It Never Ends
7
The party progressed well into the night. After Jay’s encounter with Rainbow, he had headed back in to join the party and quietly mingled with the partygoers. It didn’t take long for him to get bored of this, too. He had mentally decided that his talents would best be used in the back of the room, near the food that Pinkie had provided.
‘For a bunch of horses, they sure know how to throw a party... I wonder what they would be like drunk?’ Jay thought to himself with a snicker. Imagining a bunch of ponies in an alcohol induced craze would probably be one of the greatest things he had ever seen. Sadly, the fruit punch sat in the corner- unspiked.
But, like all great things, the party eventually came to an end. It wasn’t a sudden end, but gradual. Ponies would shuffle out the door, exhausted from doing whatever it is ponies do at a party with a loud bass line in the background.
Jay hadn’t even noticed the decrease in party-ers; he had been too busy stuffing his face with the delicious party treats that somehow kept restocking themselves in a blur of pink. Why look a gift horse in the mouth?
By the time Jay actually did stop and look around the room, he was almost in the advanced stages of a food coma. Never in his life had he had so many wonderful pastries as he had that night. He had noticed that the library was now empty, with Twilight and her five friends being the exception. He recognized them all- Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie Pie- but having only briefly met most of them, he didn’t really put too much urgency in getting off the of the floor where he suffered and seeing what they were doing. For some reason, the floor made a great cushion.
Almost hitting full on coma, a belching noise followed by a green flame shot into the air from the middle of the six’s group. That caught his attention: his ears perked up with interest as he tried to regain his attentiveness.
Spike was standing in the center of their small ring, holding an elegant scroll bound in a decorative ribbon. This sight of it made Twilight tremble with anticipation. Jay watched as she snatched the scroll from Spike’s claw, unravelled the ribbon, and pulled it open. She quickly scanned the page and her eyes grew wide with excitement. She spoke to her group of friends in a hushed tone, occasionally peeking in Jay’s direction. As she finished, the group was basically bouncing off the wall with giddiness.
‘Are they all normally this weird?’ Jay thought with a mixture of confusion and amusement.
At this point, he decided the mental strain it required to jump several feet to the other side of the room would be worth it if he was able to quell his curiosity. Jay appeared right behind Twilight, hoping to read over her shoulder.
With his sudden appearance, Twilight slammed the scroll closed, stopping Jay from even reading a word.
“Sooo.. what’s goin’ on?” Jay asked, now fully confused.
Twilight turned to him with an all-business expression.
“Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are coming down from Canterlot.” she explained.
“Huh?”
“And they want to talk with you.”
“Why?”
“Because I told them all about you when you were enjoying the party.” Twilight said with a smug tone.
“Why would you do-”
Before he could even finish, the door flew open and in walked two very tall ponies accompanied by two guards in golden armor. The tallest one had a white coat and a flowing, multi-colored mane and extra long tail. The mark on her flank was that of a sun with beams radiating off of it that appeared to be waving. The shorter one was a dark blue with a mane and tail of translucent space filled with stars. Staring into it would have made for one crazy trip. Her flank mark was that of a crescent moon, which appeared to be surrounded by a black void. Strangely enough, the symbol also appeared on her chest. Jay also noticed that this was the first time he had seen anypony with wings and a horn. He also noticed the crowns atop each of their heads.
Everypony immediately dropped to a bow, acknowledging the two rulers. Everypony except Jay, that is. He had absolutely no idea what was going on.
“Rise, my faithful student.” The taller white one said, her voice a mixture of grace and command.
Twilight instantly rose to her hooves and shot forward, hugging the taller of the two.
“Princess Celestia!” Twilight exclaimed, “How have you-”
Before Twilight could get any farther, Jay couldn’t hold back any more. All the food he had ingested was itching to come back up, in a less-than-polite way. Jay let out a monumental belch. It was truly a sight, and sound, to behold.
**********
Vinyl Scratch was laying on her couch, snuggled against her lover, Octavia. The party had worn the DJ out as she had blasted some of her best tunes and she was beginning to nod off.
Octavia was just glad that she had come home without getting into too much trouble.
All of a sudden, Octavia watched Vinyl jerk her head upwards, fully awake, ears perked. Vinyl looked around the living room, as if scanning for something.
Octavia watched her with a hint of worry. “Are you alright?” she asked, her voice prim and proper; that of a high standards pony.
“Yeah, yeah.” Vinyl said, digging at her ear with her hoof. “Actually, I don’t know. I feel..... funny.... I think someone just broke my record.”
**********
‘Oh damn.’
Jay looked around the room, noting each of the different expressions on each ponies face.
Pinkie and Rainbow Dash were literally forced to tears as they tried to stop the oncoming laughter.
Applejack sat there with a look of feigned horror. She would never admit that she actually found the situation hilarious, especially because of the pony that caused it.
Twilight and Rarity sat with a look of actual horror, which made the scenario that much more funny.
The shorter of the two princesses was visibly pissed off.
The taller, white one was complacent, her face giving nothing away.
“And what, subject, was that?” asked the shorter, darker one.
“Heh, uhh, indigestion?” Jay offered with the most innocent smile he could muster plastered on his face.
His answer did nothing to satisfy her anger. Before anypony else could speak, the tall, white princess (‘Oh, what did Twilight call her? Princess... Mole- no Celestia! Right.’) cleared her throat, commanding the attention of everypony in the room, then turned directly to Jay.
“My sister and I would like you to come down to Canterlot to discuss some things.”
“Is it really necessary?” Jay asked, unsure.
“Yes.” Judging from the tone of Princess Celestia’s voice, she was, also, not amused.
“Well, ok then. I think.” At this point, Jay just wanted to disappear. He knew he was fully capable of doing just so, but he figured that jumping away would be an extremely bad idea.
“Do you need us, too, Princess?” Twilight piped up.
“I don’t see why not.” Princess Celestia said, smiling to Twilight.
‘This can’t be good.’ Jay thought with a touch of panic.
Princess Celestia then turned to one of the standing guards and whispered something into his ear. He nodded his head, waved the other guard out, and exited himself.
And with that, the two princesses lowered their heads, their horns aglow, and a bright light filled the room.
**********
The next two hours were spent demonstrating to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna how Jay’s power worked in a large throne room, taken straight out of a medieval story book. Both of the royal figures found his ability extremely interesting. Jay showed that he could complete small jumps by jumping back and forth several times in the room and showed that he could jump to just about anywhere he wanted. The long jump also proved that he could jump people as well as himself. He demonstrated both of these things by jumping back to Twilight’s library, picking Spike up with his teeth (much to his chagrin), and jumping right back to the throne room in a couple of seconds.
Rainbow Dash had even stepped forward and spoke her story; another of those slight blushes appearing when she started on the part where Jay had saved her from “becoming a pancake”.
When all was said and done, the Princesses excused the ponies, halting Jay as he tried to leave with them.
Princess Celestia motioned to a guard for the doors to the throne room to be shut as soon as Jay’s six companions departed the room.
She then waved the guards out, who exited out of a smaller door. Jay, Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna remained.
Once again, Jay’s mind went straight to: ‘Oh shit’.
Princess Celestia turned to Jay and studied him, another one of those soul gazing stares that everypony in this land seems to have mastered.
After leaving Jay feeling exposed and dirty, Princess Celestia finally spoke.
“Do you want to go home?”
Jay thought for a second, not fully grasping the meaning behind the question. “Well I don’t really have a home right now, Twilight’s been letting me stay with her.”
Princess Luna stepped forward, looking annoyed. “What my sister means is; wouldst thou wish to return to thy own world?”
Something in Jay’s mind clicked. Somehow, these two royal sisters knew who he was.
“Er, so you two know who I am? Where I’m from?” he asked hesitantly.
Both nodded their heads.
“So you must know I wasn’t originally-” Jay motioned to himself, waving his hooves around him, “pony...-y.”
Both nodded their head once more.
“How?” he demanded.
Princess Celestia was the one to speak this time. “Not a whole lot gets by us in the land we rule.” she stated, chuckling to herself.
“When you first came into our world, my sister and I both felt an immense power surge. So immense, that we instantly knew that nothing local could have caused it.”
Princess Luna stepped forward, taking over the conversation. “But it was a power source we could identify; a source identified in our archives.” This time she spoke normally, not a hint of the Shakespeare-esque voice from before.
“And now that you just confirmed our suspicions, we ask you, do you wish to go home?” Celestia finished.
‘Sneaky...’
No, he didn’t want to go back. Here was the world, so peaceful, so harmonic. Every day in this world was another day he wasn’t reminded of his abandonment. True, Jay hadn’t found his home just yet, but in his world, his actual world, he was supposed to be dead. Staying just made more sense...... among other things.
Celestia nodded her head in an accepting manner. It took Jay a couple more seconds to realize what had just happened.
“You heard all that?”
Princess Celestia laughed. “Being the celestial ruler of a land of magic tends to have a couple perks!”
“Ok, so what happens now? Do I go on, live my life, and just forget this ever happened?”
Princess Celestia pondered this for a moment before answering. “If that’s what you choose, then yes, that’s what will happen. For now, I will permit you to stay with my faithful student, Twilight, and I will let her know of the arrangements.”
Princess Luna let herself be heard, once more. “But be warned, human, if thou wish to return to thy own world, let it be known now. After thee third day, thou cann’st never return to thy realm; thou willst remain here.” Luna's voice had re-adopted that olde tyme pronunciation.
The consequences of Jay’s future decision hit him like a brick wall. This was it: his next choice would decide the fate of his life. Luna had hammered that realization in deep. Everything in his past life would be just that: a past life.
‘I wonder if anyone back there knows I’m gone.’ he thought solemnly. ‘Did I die to them? Or just disappear? And did I really leave anyone behind?’
His mind raced to process all of this information, which would, in turn, decide his fate.
Jay sat and pondered this for several minutes, the time ticking on. His mind running through the pros and cons of each world. It definitely was not a choice made everyday.
Eventually the pros of Equestria started to outweigh the pros of his old world and a semblance of an answer began to form.
“Well, human?” Luna interrupted, breaking his train of thought.
Jay stared at the two large ponies for a moment before giving his answer:
“Yes. I want to stay here.” Jay said with a smile.
Princess Celestia bowed her head. “So be it.”
Jay took this as his cue to leave and quickly excused himself. He turned towards the large doors that separated the throne room from a corridor that his companions had been ushered out of. As he approached, two guards threw open the doors, allowing Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Applejack to stumble forward. This could only mean that they had had their ears pressed to the door, listening in.
When the three recovered, Jay paused to look at them, to see if their expressions gave anything away.
They did.
Applejack had that ‘I knew it’ face, probably in regards to that “Ah know you’re still hiding something” comment from earlier.
Twilight had the look of a small child on Christmas day as they looked at all their presents under the tree; she was in complete, scientific heaven and couldn’t wait to probe Jay’s brain about this new world she wasn’t supposed to hear about.
Rainbow Dash looked completely stumped. “What the hays a human? I thought you were Jay!” she blurted out.
“I, uhm... you weren’t supposed to hear all that.” Jay managed. “Twilight, I s’pose I’ll see you back at the tree.” And with that, Jay jumped, appearing right in the guest bedroom of Twilight’s library.
He threw himself on the bed, and quite literally, passed out.
Rainbow Dash, on the other hand, was not satisfied. She stormed into the throne room, demanding answers from both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.
All the two princesses would reveal, however, was that Jay was not of this world. Rainbow would have to get the rest of the story from Jay himself. Rainbow Dash left with a huff, opting to fly back to Ponyville instead of teleporting with Twilight. Probably not the best choice, but Dash wanted some time to think about what to say to Jay. Whatever she had to say, Jay would not be getting much sleep when she got there.
Dash had no idea why she took so much interest in this pony; she’s never been this interested in anything before, but she was determined to figure this pony out. She flew off, heading in the direction of Twilight’s library.
**********
Somewhere in the Everfree forest, there lay a small clearing. There was absolutely nothing special about it as there were hundreds just like it scattered throughout the forest. The trees that surrounded it were just normal, Everfree trees, that shed normal leaves and sticks which lay, normally, on the floor of the clearing.
Normal.
That is, until a spark appeared right in the center. A burst of bright light shot through the clearing, holding steady for several seconds, before collapsing in on itself before returning back to normal.
Normal.