Fairy Tale

by Veck

A Lucky Ride to the Castle

Wedgemare, Equestria
November 13th

With it now being a little past noon (not that it was easy for Jonathan to tell with the sun not moving), the plaza of Wedgemare was now twice the center of activity it had been earlier in the day. Many stores and shop-stands that had been closed earlier were now open for duty. Unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies either walked toward various destinations, or simply stood and chatted with their friends.

For the town's citizens, it was just a normal day.

Sure, the trio of friends might've gotten a few odd glances here and there—that was to be expected when a new being popped into the town—but these ponies knew that many a strange-looking creatures called the young nation of Equestria and the surrounding lands their home, so they were used to such a thing. So after getting a good look at the hairless ape, the ponies shrugged and went about their day.

Truly, the sight of this all would have reminded Jonathan a little of his old home in St. Joseph...

…if he hadn't been so preoccupied with his struggle to come to grips with his new reality.

“So...let me get this straight.... You guys have magic: levitation, teleportation, etc.”

“Correct!” said Celestia. With a slight frown, she added, “Though teleporting is a little out of my reach for now.”

The second part of her statement was lost to Jonathan and the swirl of thoughts rummaging through his head. While he had been doing fine just accepting that magic was real in this world of talking, sapient ponies—something about controlled weather tipped him over the edge of disbelief. “And you—the pegasi—control the weather.”

“Again, correct.”

Jonathan nodded, reassuring himself more than anything. Laughing, he glanced up to the sky and hesitantly muttered, “...you know, I'm almost worried to ask if you ponies move the sun.”

“Actually—“

“Your highnesses!”

There was a disturbance from above. All around the three, citizens abruptly stopped whatever they were doing—some even managed to knock over ponies in front of them from a lack of paying attention.

Jonathan looked up to find the source of the voice, and saw it was a...flying carriage? Two armor-garbed pegasi flew in front of the white and gold vehicle, reigns held securely in their mouths. Lowering the carriage, the guards flapped their wings slower and slower until after several seconds; it landed soundlessly on the stone road. A robed unicorn leaped out.

“Hey, Cloves'!” Luna called out, wildly waving a hoof at the white mare.

Celestia looked more confused than anything, but waved anyway. “Hello, Clover.”

So these two recognize the wom—the mare, Jonathan thought, correcting himself mid-thought. He continued observing the green-maned unicorn with curiosity. Then, something struck him. WAIT, 'YOUR HIGHNESSES'?! ...the castle I saw behind them should've tipped me off, honestly—but SERIOUSLY?

“Princess Celestia, Princess Luna—where have you two BEEN? The king and queen are worried sick about you two!” Clover asked. She was glaring down at the two with a look that could've melted rock.

Celestia recoiled slightly in shock. “Wait, wh—oh...” Suddenly, her face flushed a deep red color.

“What, Tia?”

“I...hehe...” Celestia giggled nervously, her eyes darting left and right. “I...kinda forgot? To tell mother and father that we were leaving today?”

Luna's eyes widened as she exclaimed, “You WHAT?!”

“I-it was an honest mistake!” Celestia shot back.

Clover still stood by the carriage, watching the two sisters bicker back and forth until the anger in her features slowly disappeared to be replaced by amusement. “Now come on, come on...just hop up into the carriage, princesses,” she said with a snort. “These guards here will take us back to the castle where I'm sure you two will get quite the stern talking to.”

“But what about our friend, Cloves'?”

Suddenly, all eyes were on Jonathan. One second; Clover was still standing over by the carriage, and the next; she was not even a foot away from him. She walked slow circles around Jonathan, her purple eyes intensely scanning every inch of him. “What...what ARE you...?”

“I-I'm a human,” Jonathan stuttered, uncomfortable with the sudden close-proximity.

Clover looked over Jonathan once more before she nodded to herself, turned in place, then hopped into one of the carriage's front seats. “...alright. Your...friend, can come back with us.”

“YAAAY!” Both Luna and Celestia climbed into the a carriage after Clover. They quickly settled into the seats behind her before casting expectant glances back over at Jonathan. He hesitated a moment—glanced around at the crowd of ponies still watching the event unfold within their small town—then let out a sigh.

You saw how that unicorn looked at you, who knows what they're gonna do to you once they get you into that castle, Jonathan?

I really don't think Celestia and Luna would allow that to happen.

How are you so sure?

Frowning at the thoughts in his head, Jonathan took one step toward the carriage. Then another.

This is your last chance, Jonathan! RUN!

Deciding to ignore the nagging pessimist in his head, he took a step closer and rested his hands on the gold trim. He easily threw a leg over the edge of the carriage, then climbed in and settled awkwardly into the seat right next to Clover. The thing was...surprisingly comfortable, but even that didn't do too much to help his nerves at the moment.

Within the next few seconds, the two guard ponies guiding the carriage flapped their wings and they lifted off the ground. Slowly, they gained height and turned toward the castle.

If it wasn't the paranoia about the unicorn taking them back to the castle making him nervous about this whole thing, it was the fact that Jonathan had terrible motion sickness—he had thrown-up several times any time he rode in a boat, and though he had never been in an airplane; he assumed it would be much the same. Truth be told, Jonathan expected his stomach to be doing turns from the movements of the vehicle. As the ride went on, however, and they passed high over the river from earlier, it wasn't actually that bad. The ride was turbulence-free. Eventually, as they continued flying higher and higher—Jonathan found himself actually sightseeing.

This land was beautiful; familiar-looking to him somewhat, but just so...different. Strange. New. These creatures—these ponies—they had magic. He hadn't even seen it to its full-extent yet, and it already mystified him. And not only that, but the pegasi controlled the weather here. To reiterate: the force-of-nature that proved to be difficult to even PREDICT back on Earth—these ponies CONTROLLED that. It was like something out of those cheesy old spy movies, though there didn't appear to be any diabolical villains or weather machines. ...that he could see, anyway.

With all of that in mind, though, a question slowly poked its way into Jonathan's head. A question that, while he had asked himself it back on Earth, he had never felt it was as...significant as it was in this land.

What did he have to offer this land?

He couldn't control a spark of magic. Levitation was but an illusion where he was from, and teleportation was more science-fiction than anything. Looking back to what had plagued his mind when he previously asked himself this question—he also didn't consider himself to be especially clever, intelligent, nor strong. Sure he had had good grades in school, but those didn't really require brains. And with football he hadn't really specialized in strength.

He was a runner at heart.

“Psssst!” Jonathan suddenly heard from his left, breaking him from his thoughts.

He turned to look at the mare, Clover, who was watching him with that same scanning look from before. From his spot in the carriage, Jonathan saw that she also had one of those odd tattoos on her flank and—true to her name—it was a four leaf clover. “Excuse me, Mister...?”

“...it's Jonathan. My name is Jonathan,” he whispered back. Despite being terrified, Jonathan decided cooperating would be the best course of action for the time being.

Clover looked at him with a confused look before muttering to herself, “...odd name...

“...anyway, Mister 'Jonathan'...I've never SEEN nor HEARD of one of your kind before. Not once! Even in all my years of studying with the honorable Star Swirl The Bearded.”

While Jonathan was not in the slightest bit familiar with the name, it did sound somewhat important.

“I'm sure you can understand how much of a scientific anomaly this type of thing is...correct, Mister Jonathan?”

He nodded in response.

“So, listen...would it—would it be acceptable to you if I—”

“S-study me?” Jonathan finished with a gulp.

“Indeed!”

Jonathan took his gaze off of her, peering over the edge of the carriage. Again, he didn't really have a fear of heights, but the idea of breaking several bones in his body on impact with the ground didn't sound at all appealing to him. Even with that in mind, though, he briefly considered taking the leap anyway. “Will it...will it hurt...?” he eventually replied, his eyes still not on her.

He nearly fell out of the carriage anyway with how much he flinched when he felt the mare nuzzle his shoulder. Looking wide-eyed at her, he instantly took note of the look of concern that had taken over Clover's face, and relaxed slightly.

“Despite how studious I may be, Jonathan...I still have a heart,” she said, giving him her best comforting smile. Clover had never been the 'motherly' type, but she could see that this colt needed it right now. “Please trust me when I say I would NEVER harm anypony.”

Jonathan stared into her eyes; searching for any semblance of lying or trickery in the bright purple irises, but eventually returned the smile when he found none.

“I'm just going to use a simple scanning spell on you that—is harmless,” Clover quickly added, seeing the look of worry in his eyes. “After that, I'll just ask you a few questions about your species; diet, lifespans, simple biology—that sort of thing if possible. ...do you think you can give an answer to most of these?”

“I’ll try my best.”

“That's good to hear! The spell should give me most of the answers I need, but it’s almost always better to hear it firsthoof from a creature’s mouth. Don’t worry, Jonathan, I'll try to make it quick once we get back to the castle, which...well, it appears we're arriving at right now.”

Looking down, Jonathan saw that she was correct. The castle he had seen earlier when first meeting the princesses (he still wasn't sure how to feel about that new fact) was below them, gradually getting closer to them as the carriage began to lower toward the ground. All the chills he had initially felt when he saw the castle—they were all coming back to him. Even from this height, Jonathan could see that the structure was GIGANTIC.

“Ooh! Ooh! Can't wait for ya' to meet our parents, Jonathan!” Luna exclaimed, rocking his seat with her hooves.

“Don't you forget, little fillies, the king and queen are still going to be upset with you,” said Clover, warning the two sisters. “You two know they take your safety very seriously.”

“Yeah, yeah...”

“Psst! Hey, Jonathan!”

Jonathan turned to see Celestia leaning forward in her seat (ponies didn't sit like humans, unsurprisingly), a brow raised. “Yes?”

“What was it that Clover talked to you about? I heard her whispering, but couldn't understand her—of course, I could've just used an eavesdropping spell, but I'm pretty certain she's trained to detect those....”

“She's just curious about humans is all. Apparently, she hadn't ever heard of us before.”

Celestia nodded, putting a hoof to her chin. “Well...if you're really an alien like you said, that's not surprising...”

After a few more seconds, the carriage touched down in front of the castle. Despite the ride not being anywhere NEAR as bad as he had expected it to be, Jonathan couldn't help but happily sigh when his shoes came in contact with the grass. Solid ground just felt so much better to him.

“Well, Jonathan, here we are,” said Clover, shaking her head at the fact that Luna had already disappeared within the massive castle. She smiled, however; and began walking toward the massive doors. “Now if you'll just follow the princess and I, Jonathan, we'll lead you to the throne room where—hopefully—we can get you acquainted with the king and queen of Equestria.”

Nodding, Jonathan followed without a word behind the two unicorns. This day has been...SOMETHING, that's for sure, he thought, idly scratching the back of his neck. Looking down at the book he had been cradling in his hand for the longest time, Jonathan grinned and once again skimmed through the pages absentmindedly. Speaking of which—I've STILL gotta make time to read this at some point today. If I'm going to be living in this world, then I really should get used to magic as fast as possible.

Noticing he had started to fall a little behind Clover and Celestia—who traversed the vast, beautiful halls of the castle with the utmost ease—Jonathan stowed the book under an arm and jogged to catch back up.

Author's Note:

Update only a week later!