature that Celestia had referred to as “Discord” had created a handful of what I assumed was some sort of a weapon, and began to launch it at the princess herself. Just as Discord threw this strange ball of energy I felt a gust of wind go by my head, and heard a scream coming from behind me. “Rainbow, Wait!” The gust of wind was Rainbow Dash flying past me at an attempt to save Celestia from this weapon. The power of this ball of energy soon became apparent when it hit Rainbow Dash dead center, and she began to turn grey, and stop moving. Had she been frozen in stone?. The strange creature that had shot the bolt looked disappointed for a second after realising that its bolt had not struck its intended target before smiling, leaning down, and plucking the new statue off of the ground. “Well Celestia... It appears another pony has taken a bullet for you. I was really looking forward to dancing on your frozen head, but this will suit me far better in the long run.” He had what appeared to be a massive smile as he brought the statue of Rainbow Dash up to his eye level and inspected it. “Yes. This will do very well," He said. "Bring the creature over there to the Far-Mountains. Once you bring this creature to the mountains, and return him to the creature I mentioned earlier you will get your precious element of loyalty back. That is of course if you value her life more than you do this... things.” He was actually starting to laugh a bit, literally holding back tears of joy as if he was telling a hilarious joke. “I will be waiting for you, O powerful elements of harmony.” After that closing statement he simply teleported away. Leaving nothing behind but a few sparkles floating in the air. “Everyone stand back!” Said Twilight. Her horn had begun to glow in the same way it had done in the past when performing magic (I hate calling it that). “I think I can get this portal reopened. If we move fast we can get Rainbow Dash back!” “No Twilight.” Celestia called out, sounding frustrated. “Even if you could catch him, we can do nothing without the elements of harmony with us. We can do nothing but play along with his games... For now.” It was at the mention of "his games" that the whole group of ponies turned, and looked right at me as if they were expecting something. I knew exactly what they were expecting, and knew why they were looking at me like that, but I decided to play it dumb. “What?” I asked "I am sorry I have to ask this of you Lewis, but could you please assist us in rescuing Rainbow Dash," Said Celestia. “We cannot continue without your help”. This set off quite a mental battle for a second there. I was silent for at least a few seconds; These ponies were something of an enigma to me. I had no idea what there culture was really, and truly like aside the few short days that I had been here. On one hand they had been quite welcoming of the strange creature in its strange ship. On the other hand I hardly knew any of them, This "creature" was probably not intending to hand me any cupcakes, and I was waiting for a call. Although I appreciated their help It was not really enough to make up for a life. "Im really sorry...., But I really can't do anything to help you. I wish I could, but If I don't stay in the ship very bad things could happen, and I can't take that risk." Stretching the truth in this situation was not optional. "I want you to understand that without your help we will probably be unable to get Rainbow Dash back," Said Celestia "And without Rainbow to complete the elements of harmony we cannot defeat discord, and without defeating Discord equestria will be doomed to exist in near perpetual chaos." Don't think I was not feeling a bit guilty about my decision It was really hurting my integrity, but I had to stay at the ship in case anyone tried to contact me by radio. Also without a daily dose of stimulant shots I would end up more useless to their group than the rock that I was standing on top of. Also due to the fact that I needed to regenerate any of the muscle, and bone density that I lost in the trip I would need quite a lot of protein, and other nutrients. Something I really doubted a bunch of sentient ponies would have in a large supply. "I really am sorry, but there is nothing else I can do." The stimulant dependence tipped the tables. At that point I was sure of my choice, and was not going to change my mind. "Well that is ve..." Celestia started to say before being interrupted by Twilight. "How in the world can you just sit there and do nothing!" Scolded Twilight. "My friend is out there frozen in stone because she was trying to save Celestia, yet you can't get up and help her because you can't take the risk of leaving your ship alone? What are you even risking?!?" "If I were to leave this ship, and somebody was to come looking for me anything could happen. Imagine they thought your kind killed me? And Trust me I have plenty of other reasons." I was surprised at how well I managed to come up with the "Imagine they thought your kind killed me". Twilight did try to speak up again before being stopped by Celestia "Calm down Twilight," She said. "I know you are mad about losing rainbow dash. Unfortuatly he is right, and more importantly it is not up to us to decide on his fate. We will have to find another way." "But princess.... How are we going to help Rainbow Dash without him?" asked Twilight. "Do not worry, I will be sure to find a way. With or without the help from this... Human." Replied Celestia. "Let us go back to Ponyville, and regroup." After this, and without another word the whole group followed Celestia back away from the ship. I stood there watching them, half relieved that I was not going to have to fight to stay at the ship, or end up being forced to come with them anyway. I was also feeling a bit guilty about the whole situation still, but there was really no reason for me to do anything for them. Heck! The sum of what they did for me was akin to nothing in comparison to what they were asking of me. What had they done? Teleported some bees? Yet they wanted me to go along and risk my life going with them, a group of strange otherworldly creatures, to some far off mountain land where a "Creature" wanted to see me? Who in the world would expect someone to do that in the first place! I had no reason to be guilty! After they had faded into the distance, or began to I stormed back into the ship. Seriously. Why the hell were they trying to guilt me into doing that. They really had no right! I could understand perhaps if they were actual human beings, Perhaps had they actually offered something in return. But no. They needed me to help their friend, and because I was not putting my life on the line I was evil... Yep, Makes sense. I was actually starting to get pretty mad as I made my way to the radio room, and reactivated the radio systems. Once again I called out for help, I tried to contact the people that I lived with my entire life. Once again I tried to find my long gone species. Yet again they didn't reply. I nearly hit the radio out of frustration. I was really getting to the steaming point over what had just happened. I could find nothing other than Unfair to describe the situation. If I was never found by anyone I would end up subjected to whatever law these ponies had, and I really doubted I would be on their good side if they ever defeated this "Discord" without me. Due to force of habit I continued to sit in the room long after I was sure that there was no possibility of receiving a reply to my previous calls for help. I turned on the scanner and listened to the static coming through on the radio. To this day I do not know if it was my imagination, or perhaps some other cause, but I heard voices in the static. I remember hearing human voices coming through the radio. However as soon as I would notice their presence They would be gone, leaving me frustrated at the situation I was stuck in. My thoughts continued to spring back to the ponies. I was reasoning with myself for a very long time as to the reasons for my refusal to help them. I had no obligations, no debts, nothing to earn. I hardly knew any of them as anything but the strange ponies from across the forests. I had no real reason to even begin to feel guilty for not helping them. They were ponies. Ponies! Why in the world should I have cared that one of them was frozen in stone... Frozen in stone... What had that one pony done to deserve that treatment? Tried to save her leader? Yeah, threw herself in front of a bullet, I think she got what was coming to her. Still though, What would it be like to be frozen in place like that. Imagine the ponies never did manage to free her, and she was somehow still conscious in there. Like living in a coma, and watching the doctor disconnect the life support. Heck. What if she was not conscious, and woke, tired and weak to a strange new world. It really must suck to be frozen like that, conscious or unconscious.... A whole new world... What was I doing just sitting here waiting for some savior to rescue me from the situation. Were the talking ponies not enough? Just sitting in place waiting for some figment of my imagination future humanity to swoop down from the skies and rescue me. But what was I supposed to accomplish if there were no humans. No family, no friends, no history books recording my first manned cryogenic flight to the moon. What in the world was I supposed to do? Learn to hunt, fish, farm, and live the rest of my life staring at the radio until it breaks, ever hoping for the arrival of a human ship? Why in the world had I not thought of this a few minutes earlier. More importantly, If humanity was gone what was I going to do? I had already cut ties with the only sentient creatures that were probably on the planet, and without some sort of civilization most of the useless science trivia I had learned would be useless. Perhaps I should have told them I would need time to think of an answer, maybe I was right to feel a bit guilty at the time. After all, How would I feel if I was in Rainbow Dash's position right now. Frozen in time. Waiting for my friends to rescue me, even though they could not, Stuck, perhaps unconscious, perhaps not in a state of paralysis. Perhaps to wake thousands of years in the future, with nothing to live for. No friends.... No family.... With the beginnings of those thoughts in my head I decided to forget and sleep, I didn't need to do anything. Someone had to be out there, waiting for me. However, after moving all my bedding back to the bedroom, and getting a dose of stim in close reach I found myself printing the orbital views of the area surrounding me. I remembered that the ship had caught glimpses of the town as it came down for a landing. I may have ensured that the ponies would never come back to visit by my actions. I may have acted a bit selfish, and not put enough thought into my decisions. I may have even caused something bad, but there was still a chance I could try and renew ties with them. I was not planning to go on any journeys, but I sure as hell could give some tips and pointers to herbivorous creatures on fighting, and warfare, I could still make up for what I had done.