I walked into the motel room and looked around. Quaint, simple, just what any pony would need for a layover between destinations. That’s me; just a traveler taking a stop to be interviewed by some mare with a major complex. She was sitting just to the left of the door next to a small window with the shade drawn shut.
She’s cute, but she has nothing on my current wife, or the rest of my herd. I guess that’s just my loyalty though. Four beautiful mares and me, I don't think I need another.
A hundred lifetime's worth of experiences and here I am, a pony staying the night at an inn in some backwater town being interviewed by a pony with a dozen pencils, two quills, at least one ink well, and a stack of paper large enough for a thesis, and a box behind her. What’s she expecting to get from me, I’m not giving my complete life story, am I? Maybe.
She found me somehow and guessed my secret. An inability to lie to such a pretty mare left her open to bribe me to tell my story. A story only one Alicorn alive knows, and even she only knows so much.
I walked into the room and dropped my bags at the foot of the bed before turning back to close the door. She looked so expectant for me to talk right away I almost feel disappointed for letting her down in such a small way.
“Hello, shall we begin?” I asked as I turned to face her, smiling in the way I have for so long even I don’t know when it’s real or fake. I really was hoping it'd be some simple 'where are you from' questions and I'd be on my way.
“Um, sure! I’m so excited to hear your story and,” she began rocking a leg under the table, “I’m sorry for making us meet like this, but, I couldn’t pass the opportunity!” She was almost bouncing on the seat at this point, smiling, her eyes staying steady following me and my every move. She crossed her rear legs under the chair she was sitting on and sucked in her bottom lip biting it lightly to calm herself.
“So, where do you wanna start?”
“THE BEGINNING! I have to know everything about you and where you’re from!” she blurted before covering her mouth with her hooves.
I stood by my chair at the small table and looked at her as she shouted at me, she trembled with excitement. “What? My life story?”
“Mmmmm-hm,” she said, her eyes almost sparkling with anticipation, lips pursed.
“I’m too old and you haven’t enough paper. Besides, most of my life is a lot like yours, I’m sure. Routine and not worth talking about. So, I’ll cover the basics.
“My name's Mocha I'm an earth pony, or at least I look like one right now, and I'm about six thousand years old. At least, that's what we estimate our age as," I looked up and tapped my chin for a second. I often forget since age doesn't matter after so long. It fades like the light of the setting sun, only the sun always rises again. Also, the calendar is way different that the Gregorian one I was used to until 'recently'.
"Before I was a pony, I was a human from earth,” she tensed up, her eyes widened and she took a breath in. She began writing as fast as she could with a pencil in her mouth.
I looked at my hooves and felt a pang of regret at the choices I've made over my time here. The times I had a chance to go back, the friends and enemies I'd made over the eons, and the lovers I'd had that I can't get out of my mind. The woman I loved, that was with me for so long, the reason I stayed here, the reason I stay here. I looked back to the green mare and raised an eyebrow.
I found it odd, since she’s a unicorn writing with her mouth, but whatever, she can write however the hell she wants. “I had a different name, age, look, and was from a totally different planet. Population over nine billion at it's apex and 3 billion when I was born.
“Hunger, disease, starvation, and distrust were almost everywhere,” ‘...nine billion’ she muttered under her breath, “We'd taken our beautiful planet and poisoned it to the brink of near extinction before I was born, and the recovery was slow but progressive.
“The water was drinkable, wildlife was repopulating, the air was as clean as it was during the start of our industrial revolution; which is saying a lot about something you don’t know, and spirits and hope were increasing among the poni- people of the nations. There were, however, still wars every now and then among neighboring nations.
“Heh, Neigh-boring nations. I still laugh at that phrase,” she raised an eyebrow pausing her writing and looked at me before writing again, “You see, in my old world ponies and horses were servant animals with base instinctive knowledge and communication; mostly whinnies and hoof clops,” she took in a steep breath and held it, pausing her writing as she looked at me.
“Only humans dominated the planet?” she said with a slight gasp.
“Yup, anyway," I placed my hoof on the table and looked at her, "I was born in a country that was on the borderline of health and death. Once a world power in economy and military might; it was the sixth to fall to the poison of corruption and greed. I was a boy, that’s like a colt, when I was indoctrinated into their military. Simple work for us youth, get coffee and drinks, run paperwork, and have fun at our leisure,” she began writing again but this time she took a pencil in her magic to write while focusing her attention on me.
“Fighting was encouraged, of course, and I was built to take a good punch, let me tell ya,” I spent a second in a fleeting memory before I stored it away like the millions of others, “so I was about 19 when I was promoted to a specialist in our military and stayed there. A soldiers life for me.”
“Soldier? Like the royal guard?”
“Heh,” I chuckled and felt myself rub the back of my neck instinctively, “only if royal guard were only trained to kill other ponies, to say the least.”
She gasped and the pencil fell from her magic to the floor with a clatter. “Kill? Only to kill?” the look of fear flashed in her eyes.
“Don’t worry, I haven’t done that for a couple hundred years.”
“Killed... a pony?” She stiffened a bit uncrossing her legs, I could sense her flight or fight gearing up.
“It was a gryphon, and it was a tough time, a lot of bad things happened in history that Celestia hid or forgot. Let’s get back to my story and we’ll see if I get back to that, okay?”
She nodded and readied her quill as I leaned back and crossed my forelegs. I sometimes miss my arms.
"Well, let me tell you about how I got here. Do you know what a 'life bomb' is?" she shook her head absently, "let me start at the beginning then."