//------------------------------// // Meeting Twilight Sparkle // Story: So this is what it's like to be a member of a long lost civilization. // by Moofrog 3 //------------------------------// Outside the Barn ​ I hang out with Pinkie while I’m waiting for Rainbow Dash to return. She’s a nice girl for sure, but it is a little hard to keep up with her at times, she just talks so fast I don’t have time to process what she is saying before she moves to something else. Thankfully Rainbow Dash manages to get back before I get a migraine. I don’t know how to deal with migraines. “Hey Rainbow Dash.” I greet the rainbow headed pegasus as she lands. “”Hey John” She says back “Twilight Sparkle will be here shortly she just needs some time to prepare.” “I’m fine with that.” I shrug “Nice speed by the way I could barley see you move when you took off.” “Well I am one of the best fliers in Equestria.” Real modest this one, but she doesn’t seem dishonest so I’m going to assume she can put her money where her mouth is. “Cool” I say as Rose leaves my lap and lays down in the grass. “So what do you do when you aren’t flying around anyway?” “Oh I just manage the weather around ponyvile.” She says as she sets herself down next to me. “It’s an easy enough job.” “Wait, manage the weather?” I blink “As in you basically control the weather around here?” “Yep.” Rainbow Dash says as if it’s the obvious thing in the world. “Didn’t they have a way to manage the weather in your time?” “Are you kidding?” My voice in incredulous. “In my time managing the weather was a pipe dream at best.” “Wait what?” Rainbow Dash looks genuinely confused now. “How do you keep rough storms from running rampant then?” “We don’t.” I cross my arms. “When we had to deal with a storm the only options where to take cover or in the case of bigs one like hurricanes to get the hell out of doge before it hit.” “Hurricanes? You guts had freaking Hurricanes? I thought those were a myth told to scare young fillies at weather training!” Rainbow Dash exclaims. “Well they probably don’t happen today if you guys are controlling the weather.” I shrug “I mean those things can do a lot of damage, it’s not surprise you don’t let them happen on your watch.” “Still.” She says looking me over “Your time must have been horrible if that’s the kind of weather you guys had to put up with.” “I wouldn’t know myself.” I watch as Rose starts trying to catch bugs with her paws “I lived further in the content so the worst I had to deal with was the occasional tornado and a few nasty winters.” Rainbow Dash doesn’t look convinced “That doesn’t change the fact that you’re people’s entire survival was based on random chance. How did your civilization deal with it?” “Oh Rainbow Dash you’ve asked a question that I couldn’t possibly answer.” I chuckle “I guess we just tried to live our lives as best we could and hoped for the best. Life isn’t just going to stop because your worried about something beyond your control happening, you just have to prepare for the worst you can and get on with it.” Before I say anything more I notice a purple figure flying towards us. “Say Twilight Sparkle had both wings and a horn right?” I ask taking sight of the winged unicorn from earlier. “I wasn’t able to get your names when we first met so I still don’t know who’s who beyond you and Pinkie Pie.” “Yeah that should be Twilight Sparkle, why do you ask?” I continue to look at the purple shape as it moves closer. “Because she should be arriving in three…two…one.” Twilight Sparkle lands right in front of me stumbled a little as she sets down Out of the corner of my eye I spot rainbow dash holding a four out of ten sign in her hooves. I walk up to the purple winged unicorn. “You must be Twilight Sparkle, it’s nice to formally meet you.” “It’s nice to meet you too.” Twilight Sparkle extends her hoof. “Rainbow Dash said your name was John, is that right?” “That’s correct.” I nod as I stretch my arms out. “So, if I may ask, what exactly are you guys going to do with me? I can't imagine you plan on having me stay in that barn for the rest of my unlife.” “Well” Twilight begins “You probably aren’t a threat to life as we know it so the most likely outcome is that we’ll try to help you resettle in Equestria, I’ll have to wait until Celestia replies to my letter before I can make any promises though.” “Seems reasonable enough,” I nod. “So you want me to do anything in the meantime? It’s not like I’m exactly wanting for spare time, and I’m going to go crazy if I do nothing for too long.” “Well,” Twilight begins. “While we try to figure out what we can about human history, but as you can guess we don’t know much, do you mind if I ask a few questions.” “Sure,” I say as I take notice Pinkie Pie drawing a silly face on Rainbow Dash, who is fast asleep. “What do you want to know?” “Well looking at your attire you were born around when we assume humanity underwent a pair of world wars." She begins “Did those actually happen?” “They did,” I nod. “I wasn’t around for them but the nation I’m from was a participant in both of the world wars, and we’ve put a lot of effort into recording those events, mind you we only came into the first one really late in the whole thing..” Twilight furiously scribbles down some notes. “So why did these wars happen? Was their some sort of disaster that forced the participating nations to furiously seek out resources?” “No,” I say. “From what we can tell it was mostly nationalism and an entangling system of alliances causing multiple nations to enter the war at once. I don’t think anyone realized just how the war was going to turn out when they first entered.” “Entangling alliances?” Twilight Sparkle looks puzzled for a few moments. “Can you elaborate?” “Well...” I begin “The whole thing began when a powerful nation named Austria-Hungry wanted to take vengeance on the smaller nation of Serbia for the death of a beloved archduke. Now Austria-Hungary was far more powerful then Serbia, but Serbia had an ally in the human nation of Russia. Russia -- unlike Serbia -- was more than strong enough to threaten Austria-Hungary, and potentially even invade the nation if provoked.” “It sounds like some of the alliances larger nations have with some smaller ones here on Equis.” Twilight remarks “So why did Austria-Hungary decide to declare war in the end?” “Well Austria-Hungry also had an ally.” I continue “Another relatively powerful nation known as Germany. Things got even more complicated when you account for Russias alliance with another nation known as France and one of Germany’s rivals and the eventual intervention of the British Empire when Germany invaded the neutral country of Belgium in order to bring down France before they could mobilize.” “So it’s like dominoes tipping one another over,” Twilight concludes “One nation attacks another provoking a third nation to attack them due to an alliance, which then provokes a fourth nation to attack that nation in a savage circle.” “Exactly,” I answer. “Needless to say things got ugly fast, and this was way back when around fifteen nations basically owned most of the world, so a lot of overseas colonies and territories got dragged into the fighting too.” “This is all so fascinating.” Twilight says happily as she finishes her notes…and then her stomach rumbles. “Say do you mind if we pick up on this later, I haven’t eaten and my friends are going to get angry if I skip another meal to take notes.” “Sure,” I say “I don’t know if I can eat anymore, but I certainly remember what it was like to be hungry, and I hated every minute of it.”