The Woes of Scorpan

by articunos bitch

Past 2-First Hand Experience

Being the first to step out of the circle, Prince Scorpan wandered off and took in his new surroundings. He heard firsthand reports of this place, saw the pictures along with vegetation, soil and rock samples. But none of that compared to the breathtaking beauty that man had hardly glanced at. The colors struck him first. They were so…defined.

The overcast sky was so many more shades of grey than he imagined. Back in Ur, he had 20/35 vision, but here he could still make out individual needles on the pine trees off in the distance. Maybe the land lent him superior vision? Kneeling down, he smelled the soil: the rain that recently fell on it, the animal dropping that decayed into it, even the rocks that were ground to make it. Lifting his head, he heard thunder in the distance. Perhaps the summer storm was rolling away, or coming back. He would sell his hand to experience the rain in this world. They would stay here a week, so he had more than enough time to feel natural rain or even a pegasi created rain on his skin. If his wife Baugh was here, she would be scolding him for taking too much time for a “first experience,” at the same time she would be jealous for his attention. But she decided to stay home this trip. “I can always go later. Knowing you, you're are going to plan many more trips to that world.” He suspected she was feeling ill again. She never could handle stress well.

A whole world had been discovered apart from their own. Filled with talking magical animals, colors to make their home world seem as dull as an early picture, and untouched by the hands of man. Only accessible by skilled wizards and their Talis cycles, Scorpan learned everything he could from the scientists and wizards who visited only months ago. Being a man of science, Scorpan knew enough about what man did not know to not be surprised that other worlds existed. And learning that they had not just life, but sentient, intelligent, capable life was astounding.

Technically he was a civilian on this voyage, but he was also financing this individual trip. He did not have any “assigned” task, but it was his money and he came to explore and conduct his own experiments. Pulling out a watch, a weight, and a protractor he measured the height of a tree, marking twelve meters off. Magically levitating his weight to the mark, he dropped it the same instant he activated his watch.

Thud. The first drop was measured at 1.5 seconds, just like in their home world. His next two attempts both measured at 1.6 seconds, but he already calculated (and experimented) that a twelve meter drop would take 1.58 seconds in his world. And not having access to a more accurate watch right now gave him a rounding error for an answer. But he could conclude that this new world had approximately. 1G of gravity. Tonight he could start figuring out the planet's diameter. He doubted he would get an accurate answer this trip but it was worth a try.

Looking to the sky again he saw a pink dot flying under the clouds. That might just be one of the talking animals the previous scientists mentioned. This lands primary inhabitants seemed to be equines of three varieties: calling themselves Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi. They also mentioned alicorns, but never specified what an alicorn was, having never seen one in person, but they spoke about them with awe, almost reverence. They spoke of other species as well, but they were yet to be seen.

The pink dot started growing and was coming towards him specifically. The ponies had not been judged to be hostile, more “dim-witted.” The scientists before had not seen them actually work, but learning about them was one of his own little projects. If humans were to live here, they would need to avoid hostilities with the locals, so what better way than to speak with them himself?

The pegasus hovered above and looked at him questionably. For an equine, it had a surprisingly easy face to read. It has a pink pelt with a blue mane and tail, and a bow tied around its tail. It called out to him, “Who are you?”

He read that they spoke his language, but no-one could figure out how. The underground theory was telepathy, not that there was any prove. “My name is Scorpan. I am a human. What is your name?”

The pegasis landed on her hooves in front of him and slowly paced forward. “I’m Firefly. I’m from Dream Castle. Where do you come from?” She seemed to warm up to him quickly.

“I’m from-we, all of the other humans here are from a place called Ur. We found this place and I have…a great interest in it. We’re here to learn about it.”

“I can tell you all about Ponyland! I meet a bunch of humans who came before. They were very strange.”

“When did this happen?” This was another important research subject to him.

Watches explorers brought with them never matched current time when they came back and it was theorized that time moves faster in this world. The differences were never more than five minutes but they were clear. On top of this, longer trips made for greater differences. Scorpan thought maybe the relative speed of time “grew” the longer they were here. This was to be the longest expedition to this land yet and he planned on leaving another watch somewhere safe to retrieve the next time a team came.

“Almost a year ago.” Hmm, I’m going to need some work to study that.

“Were you the only one to talk to them? Did you tell anyone else about them?”

“Yeah, and no. I was afraid at first, but they seemed busy. So I went up and talked to them. They nearly jumped out of their skin. Ha ha.”

Scorpan had read their notes, they had mentioned speaking to only one pony. A pegasus named Firefly. She was bold and reckless, but she kept their existence a secret from her pony friends. She spoke of them a lot…

Scorpan inquired, “Can you tell me about the other ponies that live here? I heard there are unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies. Can they have children with each other? Are there wars? What technologies do you have?” He took out his notepad and pencil.

“Unicorns and pegasi can have children with each other. My friend Gusty, her dad’s a unicorn but her mom and dad are like that. She’s a unicorn but can control the wind. My grandpa’s an earth pony, and so is my brother.” Firefly had no issue divulging her family tree to a stranger, so ponies, or at least she was very trusting.

“It sounds like genetics work the same here…” he muttered to himself.

“What’s ‘genetics’?” she asked.

“DNA.” She looked at him blankly. “It’s what determines characteristics about your body.” She continued to stare at him.

“Like, ‘It’s in your blood.’ None of this makes sense?”

“Um…”

“Moving on. What’s the difference between each kind of pony?”

“Pegasi can fly, unicorns can do different kinds of magic, but most of them can levitate. And earth ponies are strong. Like really strong. And they are solid. Posey fell down a flight of stairs and laughed it off. Then Fizzy fell down the stairs too and she broke her leg and a rib.”

Still scribbling away Scorpan asked, “What about alicorns? What are they? What makes them special?”

“Oh, alicorns are huge ponies that live out in Equestria.” She pointed her hoof east. “There are two of them living in Everfree Castle. They raise the sun and the moon.”

He looked up from his notes. “I’m sorry, could you repeat that?”

“Princess Celestia raises the sun and Nightmare Moon raises the moon. I like the sun much better.”

Trying to wrap his head around what could only be a pun, Scorpan clarified what he heard. “So a pony princess named CELESTIA raises the sun. And a pony named NIGHTMARE raises the moon? Oh boy. Pfft…I’m talking to a horse, what do I expect?” He started talking to himself before he realized he still had work to do. “So I’m guessing Nightmare is a female too. Why does a princess raise the sun?”

Firefly didn't notice or care about his eccentrics and continued talking with him. “Nightmare Moon is a princess too. She used to call herself Luna but she changed. They are sisters and rule Equestria.”

“Uh yeaahh. Thank you. What about other alicorns?”

“I don’t know of any. They have been around for hundreds of years but I’ve never heard of any sisters or brothers or cousins. I know they have a mother but I don’t know much about her. All I know is she’s pretty.”

“So what separates alicorns from others? Is it just their size and…immortality?”

“No. They have horns and wings. And their magic is much stronger than any unicorn's.”

“Is there anything else you can tell me about them? Are there other kinds of ponies?”

“There are sea ponies that live in the oceans, lakes and rivers. And Flutterponies know a lot about magic, but I have never met them.”

“Do you often meet beings and keep them secret from others?”

“I meet a lot of creatures. There are griffins, troglodytes, the Crab Monks. I’m trust worthy. And you’re not going to hurt any-one.”

Scorpan noticed a fire in the direction of camp. Looking at his pocket watch, he realized he had been gone almost an hour! “Firefly, I need to get back to camp. Do you want to meet the others? They’re scientists too.”

“No. I have to go too. Maybe we’ll see each other someday.”

She took to the skies while he packed up and headed for the fire to discuss, or keep hold of his secrets.

Comments

[alexanderhunt88]

I'm confused about how Nightmare raises the moon

[articunos bitch]

3027540 Nightmare Moon is a persona Princess Luna created for herself. I explain later that if she won't be loved than she will be feared, don't worry about her. This takes place about one hundred ten years before Nightmare Moon's Eclipse. I hope to show a side of her that I have not seen any-one else do.

[alexanderhunt88]

3030757 Cool. I eagerly await the next chapter.

[Leave a Whisper]

a few words are misspelled here and there but an interesting crossover