A Blissful Planet

by VonArmen

Act VI: A Game of Trust

“Normally, as to who’d go first, I would give it to whoever asked the last question, but that wouldn’t really seem fair, would it?” I pondered a bit before continuing, “How about this: royalty first?” I looked over to the Sun Deity, her demeanor calm and docile.

Celestia didn’t respond to my question. To be honest, I didn’t really care if she responded to it or not.

“Well, if no one else here has an objection, then by all means, Princess, go first.”

It did not take her very long to come up with a question for me. Of course, by “very long” I meant about four seconds, and with how immediate her question was to me, I’d almost say that she had been waiting to ask it for some time. “How many wars has your species had?”

To say that the question had thrown me off-guard would not be entirely accurate. I was expecting this question at some point or another whether it was during this game of ours, or after, but I was certainly not expecting it to be the first.

I chuckled a bit, “You’re not going to like the answer.”

“I believe I can manage.”

I shrugged, “Truthfully, I cannot give you a straight answer for that question. If you are referring to how many wars my species has had as a whole, I have lost track; and quite honestly, I don’t think my species has truly kept track of it either. I could give you an exact number within the last 120 years, but beyond that I could not say for certain.”

“Then allow me to rephrase my question: How many wars have your species had in the past century?” I believe she was getting a little testy with me at this point.

With how I responded, I could swear that the rest of the dinner table had thought that I had just gone insane. “Nine and counting.”

Everyone else sitting at the table had a fairly similar reaction: eyes wide, mouth agape. I believe I also heard Twilight mutter something along the lines of, “He’s got to be joking…” I could be wrong about that though, I never pressed her on the matter. It was only Celestia that had a differed reaction from the rest; after her eyes went wide, they immediately turned into a scowl, and as I was about to ask my question, that white horse interrupted me.

“That was a joke, was it not?”

“I take it that is a clarification question, so it will not count toward the number of questions asked for the game. As for the answer, that would be a ‘no.’”

Celestia’s scowl hardened, “And have you participated in one of these wars?”

I gave a sly smile, “It would not be wise to break the rules of this game. Everyone playing must abide by them for the game to continue. If you seriously wish for an answer to that question, you must first answer another question. Of course, if you want to stop playing now, and just barrage me with questions, then by all means, go ahead. Only problem with that is I don’t have to answer any of them. Take your pick.”

Her tone harshened, along with her attitude, “Then perhaps I’d have better luck arresting and interrogating you for the information! Maybe then you’d be more cooperative.”

Had it not been for the threat of her considering me to be a potential national terrorist, I would have laughed, “Cooperative? I’m more than willing to have your question answered; you need only to be patient for that question to be asked. The quicker you answer my question, the quicker you get to have yours answered. Fair enough?”

The Princess’ expression lightened up a bit.

“As for that question, it is a simple one, I’d imagine, for any of you that have those,” I pointed to the horn on her head. “What exactly is magic? I would hope that the answer would be as concise as possible. I’d rather not get into a three hour lecture on the principles and advanced mechanics of something that humans can’t even use, but then, I suppose beggars can’t be choosers.”

The room went silent after I asked my question. I’m not sure whether it was because no one wanted to answer it, or because of what their ruler had just previously said to me.

“Anyone?” I looked around at the rest of the dinner table for a response, “Well, if no one wishes to answer, I suppose I can ask another-”

“Magic,” I was cut off by none other than the Princess’ student, “Is the utilization of mana from the atmosphere, channeled into the body from the central focal point of one’s leyline system.”

Leyline system? Never heard of that before… Granted, my medical knowledge is rather limited. I guess I found my next question. “Thank you,” I replied. “Floor’s yours now, Twilight. Er- table, in this case.”

I got a confused look from everyone sitting at the table.

“What, you don’t have that saying here?” I thought a couple seconds for a way to rephrase my statement, “‘You may assume control,’ would be the best way I could think of to rephrase that.”

Twilight took that as her cue to start asking her question, to which she looked directly at Celestia to speak, “Why did you have guards follow us?”

To say that her question surprised me would be an understatement. I can already make a fairly decent assertion as to why she sent guards after me. Celestia considers me a threat; therefore she wants to keep tabs on me. Understandable; doesn’t mean I like it, but understandable all the same, Twilight just so happened to be with me at the time. Surely she must have figured that out, but her asking that question means there has to be something more going on that I’m not aware of. Did I miss something? Needless to say, I was very curious as to what Celestia’s answer was going to be.

Celestia was apparently just as confused as I was, “Twilight?”

“I’m sorry Princess, but I thought you trusted me! I explained to you that I would be able to handle this by myself. Do you not believe in me?”

I believe that was the first time I’ve ever seen royalty at a loss for words. Twilight Sparkle must mean a lot to her. “Twilight, I-”

“To be fair,” I interrupted, noticing the clear surprise in the Princess’ voice and actions, “If I was to have, say, tried to kill you on our trip in the forest to Tartarus, and there were no guard to stop me, you probably would have died. However, since I didn’t bother trying to do something like that, sending the guard to tailgate us seems rather pointless, doesn’t it?”

“But you would never do something like that!” Apparently somewhere down the line I had earned Twilight’s trust, and I didn’t even realize it. Even so…

I shook my head, “I am glad to find you think that way of me, but you didn’t know that, and neither did she. The Princess made the correct decision regarding your safety, being under the assumption that I was a serial killer.” I gave Celestia a wry smile, and then turned back to Twilight, “And had I been given the same scenario to deal with, I would have done the same.”

Twilight seemed to relax at this, if only just a bit.

I continued, “Of course, that question that you asked seems to still be unanswered,” I turned my gaze upon Celestia, “And I do hope it gets answered soon. It is a good one, after all.”

Celestia gave me a mixed stare, I’m sure one part of it was irritation, but another part seemed to be a bit of… Relief? Oh god, I’m so rusty at this. I guess that’s what happens when you haven’t been a detective in 20 years. “Twilight, of course I trust and believe in you, and I know you can handle yourself. I was merely concerned for your safety, as Hurricane has implied,” she turned towards me, “Perhaps I have judged you too harshly upon your arrival here. Because of this, I had put doubt in my most faithful student as well. I sincerely apologize, Hurricane.”

I smiled, “Don’t bother. Your response was an accurate and expected one,” I leaned in closer to the center of the table and motioned her to join me. She picked up the hint and I whispered into her ear, “Quite honestly, I would have been mad at you if you didn’t do that.”

Celestia leaned back into the small chair only to laugh, “I certainly didn’t expect you to take that so well.

“As I said, had I been given the same scenario, I would have done the exact same thing you did. Now then, I believe it’s your turn, Princess.”

“I believe so, as well,” her tone hardened, “Have you participated in any of those wars, Hurricane?”

This question again… I was considering skipping that question entirely. I don’t like delving into the past events of my life for good reason. With what I had to go through, I doubt anyone would blame me.

“…Yes, I have. Just one. It’s not exactly something I like thinking about, considering I didn’t have a choice as to whether I wanted to participate in it or not.”

The guard sitting next to Celestia looked disgusted after I said that. Even Twilight had a look of uncertainty in her face. Celestia looked very stern, but unsurprised that I said that. There was only one at the table confused by what we were talking about, and he decided to speak up on it.

“I don’t get it. What’s ‘war’?” Spike looked around the table expectantly for an answer.

With a question like that, I couldn’t help but smile and laugh.

“What? What’s so funny?”

My laughter subsided long enough for me to answer that, “Oh, no, I’m not laughing because of your question, I’m sorry, it’s just,” I couldn’t help but let out a few more chuckles before continuing. “I wish there more people like you on my planet, Spike. More people that didn’t know what war was.”

Spike gave me a concerned look, “Is this ‘war’ thing really that bad?”

I couldn’t help but start thinking about all the friends I’d lost in that war. One of them, decades of friendship lost in an instant. That moment will always be etched into my memory as the worst moment of my life. I was told by the rest of my squad that I wasn’t quite the same after that. They said before, despite the tightest of spots we’d been in, I was always the one still cracking jokes on our communications signal. I, personally, never noticed that. It didn’t really seem like something I’d do. After he died, though, they said I never talked at all. My squad told me they’d try to get my attention and call me for stupid little pranks every here and there when we weren’t fighting but I’d never answer them, let alone join them. Truthfully, everything after his death in the war was a really big blur for me. The only real things I remember about that time were his death, and the first night alone without him. It was the night, I realized, that a piece of me died with him. Whatever little happiness I had in my life going into that war, died with him. I find it hard to believe that the war was already 7 years ago, every time I think about his death it feels as though it was only moments ago. Sometimes I wish I had died with him in that dreadful war of ours…

I managed to keep that smile long enough to answer his question, despite what he got me thinking about. “Truthfully, I think if you go the rest of your life without knowing the answer to that question, Spike, you’d be better off. Also, I fully understand if the lot of you does not trust me anymore after knowing something like that. From what I can gather, what I’ve been through isn’t exactly commonplace around here.”

Mixed stares glanced back and forth between the members of the table before finally looking back at me.

“Perhaps we should end this game,” I suggested, “It appears as though the Princess found out what she needed, and that’s good enough for me, I suppose. What do the rest of you think about it?”

Utter silence.

“…We should keep going.” Twilight finally spoke up amongst the others, “I, for one, would like to learn more from you. I believe it was your turn.”

I remember a time when I used to be that eager to learn. It was back when he was still alive… I shrugged, “Fine by me. What’s this ‘leyline system’ I heard you mention?”

From this quick a response, I would imagine she knows this stuff off the top of her head, “The leyline system is responsible for the controlling of mana flow both in and out of your body. I suppose it’s a bit like the respiratory system, if I had to make a comparison. Did you follow that?”

So that’s how she uses magic. This “leyline system” must direct mana from the surrounding area and then converts it in her body to cast spells that are channeled from that horn of hers. That was also a surprisingly effective analogy. “Yeah, I follow you. The analogy helped a lot, thanks for that.”

“Not a problem!” she smiled, then continued, “Now, may I ask, does your species have technology? If so, how technologically advanced are you?”

“This may or may not be a fair assumption, but from what I’ve seen here, my species is far more technologically advanced than this. Do you have computers?”

“Yes, we do. The top computers in Equestria process at about five megahertz (MHz) per second. Why do you ask?”

“I figured I was going to give a pretty fair contrast of our technological advancements based on computer specifications, but uh, you might not believe me if I tell you average household computer processing speeds as of 2033.”

“Oh, I’m sure it can’t be that much of a difference! What is it at, ten MHz? Twenty?”

“…Try 4 gigahertz (GHz) for the average desktop computer, and roughly 2.5 GHz for mobile devices.”

If Twilight’s jaw wasn’t stuck to her face, it would have definitely been on the floor at this point. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone that surprised about something before. This must mean a lot to her.

I waved my hand in front of her face to try to get her attention, “Hey, you alright over there?” No response. She’s really taking this seriously… “Eh, give her a minute or two; I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

“The last time she got like this was when she found out Starswirl the Bearded had his own wing in the Canterlot archives dedicated to all his research,” Celestia noted.

“And when exactly did she come back to her senses on that one?”

Spike answered that, “Oh, she must’ve been sitting like that when she found out for at least ten minutes. She’ll be fine.”

Well, that’s a relief. For a minute there I was almost worried.

Spike continued, “So is what you said true?”

“About the processing speed?”

He nodded, “I keep track of that stuff, too, and 5 MHz is a pretty big deal for us. I dunno whether I believe you on that.”

I guess I should prove it to him, which reminds me, I never checked my pockets for their contents, did I? Guess now is as good a time as any to check. I slid my hands into the two front pockets of my pants I was wearing that were covered by my cloak, which I had to move out of the way before I rummaged.

I apparently had my phone, wallet, and set of keys stuffed in my front pockets. It’s both a good and a bad thing that I wasn’t wearing skinny jeans, because there’s no way in hell I could have dealt with my keys stabbing me in the leg every time I took a step. Hate those blasted things. Unfortunately, if I was wearing them I would have noticed I had stuff in my pockets earlier and tried using my cell phone to get any kind of contact with my own species. Of course, even if I did try, it wouldn’t have worked either way, considering their lower standard of technology, lack of telephone poles, and the fact that this is a completely different planet, regardless of what universe it’s in. Pretty sure phone companies don’t provide coverage off-planet.

Anyway, I grabbed my phone and handed it to Spike, “This has 2.5 GHz processing speed. Assuming it still has a charged battery to work off of; you can give it a go. There’s a lock button on the top, just press it and slide the screen with your, uh, claw to the right. You’ll know you’ve done it right when you see a bunch of different pictures you can touch. Don’t worry if you hit the lock button and it doesn’t light up, by the way, it just means that it’s out of power and needs to be charged.”

…Yeah, probably not the best call I’ve made since I arrived here, giving a technologically lacking species that’s barely scratched the surface of technological advancement a Windows phone. Then again, I did feel the need to prove it to him, and chances are they’d reach that point in their technological advancements at some point in the near future anyway, so it didn’t really hurt that much. This planet would just get a huge jumpstart on getting the internet, which I’m actually not sure whether that would help them or not, considering what social media has done to my society. I doubt it would have the exact same impact on them, though, due to their species being so reliant and trusting of each other. Still, a little security wouldn’t be bad, either…

“Oh, and would you happen to mind keeping what you find out on that a secret? I wouldn’t want to culture-shock your society by handing them technology they’re not ready for yet.”

Spike looked up from my phone inquisitively, “Are you worried about that because of how you got here?”

Wait, what? I folded my arms, a bad habit I have when I get annoyed by something or someone, “How the hell did you know about that?”

“Rainbow mentioned it after she came to deliver Twilight’s message about keeping the library in tip-top shape while she was gone. Is that what it is?”

I should have guessed. That idiot needs to stop treating conjecture like it’s fact. I guess I need to be more careful about what I say to her from now on. “That’s a part of it, I suppose, but it’s not the whole reason. I’d be worried regardless of where or when I was from. It is not wise to meddle in the affairs of a society that’s less developed than yours in some way. I showed that to you to prove I wasn’t lying, not to suddenly introduce technology that I know your society isn’t ready for,” I noticed that he managed to get my phone turned on due to the light that illuminated the bottom of his face, “Huh, I’m surprised that thing still even has battery life. Nice job on figuring it out so quickly, by the way.”

Not gonna lie, I’m pretty impressed. Considering he’s probably still used to computers that take up entire rooms and reading the data it processes off of printed paper, he’s taking it very well.

Celestia got our attention, “What do you mean, ‘how you got here’?”

“Well, it’s only conjecture at this point, but I have reason to believe that I am from an alternate version of your planet, and because of that my presence here would be a paradox for your timeline. In theory, whatever I do here would therefore cause permanent damage to your universe due to this fact, so I am rather hesitant to really make much of an impact here, but I see that that can be unavoidable in some cases.”

Celestia flashed a surprised look, “Are you so certain of this? That is quite the claim to make. I heard something similar from the mayor, but she can tend to have a bit of an imagination sometimes, so I assumed she was just exaggerating.”

“As I said, it’s only conjecture, but considering we share many of the same species of plants and animals between our worlds, on top of the language we are speaking it is a distinct possibility. Actually, come to think of it…”

I got up out of my seat over to the window to look at the stars outside. I opened it and poked my head out with my arm so I could trace what constellations I knew from that one astronomy class I took back in my first year of college. I immediately noticed the Orion’s Belt constellation along with the Sagittarius and Polaris stars; whatever doubts I had about me not being from an alternate universe ended right there.

I closed the window and sat back down in my seat, “Yep, definitely alternate universe. I saw the North Star and Orion’s Belt almost immediately. That means that this planet is in roughly the same exact spot as mine in terms of rotation and axis. At the very least, if this still is the same universe, I didn’t go very far from my home planet. I use the term ‘far’ very loosely in this context, of course.”

“What did you mention that device was called?”

“I didn’t, but if you’d like to know, it’s called a ‘cellular phone’. It’s a device used to contact another individual who also has a cellular phone as long as you have reception.”

She gave a confused look, “How can you contact another with a device like that? Do you have this ‘reception’ now?”

I shook my head, “Unfortunately, no, I don’t. I’m a little fuzzy on the details, since this isn’t exactly my area of expertise, but phone reception can be obtained with a specific radio wave that’s broadcasted over a wide area. A phone taps into that radio wave and can transmit your voice to another individual that has a phone, and likewise with whoever you’re talking to. It’s a gross oversimplification, but that’s more or less how it works.”

She gave a nod, as if she understood, “Hmm, I see. Yes, that would be quite the culture shock for us. I, too, would very much appreciate it if this ‘discovery’ of ours was held off from the public eyes and ears until they are ready for it.”

Spike nodded, “My mouth is shut Princess!” He made a zipping-up motion over his mouth with his claw after he said it.

“I’m sorry, what were we talking about?” Twilight had apparently come to her senses during our conversation.

“Welcome back,” I greeted, “Not sure if I should tell you this, but apparently my phone still works so I let Spike use it. We were just agreeing that this information shouldn’t be released to the public eyes and ears.”

“Phone?” She questioned, looking over at Spike to see what I was talking about.

I looked back over at Celestia while those two were discussing my piece of technology, “I suppose this means our little game came to a bit of an abrupt end. But, if you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you just one more question.”

Celestia smiled, “As long as I get to ask you one in return.”

Well played. “Fair enough. From what I understand, your governmental structure is reforming to that of a diarchy, but how exactly have you kept a system of government like this continuing for such an extended period of time? I suppose what I’m really asking is, why has your monarchy been so successful that it continued for a thousand years?”

Celestia seemed confused again, “You mean you do not have such a system of government ruling over your countries? Almost all of our systems of government here are some forms of monarchy. There has only been one country that didn’t have a monarchy, and that was well over one thousand years ago now.”

Wow. I almost don’t believe it. Most of this planet, governed by some form of monarchy spreading over all sorts of different countries… I dread the day my species comes here, if that day ever comes. “Let’s just say that my people aren’t exactly fond of the concept of monarchy, considering there are maybe only a handful of countries left as of 2034 that still use that system of government.”

“Surprising,” she commented, “But in regards to your question, I believe the answer would be ‘trust’.”

“Trust?” I echoed.

“Yes, I have given a reason for my little ponies to trust me in my many years of ruling over them. I cherish that trust with my life, and I’d sooner perish before I let anything happen to them.”

I just sat there, awestruck at what she just told me. Absolutely unbelievable. If her mentality ever changes about that her kingdom is literally fucked. I doubt she’d let it happen easily, but if she were to ever get controlled or even killed, this kingdom would almost definitely fall into ruin. Furthermore, hasn’t her sister been banished for a thousand years for trying to basically rid the planet of life? How can Celestia even trust her after that, let alone welcome her with open arms back into a major position of power in her government? This is why monarchies have been considered outdated for a long time. One person contains too much power and ultimately ends up fucking over their country in some way or another. How she’s managed to even maintain her system of government, let alone keep it running for this long, is far beyond my comprehension.

“…I see,” I finally commented, still trying to get over the fact that her system of government was a ticking time bomb, just waiting to go off at the worst possible time.

“Now, for what I’d like to ask you,” Celestia started, “I believe you have already demonstrated that your species, albeit more violent, is more technologically advanced than us, but I would like to know how well you connect as a whole.”

I gave a confused look and cocked my head sideways to her.

“What I’m asking is, how well does your species make friends?”

Ah, so that’s what she was after. “I can’t speak for my species as a whole when I say this; everyone’s different. Personally, I didn’t end up making that many friends. I only had a few very close ones that I felt I could trust, but they’re… gone, now.”

Celestia smiled, “I see I made the correct choice in leaving you in Twilight’s care. I don’t know why I ever doubted her.” She looked up at the clock and slowly got up out of her seat when she noticed what time it was. “I believe it’s just about time to raise the sun, but before I do; Hurricane?”

Dare I ask? “What?”

“I am officially making this a royal order: you shall be placed under Twilight’s care so that you too may learn some valuable lessons about friendship. It will not be lifted until you make at least as many close friends as you had back at your home.”

I deadpanned. Are you fucking kidding? “What.” I would have protested a lot more than that if I didn’t get so damned tired from nonstop travelling for three days. I could feel the exhaustion start to sink in after she made that order.

“You heard,” she said, still smiling, “Make some friends.”

I really wanted to protest this. I mean, I REALLY wanted to protest this. This, by far, was one of the stupidest requests/demands I had gotten since I was there. Getting rid of an ancient creature that I thought was only myth up until yesterday? Easy. Bringing it back to its home, which just so happened to literally be a form of hell? No problem. Keeping me here in the care of some purple unicorn to learn about making friends? Now you’re just asking the impossible. Seriously, I don’t know what part of the whole “social recluse” character trait they missed in conversing with me, but it should have been pretty obvious. After all, I ditched an entire party of ponies to converse with solely because of the facts that for one, I don’t speak to anyone unless spoken to; and two, I keep conversations incredibly brief and to the point. If I were to make an estimate of how long I spent talking to individuals since I got here, it was probably only about 6 or 7 hours total, and that’s being generous. This is also about double the amount that I spent talking to anyone in the past month that I remember. I’m already out of my comfort zone with that alone; I don’t need some needy ass holes breathing down my neck asking me for stuff every five minutes because we’re “friends.” I swear I’m good at making friends when I want to, really. …I know you’re giving me that look. Don’t give me that look; I’m telling the truth, I’m serious.

“This is astounding!” Twilight changed the topic, “I would never have imagined that a computer could get so advanced! Do you think you could tell me more about this later, Hurricane?”

Still confused over the Celestia’s decree, I just nodded in agreement to Twilight’s request. I could feel my eyelids becoming heavier, making it ever harder to stay awake. I guess I really am getting old if I can’t manage to strain my body like this anymore.

I drearily got up to see Celestia and her guard out with Twilight so that I could see what the whole “Summer Sun Celebration” thing was about, but by the time I made it outside and Twilight closed the door, my body could no longer take the strain of being awake.

The last thing I remember about that night was my vision suddenly going black and the sensation of falling.

Author's Note:

Sorry about the delay on this chapter. Went back to fine tune it a bit, and before I knew it my Japan trip came up along with my move to Arizona. Finally got internet set up in my house today, so uploaded this thing as soon as I could. I have the next two chapters lined up and just about ready to upload onto here. Just need to sweep over 7 and make sure it's good and finish the last bit I have left to write on for 8 and they'll be good. 7 will be up within the week.

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[white_raven]

Two of my favorite stories just came back after a year of hiatus, oh happy day indeed.