Celestia felt something was amiss in her home. The day had ended, beginning Luna’s longest night of the year. Her younger sister had grand plans for this evening: her stars would shine and twinkle. Some would fall from the sky in spectacular fashion as Hearth’s Warming ended, ending the old year and ushering in the new. It was a joyous time in Equestria, for this was one of her oldest traditions. With the new year came new hopes and aspirations. Dreams were given life and determination was given a course.
Yet, there was a small bit of melancholy which hovered over the palace. The grand spires of the castle overlooking Canterlot as the great city hung from the side of the Canterhorn felt just a tad pensive. A sad heart hung, mostly unnoticed by the ponies who worked within the walls home to two of the most powerful and immortal beings in all the world.
In all her years, Celestia had come to know many forms of sadness. Now, she was typically a happy pony, even though some of her beloved subjects did try her infinite patience. Her love radiated from her being and all those she touched, she felt a certain amount of responsibility for. She took her duties very seriously. The mother figure she had carefully crafted over the centuries had been based on her true self. She was a nurturer and had concerns for the well beings of those near and dear to her heart, even if they could be confusing creatures.
There was one such source of mystery living beneath her roof. He had been as frightened as a helpless kitten (albeit a very large, dangerous, and maybe a tad leaning towards the realms of a not-so-helpless kitten) when he had first come under the watchful eye of the princess. He was intriguing to say the least. The strange creature could not speak their language, but Luna had taken a shine to him (only because he spent many nights staring up at her starry skies in foal-like wonderment).
He had been found while a patrol had stumbled across a changeling hive. It was a small hive. The numbers of captured changelings had measured less than a hundred. Thankfully, the changelings quickly surrendered with minor injuries done to both sides. The strange male with the changelings had fought alongside them. He had protected the entrance to the egg chamber. A dozen little hatchlings were discovered within. It was, by all accounts, a very healthy hive and posed no threat to Celestia’s ponies. After a few days of discussions, the queen was released, along with her brood. Given protected status, she was grateful when the Crown paid full reparations for damages done to her home.
He knew more changeling words than pony, which was not saying much. Through their understanding of emotions, the language barrier between the biped and changelings was circumvented through the taste of his wants and needs through his emotional output. The discovery of such an unusual structure to aid in communicating had set the scientific community into a tizzy. Though suspicious (and rightfully so, Celestia ruefully admitted), the changeling queen agreed to form a trade agreement between her hive and Equestria. If anything, a better understanding of the mysterious bug-like ponies would benefit both parties in the long run by putting aside fears and laying the foundations for a future friendship.
The changeling queen known as Chrysalis was still at large.
Surprisingly enough, the creature had come under the queen’s care because it had been Chrysalis herself who had come to possess the biped. The reasons for her leaving the male behind was unknown, as the queen he had been left with had been told to take good care of him “or else”. How he had managed to survive three years under the iron hoof of that horrible bug mare was unbelievable as it was.
That had been eleven months ago since he came under Equestrian care. The biped was carefully studied and examined (with all consideration given towards his needs). His voice was warm, despite the harsh language he spoke. It was his native tongue. He babbled to anypony who would listen. Translations spells of many varieties were attempted, modified, reapplied, only to fail miserably. There was no base from which to give the magic something to work with. As there was no known record of his language, the basic understandings of his writing and language had to be done the old fashioned way, which delighted Twilight Sparkle to no end.
It took two months to learn his name. The way he spoke was confined by the shape of his mouth and tongue, limiting him the same way ponies were limited. However, he could be trained to use his tongue properly. It was, as one linguistic professor had noted, “like teaching a deaf and dumb foal how to understand sounds and proper enunciations”.
The next months that followed were trying times for the new creature. It was understood eventually his species were identified as humans. Despite the many frustrations brought on by mental roadblocks, the ‘hairless ape’ managed to grasp the fundamentals of the language and there was even the beginnings of a translation book in the form of notebooks constantly kept in a satchel the human kept with him at all times. Though learning the language was a slog through a lot of missteps and misunderstandings (some were quite embarrassing), the human was speaking broken sentences seven months later.
So much progress, yet Celestia felt she really did not know the human. His name was unpronounceable in Equestrian. It was suggested by a noble to simply call him Anonymous, but that was firmly and politely rejected. To do so would suggest the human was not worth to know as an individual. Leave it to the snobs to lead with a snub. Perhaps Celestia had taken the suggestion as a personal affront, but she let the matter pass without incident. For now, the human was simply called Friend, until he chose a pony name for himself.
Friend, as helpful and friendly as he was, did keep to himself. He was uncomfortable around ponies, as they were prone to stare. Canterlot streets came to a standstill when he went to explore the city (and always accompanied by guards and one of either Celestia’s or Luna’s seneschals). It became a point of embarrassment for Friend until somepony had the bright idea to transform the human into a pony via magic.
Friend was none too keen on the idea of being ponified and reacted accordingly. That had set relations back quite a bit and his trust had to be earned all over again. The unicorn who had cast the spell without permission had been dismissed.
As she worked her way through the halls of her home for the past eight centuries, Celestia did reflect the past year concerning Friend. He was quiet most of the time. He listened, though he could not hope to understand most of the words in any given conversation. Celestia knew he was trying to understand pony body language and did his best to emulate them. His fingers were precision instruments, capable of handling fine, delicate little things. The human could also boast an iron grip when he used his hands for lifting. The versatility of an opposable thumb was not lost on the princess: the minotaurs were very adept. However, they had thick, clawed digits that could not hope to match the nimbleness of Friend.
The princess strode towards the source of the melancholy, her mind already deducing from whom it was emanating from. Her brow creased with worry. Though she could never hope to be as skillful at feeling emotions like her niece, Cadence—nor even come close to being as sensitive as the emotivores, the changelings—Celestia could still sense when things were amiss.
She hated not having a happy home. Her instincts told her to seek out the sadness permeating her home and love it away.
She came across an odd sound from the private study of her sister. Words of frustration could be heard as Luna had not put up a muffling spell on the walls or the door. This meant anypony could walk in, so long as they knocked first. Celestia paused at the door and was about to do just that, when she heard her sister cry out.
“Confounded bipedal locomotion!”
Unable to help herself, her curiosity took the better of her sensibilities and Celestia slowly opened the door partially and peeked in.
Luna was in human form and doing a poor imitation of walking like Friend.
“Troubles, sister?” Celestia inquired with a smirk. She let herself in as Luna glared at her. Unlike Friend, the lunar princess was sans clothing.
The alicorn-turned-human was leaning heavily on her desk, her legs beneath her in positions suggesting they were uncooperative with whatever she needed them to do. Her knuckles were white as she gripped the edge of the desk.
“These things are impossible!” she barked at Celestia, daring to loosen a hand from its death-like grip from the table and flailing it accusingly at her rebellious limbs beneath her.
Her elder sister quirked an eyebrow. “I thought you declared his form unconventional and unsuitable,” Celestia remarked as she slid over and offered her wing to help support the humanized pony.
“I merely wish to understand what it is to be a human,” Luna replied with a huff. She readily accepted her sister’s wing. “You did offer the spell so I might try it. It is a quiet night and nothing is expected in court this eve. I thought I would indulge the curiosity I denied myself.” Her admission came with a blush and downcast eyes.
“Are you finding the ankles to be an issue?”
“They possess no hocks! What sensible creature walks about without hocks?” demanded Luna indignantly.
“Luna,” Celestia offered delicately, “you might also wish to consider clothing. If Friend were to walk in and see you in a state of undress, it might be a sort of cultural taboo. You know how he cannot go a moment without some article upon him.”
Wobbling on rebellious legs, Luna huffed, “I do not see the issue. Nakedness is what we do on a daily basis. He should know by now clothing is optional and even deemed frivolous in the more common homes.”
Celestia began to giggle as she eyed her sister up and down. The mirth was not shared by Luna. “Oh, I am not laughing at—” The glare intensified. “Oh, very well, yes. Yes, I am laughing at you.”
“Have you tried it?” Luna asked pointedly.
“Tried what?”
“Do not play the coy mare with me, sister.” Luna tugged on her sister’s feathers, offering her first smile along with the nudge of an elbow. “You gave me the spell. You helped Twilight Sparkle craft it. Surely you must have tried it out.” She looked down at her chest. “What am I to do with these?” The question was asked as if the princess was seeing them for the first time. “Teats do not belong on the chest! How does one nurse a foal with their teats up here?” She cupped them as she made a sour face. “This is most unsettling!”
“I have tried it and don’t do that,” Celestia tugged her sister’s hands from her chest with her telekinesis. “Just give yourself time to become familiar with the form. I should assume human females hold their foals while feeding them. Perhaps it helps in the bonding between mother and child. I find it endearing. Take also into consideration human males most likely find them attractive.”
“Says the mare who found playing Philomena upon poor Fluttershy ‘endearing’,” remarked Luna with a roll of her eyes. “I am beginning to think this is but another one of your jokes, dear sister.”
“Oh, I think not. I would love to stay and help, but I have felt an unease in our home. I seek it out. Have you felt anything?”
Luna became concerned. “Is it troublesome? I have felt something amiss myself, but I thought it as something akin to what somepony far from home might feel.”
Celestia gave her sister a speculative look, pursing her lips thoughtfully. “Perhaps you are right. I think I know the source and the reason why.”
Luna staggered to a chair and flopped upon it in a rather unladylike manner. “Is it Friend?” she queried worriedly. “Should I help you find him? He should be in his chambers. Perhaps I should speak to him along with you?”
Celestia looked at her naked sister. “Not like that you’re not.”
Luna looked down at herself. “It is a scrawny form, the human female, is it not?”
“I do not think he would think it so,” Celestia noted dryly. “I should imagine he has been without female companionship for quite a while.”
“Oh. Oh! Oh, my gracious, you are most correct!” Luna gave Celestia a look that was partially horrified and also pitying. She had one of her hands to her chest while the other covered her mouth. Her luminous blue eyes were round. “I had not thought of this. Wait. Has he not bedded one of the maids?”
Celestia gave her a neutral stare. “Of course not. What ever would give you that impression, Luna?”
Her sister shrugged. She then noticed the movement and shrugged again, looking at first one shoulder, then the other as she did so. “Most peculiar,” she murmured in a distracted way. “Well, shall we go and find Friend and see what is the matter?”
“Go as yourself, Luna. You don’t quite have your human legs yet. We want to be there as his friend, not confuse him with female human bodies.”
“I was not planning on doing such a thing,” retorted her sister. She stuck her tongue out at Celestia. “Stupid, confounded, ridiculous form!” Luna’s eyes flashed white briefly and her form shimmered in starlight. Her limbs morphed and wings sprouted. Her familiar coat reappeared and her ethereal mane and tail of clear night skies exploded into being like a supernova. Now in her true form, she let out a happy wicker, trotting in place on the tips of her hooves.
“Come, sister!” she proclaimed to Celestia in the manner of a princess conducting the work of the Crown, “Let us sally forth and attend to the needs of our charge!”
With that, the two sisters made a beeline through the castle towards a secluded room just off from the servant’s quarters. Friend had originally been given one of the state rooms reserved for dignitaries, but it was soon discovered he had an aversion to pomp and lavish living and had found this forgotten little room that had not seen a tenant in ages.
It was more of a small cottage attached to the castle, a leftover from back when the castle’s foundations had first been laid down. It had been the foreman’s shack. The last resident had been the castle’s Royal Mason, but that had been generations ago. The title and position had fallen before the changing times. There was now a team of engineers with their own union hall just outside the gates of the castle who oversaw the upkeep of the castle. Largely forgotten, it had fallen into disuse and disrepair. Friend saw it and knew it was ‘something to do’ as he was terribly bored most when not taking his lessons or being poked and prodded by the scientific community.
Everything within was rebuilt or constructed from scratch with his own hooves, er, hands. Though his methods were far below the skill of a master carpenter, Celestia and Luna had sent such ponies well practiced in the skill to aid the human as he made for himself a home.
The one wonderful thing about the ‘cottage’ was it had been built into the side of the mountain itself, with its large and singular window set in place to allow for a full view of the rising sun each morning, no matter the time of year. The balcony had been carved from the very face of the mountain itself, with room enough for a large drafting table. A clever mason had once carved the legs of the table from the same rock. Everything was from the mountain and still of the mountain. The only wood was the tabletop itself and the metal fittings allowing for it to be adjusted to the user’s taste.
There was a single, large room where the mason had once lived, made supper, and slept. There was even a polished stone tub in one corner of the room, next to the large fireplace. Hot and cold running water was available, the enchantments still as strong today as they had been so long ago when the room was crafted.
It was still a marvel, this simple little home in the side of the mountain. Friend had turned it into his home and his crude but serviceable furnishings were made less crude with the careful guidance of his pony instructors.
Functionality and comfort had somehow combined forces to make a very simple and welcoming home. It had been built with a family in mind, as masons in days of yore had often taken their families with them to work. There were still holes in the wall where boards for bunk beds had once been placed.
Friend had made this place home. He was happy here. He was away from the ponies when they annoyed him and he needed a place for privacy. Ponies were forbidden from intruding on his home without express permission from either Celestia or Luna.
Now, it was a place of sadness, melancholy and a sense of loss.
As Celestia had felt before, it did not take a changeling to feel something was wrong.
“Sister,” Luna whispered worriedly at her side.
“I know.”
The two mares walked slowly, gliding on silent hooves over the threshold of Friend’s home. There was no door. Strings of wooden beads covered the entrance, along with a thick bit of cloth to keep the heat in.
There was the silence to greet them.
“Friend?” Celestia called out. She shared a concerned look with Luna. Her sister nodded into the room. The two sisters cautiously proceeded. Both alicorns had their ears perked forward. They swiveled this way and that, listening for something of their friend.
A soft sound greeted them, associated with uneven breathing. Quickly the two moved forward, forging a path straight through the room and towards the balcony.
There was a chair facing the night sky. Upon that chair was a bundle of blankets wrapped around a seated figure. It clutched the blankets to its body with one hand while the other was up to its face, covering glistening eyes.
Friend was crying.
Celestia felt her heart go out to the human. “Oh, oh, oh! Luna! His pain!” She let out a soft nicker and was at his side in moments, her sister taking up his other shoulder. Both mares nuzzled him, whispering into his ears.
His arms reached out, gently wrapping around their necks as he simply exploded with an outpouring of heartbreaking cries. Alabaster and indigo feathers encircled him, wrapping the human in wings of love.
“Home gone. Wife gone. Foals gone.” His words were broken as he tried to force out his Equestrian. His native language followed, punctuated with his sobbing. He managed to switch back to the language of the ponies. “Never go home. Never see home. Gone. All gone.”
“I sorry,” Celestia said soothingly in his language. “Hard to miss family. Hard to not have heart near you. Hard to not hold wife. You family here. My sister and my—I here. We family for you. No hurt.”
Luna added softly, “Share your hurts, Friend. We know hurts of all kinds. We have strong liking of you. Friend is friend of ponies. Friend is loved by ponies. Home here for as long as you want.”
Speaking his tongue was difficult, but both sisters felt he needed to hear his own language. Oddly, Friend had never spoken of having a family before. Then again, he kept a lot of things about his past private. There was very little of his home life before his arrival in Equestria to suggest he had even had a family of his own once. There had been efforts to find his lands, but the world was vast and there were so many unknowns beyond the borders of the known races. Friend had suggested this was not his world, that he had come from another planet. It was hard to believe, but there were no other creatures quite like him.
Friend had a wife? Children? It made sense. Why would it not?
“We help you. We help Friend,” Luna promised him.
It started with a hug from two alicorns.
“Begin new. Search new. Find your family. Find your home,” Celestia added. Her muzzle lightly touched his cheek. A stirring began deep within her, one she had not felt in a long time.
The sisters remained with their friend until the time came for Luna to ignite the night sky with her magic. As she did so, the colors of the full spectrum flashed in the full glory intended, chasing away the remnants of the past and ushering in a new beginning. Friend looked upon the glory of Luna's works and was awed. He was glad for Luna and Celestia and held them a little closer, murmuring his thanks.
No thanks were needed, nor would they ever be.