//------------------------------// // Chapter Three // Story: Moving On // by Manitive //------------------------------// It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, birds were chirping, and the smell of freshly grilled steak was filling the air. Looking up to the little playground I had built years ago for Laura, my little daughter, I spotted her playing around without a care in the world, climbing up the slide, and sliding it down, repeating this over and over again. A smile forming on my lips, I closed my eyes and leaned myself back into my seat, enjoying the warm summer air on my face. "Hey there." Someone whispered into my right ear. No, not just someone, Sandra. "Hey honey." I said with a small smile, turning my head around and giving her a small peck on her lips. "Dinner's ready." She said. "Yeah, I'm coming." I replied after a long second of staring into her beautiful blue eyes. Those eyes were one huge think I oh-so-loved about her, one big reason why I fell in love with her. "Laura! Dinner's ready!" She called, breaking me out of my stupor. "I'm coming!" Laura calls back. "Come on honey, let's-" The smell of something burning was filling my nose, making me somehow wake up. I jumped from the couch and sniffed the air. Following the smell, I discovered that it was coming from the kitchen, to which I quickly ran. Arriving there, my heart skipped a beat out of fear. Black smoke covered the ceiling, and in front of the source of the smoke, the stove, stood a stunned Twilight. At least nothing was burning. Acting quickly, I ran over to the stove to turn it off, but discovered that it already was. After that, I lifted the empty pan, where the smoke was emitting from, up in the air and chucked it into the sink next to the stove. "I'm sorry!" Twilight, finally snapping out of her shocked state, started said. What came out next was a flood of words, but I quickly interrupted her before she was going to go completely apeshit. "Twilight, I'm not mad at you." I simply stated, cutting her frantic explanation off. Opening the only window in the room, I added "...Though I'd like to know how you set an empty pan afire." "Well...You see, I kinda couldn't figure out how your stove worked, so I used a spell to heat the pan up." I blinked. Hard. "Twilight, I'm being serious here, how did you do that?" I asked her again, obviously not believing her. "I already told you! I used a spell to heat the pan up, since I couldn't figure out how to use your stove!" She told me, a bit irritated that I wouldn't believe her. "So, you're trying to tell me, that you used a spell, like, the magic kind of spell, to heat up that pan?" I asked her, turning my head around to look at her with a raised eyebrow. "Yes." I stared at her for exactly five seconds. "Yep, you're a crazy pony." "What? Why?" She pouted. "You're trying to tell me that you used magic." I said, emphasizing the word 'magic'. I then turned my head back around and walked to the sink. Turning the faucet on, I grabbed some dish soap and a sponge out of the cabinet above me and started cleaning the pan. Not that I could clean much, of course. "Could you please take out five plates and glasses out of that cabinet and place them on the table? And some silverware too?" I asked her, pointing at the cabinet to my right, trying to get her from staring at me. "Uh, sure." Twilight answered, moving to my right side. Shortly after that, I heard the door of the cabinet opening...Wait, what? How? "Okay, how did you just do that without hands?" I asked her curiously, looking at her from the corner of my eyes. "Magic." She answered with a smile. "Twilight, could you please stop joking?" I asked, a bit annoyed that she just wouldn't stop joking with me. I dried the pan, put it back on the stove and walked in front of it. "I'm serious! Look!" She angrily said, making me turn my head into her direction. My mouth hung open, and my eyes widened at the display of five plates floating out of the cabinet in the direction of the table, landing perfectly stacked on it, and shortly after that, even the glasses followed suit. Not believing my eyes, I pinched myself, but quickly discovered that I wasn't dreaming and what I saw was, in fact, real. Magic. She was using magic. "Hey, are you okay?" Twilight asked worriedly. "Haha...Huh? Oh yeah, I'm just fine-" I said, stretching out the 'fine' a bit "-just a tad creeped out by the fact that I just saw a purple colored pony with a pair of wings and a horn on its head using magic, which shouldn't be possible at all. And you?" "I'm...fine?" "Did you really just use magic?" I asked her with an expressionless look on my face. "Yes." "Like, real magic?" "Yes." "Yeah, you know what? I'll just take that as it is. Shouldn't really have surprised me that you can use magic." I simply stated. "I mean, you're a purple pony unicorn thingy, of course you could also do magic." "O-kay?" I then turned my attention back to the task at hand; preparing breakfast for the five of us. I tried to get the thought of someone actually using magic out of my head by thinking what to prepare for breakfast. Since they probably wouldn't eat any meat, if they were anything like the ponies here, I decided that pancakes would be a better option. And, I mean, I still would've had some apples for them that they could've eaten if they couldn't eat pancakes either. Finishing up the last pancake, I stacked them onto a big plate I grabbed out of a cabinet earlier and placed them onto the dining table in the center of the room, where I saw Twilight awkwardly trying to make herself comfortable in one of the chairs. Suppressing a chuckle, I turned around and went to the fridge to grab a bottle of my favorite syrup, maple syrup. After grabbing the syrup, and a bottle of milk, out of it, I placed them into the middle of the dining table. Done with that, I sat myself opposite of Twilight, who had been staring at me the whole time, which made me a bit uncomfortable. Maybe it was for the fact, that I was still only clothed in my boxer shorts? Nah, she was naked too, so that couldn't have bee- Actually, that could've been the reason. Still, I didn't like the way she was staring at me. "Uh Twilight? Could you please stop staring?" "Huh? Oh, heheh, sorry..." she apologized, a little blush forming on her cheeks. "It's okay, I mean, you don't see someone as good looking as me every day..." I teased, flexing my right biceps and moving my eyebrows up and down suggestively, to which Twilight just blushed more and averted her eyes. Right after that, I heard the sound of clopping hooves entering the kitchen, making me drop my little act and look to the doorway, where I saw a tired Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo entering, with Applejack directly behind them. "Good mornin' y'all!" Applejack greeted cheerily, making her way over to the chair besides Twilight. 'Yep, she's the morning person...' "Good morning..." Both Rainbow Dash and Scootaloo mumbled so quietly, I could barely hear them. '...and they aren't' I thought to myself. They went over to the chairs to my left and right, Scootaloo taking the one to my left and Rainbow Dash the one to my right. "Good morning girls!" Twilight said, still a bit red in the face, but that quickly wore down. "Yeah, good morning." I said, eyeing Scootaloo, who was struggling to get up the chair, but failed to do so because of her injury. "Need any help?" I asked her, to which she nodded once. I picked her up around her barrel and sat her on the chair, whereupon she gave me a thankful smile, which I returned with a small smile of my own. I then grabbed the stack of empty plates and placed them in front of each occupied chair, mine included, and after that did the same with the glasses. "Dig in!" I said, grabbing two pancakes from the plate I stacked them on earlier, placing them on my plate. It was then that I noticed the lack of silverware on the table, to which I just mentally shrugged. 'Not like they could use it anyways, and I could just use my hands'. Grabbing the bottle of maple syrup, I opened the lid and poured some of that sugary golden goodness onto my pancakes, and began eating with my hands. 'Maybe I should've washed them before?' I asked myself, stopping my eating momentarily, looking at my hands that were covered in syrup. '...Nah, fuck it, can do that later.' So I started eating again, not noticing the pancakes that were floating through the air and then landed on the plates of my guests. "So, William,-" I heard someone say, making me look up into the direction of the voice, which I found out came from Twilight. "-what can you tell me about your world?" "It's not bad." I simply stated, finishing up my first pancake, starting on the second. "Can you elaborate?" "Uhm, there wasn't any big war in a while, technology's improving every day, general lifespan is increasing because we make advances in the field of medicine, and so on. Though we're having problems with the environment for several reasons, and there're some problems involving certain countries, groups and politicians... That's just to name a few of them." I managed to explain between my eating, finishing the second pancake, already feeling sated. "How many countries does this planet have?" She asked as I licked my syrup-covered fingers clean. "Uhm, I'm not quite sure, but it should be something around 200." "Wow, that's...quite a lot... And when was the last big war?" "Uh...that depends on how you define 'big'... But I'd say 71 years ago would be the last 'big' war, the Second World War." I told her, leaning myself back into my chair, patting my belly once. "The second?" She raised one eyebrow. "How many casualties?" "There isn't an exact number, but it was something between 60 and 85 million people, if I remember correctly." I said, which in turn made all of them look at me with an open mouth. I think Twilight actually lost a bit of her food there. "Girls, why are you looking at me like that?" I asked them with a raised eyebrow. "Did ya just say sixty to eighty-five million?" Applejack asked me in horror, breaking the uncomfortable silence. "Yeah, why?" "Dude, 60-85 million? That's like, double the population of our whole home planet! You're telling us that like it's nothing!" Rainbow Dash said in shock, to which I just dryly chuckled. "Just how many of you are there??!" I shrugged. "Last I checked we were at around 7.3 billion." "You can't be serious." Twilight, finally snapping out of it, stated, her ears pinned back. "I am." "Just...how many wars have been fought on this world?" "Too many, way too many." I sighed in frustration. "There are definitely one or two going on at this moment, maybe even more, and that probably over some stupid shit like religion, or a tiny bit of land. That's just how we humans are, we really like starting wars over something small. But don't get me wrong, definitely not every human is like that. Most of them are as peace loving and friendly as I am, but there're always one or two that aren't and somehow get others to follow them." I coughed loudly. "Anyways, how's your leg, Scootaloo?." I asked, trying to change the subject, breaking the uncomfortable silence. "Huh? Oh, it's already getting better." She told me, shaking her head a little before smiling at me. "Glad to hear that." I said with a content nod. "And how are you Rainbow Dash?" "Dude, seriously, just call me Rainbow." She said, looking at me with a small forced smile. "I'm fine, though I'm still a bit sore...And thanks for patching me up yesterday..." "No problem." I told her, flashing her a genuine smile. "Though you have to thank your friends for taking you here in the first place." "Yeah, thanks Twilight,-" She said, directing her smile firstly at Twilight and then at Applejack. "-Applejack." Both gave her nods in return, though Twilight looked a bit guilty, her eyes splaying back. For what reason, I didn't know, but whatever it was, it looked like it was troubling her greatly. "Girls, do you think you could tell me a bit about your home?" I asked, thinking that maybe talking about her home will make Twilight a bit happier. "Sure!" Twilight said, already sounding a bit happier, her ears going back into a normal position. "Sooo, our country, Equestria, is ruled by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Princess Celestia is responsible for moving the sun, and Princess Luna for the moon." "Wait, are you trying to tell me, that they're able to move planets? How?" I interrupted. "Magic, silly!" "Yep, still can't get used to the fact that you can use magic..." "Why? Is there no magic in this world?" "Nope." "And who moves the sun and the moon?" Twilight asked, cocking her head to the side. "And who controls the weather?" Rainbow added. "Mother Nature." I replied. "Who's that?" Both asked in unison, making me facepalm, to which Scootaloo and Applejack started snickering. I facepalmed. "... It happens naturally." I explained through my hand. "Anyyyways,-" Twilight started confused, probably because of my gesture. "-where was I? Oh yeah, so it's ruled by Princess Celestia and Luna, who are both Alicorns like me,-" "Wait, does that make you one too?" "Yes, it does, but please, stop interrupting." "Sorry, Princess Twilight..." I gave her a sheepish smile and motioned with my right hand for her to continue. "And please don't call me that. Just Twilight will do." What followed next was nearly half an hour of a presentation about their culture, history, politic, economy and other things. I mean, Twilight even somehow got a chalkboard where she explained various things on. But I gotta say, It was kinda interesting. I learned that Applejack, Twilight, Rainbow, and three other friends of theirs, which names I forgot, were the 'Elements Of Harmony' and saved their country countless times. But, even though it was interesting, I started falling asleep when she started speaking about their economy. "...and this is how Princess Celestia saved Equestria from a financial collapse for the second time! Now, moving on to...William?" ZZZ-Zzzz-ZZzzz-hngGGggh-Ppbhww- zZZzzzZZ.... Yep, not only I fell asleep, the others did too. So, after getting nudged awake by a sad looking Twilight, I felt guilty for falling asleep while she was answering a question I had asked her. Really guilty. "Shit, Twilight, I'm so so sorry!" I nervously apologized, looking her directly in the eyes. "William, don't be sorry. I know I can kinda go overboard with teaching things." "Still, I asked you to tell me." I said, rubbing the back of my head nervously. "Shit, I feel bad now..." "Actually, Will? I told you about how we are from another dimension, right?" "Yes, you did, why?" I asked curiously, standing up from my chair, dwarfing Twilight. "Well...you see, I still don't know how I teleported me and the girls here, and I don't know how long it'll take me to find a way home. So, do you think we could stay here for some time?" "Yeah, why not?" 'Why not? If someone finds out, you're going to prison!' My brain reasoned, but I gave it no thoughts. I rather enjoyed their company. Something about them just made me feel a little more...happy inside. "Thanks William!" ZZZ-Zzzz-ZZzzz-hngGGggh-Ppbhww- zZZzzzZZ.... "You think we should wake them up?" "Yeah, and I think I know just how." Twilight answered, a small, evil smirk appearing on her face. "You should maybe cover your ears up..." I did as she told and she, upon seeing that, opened her mouth. "HEY GIRLS, WAKE UP!!!" Twilight yelled loudly. The effect was instant. Rainbow, Applejack and Scootaloo immediately jumped up in the air, their eyes widening, hovering there for like five seconds. I seriously have no clue how they did that. "WHAT THE BUCK WAS THAT?" Rainbow yelled, her wings flared, eyes darting around the kitchen, possibly looking for any signs of danger. "Ow...my ears..." Scootaloo said, ears tightly pressed against her head. "Twilight, was that really necessary?" Applejack asked annoyed, massaging her head with her right front hoof. "Next time, don't fall asleep while I'm explaining something." She said, her smirk growing bigger. "Yeah, anyways, I need to get into town and do some grocery shopping, if we want to have something to eat for the next days.-" I started, putting on a serious expression. "-So, please, if you don't want to end up being strapped down on a table in a laboratory with scientist examining you, you should stay in the house. Don't open the door to anyone while I'm away!" "Why would anypony strap us down?" Scootaloo asked puzzled. "Firstly, ponies here can't speak. Secondly, they have no wings,-" I pointed to Rainbows still extended wings. "-nor do they have horns." I then moved my finger over to Twilights horn. "Humans fear the unknown. Though, now that I think about it, I don't know if anyone could fear you girls. You're just too adorable." "Yeah, buck you too." Rainbow said, rolling her eyes at me and looking to the side, but that didn't really hide her red-tinted cheeks from my eyes. One hour later After cleaning the dishes with the help of Twilight (who simplified the process immensely with her magic), I prepared myself for going into town, which included showering, shaving and clothing properly. After grabbing my wallet and the car key from the nightstand in my bedroom, I walked downstairs into the kitchen, where the others were patiently waiting for me. "So, if anyone feels hungry, don't hesitate to raid the fridge." Giving the group a little smile, I turned my attention to Twilight. "And please Twilight, don't try to use the stove again. Don't want to see the house in flames when I get home." I told her, my smile turning into a smirk. She blushed and fumbled with her hooves nervously. I walked to the front door and opened it, looking back at the group of ponies I then said "I should be back before afternoon. Remember, don't, under any circumstances, open the door. Later!" Closing the door behind me and locking it, I went to the garage. Opening the gate, I walked to the side of my car and unlocked it, opened the drivers door, and the sat myself into the seat. Pulling the car key out of my pocket, I pushed it into the ignition lock, and turned the key, starting the engine. The sound the engine produced reminded me of that day. "We think that the woman, trying not to hit the deer, steered the car onto the side stripe of the road, but somehow lost control and then drove right into that tree." "Do you...do you know any names?" Shaking my head clear of those bad memories before they could overwhelm me, I drove out of the garage and onto the street that leads into the direction of town.