Sojourner

by LastAmongEquals

Q & A

Chapter 3

“Q & A”

---

I figured opening with a wave couldn’t hurt.

It was something simple, non-offensive—all that stuff; but as soon as I raised my arm all three ponies drew back, eyeing me warily. I put my hand back down very, very slowly, rather afraid of the prospect of making things worse when half of the room had unknown powers. I glanced around the room, trying to find escape routes.

If I see a hint of a horn glowing, I’m going to make a break for the window.

Hesitantly, I took a few steps forward towards the circle and the open chair/bench/seat. I felt like a circus exhibit with how intently the three watched me. I tried to gesture towards the seat in a “is this seat taken” sort of way, but it didn’t really get a response from anyone. I shrugged and sat down.

The stares were starting to get uncomfortable. I needed an in, and soon.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash glanced at each other. “Uh... what now?” Rainbow asked.

“Don’t look at me, I don’t know!” Twilight huffed, looking to her mentor with obvious distress. “I mean, does it even understand what we’re saying?”

Aaaaaaand, there it is.

I nodded.

All three sets of eyes sprang back to me.

“Wait...” Rainbow said, leaning forward and narrowing her eyes. “Did you just nod?”

I nodded again, letting a big ol’ grin spread across my face.

Twilight cocked her head to the side. “And you’re not just nodding because we’re saying things to you?”

I turned to her and shook my head in confirmation.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash’s jaws dropped. It was fantastic.

“Oh wow!” Rainbow crowed. “We meet something from another world, and it can understand us! How cool is that?”

“I—wow—I have so many questions...” Twilight muttered, shaking her head absently. “I, uh, what’s your name, I guess?”

...well, damn.

I grimaced, glancing around nervously—maybe for inspiration, I don’t know.

Twilight frowned. “You don’t want to tell us?”

I shook my head, frustrated.

“You can’t speak,” the Princess finally said, more of a statement than a question.

I nodded, touching a hand to my throat as I let out a raspy breath and winced.

“Oh...” Twilight said, her ears falling back as she slumped. She looked so disappointed it hurt to see. “Are you injured?”

Was I? I mean, yeah, my throat was wrecked, but what was she going to try to do about it? I gave her a hesitant nod.

“I know a few basic healing spells, do you think that could help?”

If the last time she used magic on me was any indication of what that would feel like, I’d honestly rather just die, but I didn’t really have any way to communicate that concept beyond a vigorous head-shake.

Twilight seemed confused, but she relented. “Well, then, what do we do?”

“Just yes and no?” Rainbow suggested.

I frowned as I thought of just how quickly that would get annoying. No, what I really need is a... way— Wait, paper!

I put my palm flat out, pantomiming writing on it with my other hand, hoping that one of the ponies in the room would catch on.

It took a few moments, but Twilight eventually realized what I was requesting. “Oh, right! Writing!” She perked up, her ears springing back to alertness as she scanned the room for supplies.

A small bound notebook, a quill, and a small pot of ink floated over from a nearby table to hover in front of my nose, wrapped in the faint purple haze that denoted Twilight’s magic. I shied away from it without thinking, unwilling to get any closer to the magical field than I had to. Thankfully, Twilight seemed to realize my position and set the objects down in front of me.

A quill... I wondered, shaking my head. This place is so weird...

I slipped off of the chair to sit on the floor, cross-legged. All three ponies watched me closely with varying degrees of amusement at the ways my body moved and bent. I picked up the quill, dipped it into the ink, and scrawled a single messy, splotchy word on the top of the page.

Hi.

“No way...” Rainbow breathed, wide-eyed.

Twilight gaped.

The Princess actually let out a small laugh.

“Oh my gosh, you guys!” Rainbow blurted, her wings actually lifting her out of her seat in excitement. “We can ask anything! What are you—no! Wait, where are you from—no, no...”

“Perhaps,” the Princess interjected, actually holding a hoof to her face to cover her smirk at Rainbow’s antics, “we should begin with introductions before we get too deep.”

I nodded, inclining my head towards her.

“That’s a very good point,” Twilight agreed, straightening up. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is my home!”

Twilight... Sparkle... Ooooookay... I dismissed my thoughts of her odd name and tapped a finger against my forehead, giving her an inquisitive look.

“Oh, yes,” she replied, “I’m a unicorn. I suppose you’re not from around here, are you?” I shook my head emphatically. “Ah, well, I guess we’ll cover all that next,” she said, turning to the pegasus at her side. “This is one of my best friends, Rainbow Dash.”

“Yes, I’m a pegasus,” Rainbow said, puffing out her chest proudly and flaring her wings with a smug expression. “Fastest one around, too.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help from smirking at her friend. “And this,” she said, looking deferentially to her other side, “is Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria, and my mentor.”

I gave the Princess a long, respectful nod, unable to really bow from my seat on the floor. She returned it with a wan smile. “And who are you, traveler?”

I scrawled on the paper again and held it up. All three ponies began to scoot closer together on their seats so they could all read the paper at once.

My name’s Ashley, but most people just call me Ash.

I prepared myself for the inevitable comments about having a girl’s name.

“Just Ash?” Rainbow asked. “That’s a cool name.”

Oh yeah... I mentally facepalmed. They’re ponies, they wouldn’t know what’s a girl’s name or not.

“What’s ‘pee-oh-pull’?” Twilight asked.

I returned to writing, having to stop to re-dip my quill several times in the process. Thankfully, all three ponies recognized my plight and were pretty patient. Rainbow Dash’s rocking in her seat notwithstanding, I mean.

I am a human. We refer to each other as a person, or people for plural. I’m from Earth, but I have no idea where this is.

“You’re in Equestria,” Celestia replied in her gentle voice, “and I very much doubt that our worlds are the same.”

Yeah, I thought as much.

“So,” Twilight asked, plainly excited by the prospect of discovery, “how did you get to Equestria? Tell me everything!”

Before I could even contemplate how open the subject of astrophysics with alien ponies, I was rescued by Celestia.

"Before that, Twilight, I must interrupt. I've been away from Canterlot for too long already today, and it's almost night." She turned to look back at me, though she still spoke to Twilight. "But I still need to be sure of your safety..."

The ruler of Equestria stood and stepped forward until she was directly in front of me. Whether by magic or sheer force of will I don't know, but the room seemed to darken, and the pure white winged unicorn seemed to grow in my vision. She was both beautiful and terrifying in a way I'd never even imagined before, and her voice was deadly serious as she addressed me in a quiet tone.

"Are my subjects in danger from you, Ash? And think well before you answer, human."

I couldn't even swallow, my mouth was suddenly so dry. I picked up the quill, my hand only slightly shaking more than I'd have liked it to, and began to slowly write out my response. The Princess waited on me, patient and implacable, until I held up my answer for her to read.

The best answer I can give is no, Princess. I know nothing about this world, and my world doesn't have anything like magic in it. I'm grateful to Twilight and Rainbow for helping me, and the last thing I want is for my presence here to hurt anyone.

Celestia read carefully and closed her eyes in thought, and when she opened them again her expression was back to normal, perhaps even happier than before.

"I am very glad to hear it, Ash," she told me. "Though it may be a bit late, I'd like to officially welcome you to Equestria." I nodded, a goofy, relieved smile on my face. She turned to her student. "Twilight, please keep a watch on Ash and help him adjust, as we discussed. I'll wait to read about his undoubtedly exciting story in your report," she instructed, giving the unicorn a friendly wink.

"Of course, Princess."

Celestia's horn lit up, which made me flinch away from the intensely bright flash that followed. When I turned back, she was gone, and I was alone in the home with my two new friends.

So you're in charge of me, huh?

Twilight chuckled, some of her own nervous energy apparently starting to burn off. "The Princess asked me to watch out for you if you turned out to be a friend. Just to help you get on your hooves - so to speak," she quickly amended.

I nodded, finding it very hard to keep from laughing at the way the two mares kept unconsciously fidgeting in their seats with excitement.

Alright, I'm sure you two have questions. Let's get started...

---

I finally realized what time it was when the sun started to peek over the horizon and through the window. I let out a huge yawn and stretched out as I took stock of our progress. Rainbow was completely passed out on her bench, snoring lightly, her back leg kicking ever so slightly as it hung off the edge. Twilight looked pretty haggard, but no less excited than she had almost ten hours ago. We’d covered more topics than I could recall, and I’d used almost fifty pages of the notebook for my responses and questions.

Twilight followed my gaze out the window and mimicked my yawn. “Oh wow. I guess we got a bit carried away, huh?” I nodded. “Well,” she continued, standing up and wincing as her joints popped loud enough for me to hear, “I guess I’d better show you around so you can get settled in.”

I got up to follow her. My joints didn’t complain any less than hers had, but I guess sitting on a floor for an entire night will do that to a guy. We hobbled our way around the house.

“The kitchen is through there. I don’t know how much of it matches your diet, but we’ll go pick up some new groceries tomor—well, I guess this afternoon. The bathroom is through this door under the stairs. I... hope everything is familiar?”

I opened the door and peeked around inside. Everything looked pretty comparable to what I was used to, except that the sink was lower, the shower was enormous, and the toilet was the right shape, but lower to the ground. It looked like it belonged in a kindergarten restroom back home or something. I gave Twilight a satisfied nod.

We started to climb the stairs when I stopped Twilight. I pointed over my shoulder at Rainbow Dash.

Twilight laughed. “It’s not the first time she’s spent the night on my couch. I swear, for a pony who hates being thought of as an ‘egghead’, she sure will get wrapped up in a book. She’ll be fine.” We paused at the top of the stairs. “My room is through that door,” she said, indicating. “Of course, you probably knew that already, since you woke up there. Spike’s room is this one.”

I glanced at the middle door. Spike? With a “what the hell” shrug, I knocked on the door. It opened up to reveal a small purple dragon, standing about waist-level to me. His spines and eyes were bright green, and he stared out at my knees before looking up to see my face. Huh...

“Oh, hey!” he chirped in an unusually high voice, “You’re up! I wasn’t sure you were gonna wake up, as deep as you were under.”

I just stared. Now this world has dragons...

“Spike, Ash. Ash, Spike,” Twilight said, yawning. “We’re going to bed, Spike.”

“Ah, sounds good. I’ll keep an eye on things this morning,” he replied as he trotted off down the stairs.

Dragon. Spike. Dragon... I shrugged. My brain wasn’t properly equipped to deal with this world after being awake for this long.

Without missing a beat, Twilight swung to the last door, closest to the stairs. “This one will be your room, I guess. It’s sort of a guest room, but it’s rather... um...”

I swung the door open, which immediately knocked over a pile of books.

“...messy.”

I gave her an incredulous look. “Messy” didn’t even start to cover it. The room was completely covered in lab equipment, books, scrolls, loose quills, and every other research tool I could think of. There was a bed in there, somewhere.

Thankfully, unicorn magic has its strengths, and Twilight quickly had the bed unearthed, at least. “Hopefully this will work for tonight,” she asked, apologetically. I reassured her with a nod, far beyond actually caring as long as it meant my head and a bed were soon to be acquainted. “Sleep well,” she said, turning to leave, where she stopped in the doorway.

“Oh, and welcome to Equestria.”

---

I think I lasted all of a half hour before I just couldn’t lay still anymore. Being unconscious apparently plays havoc on your sleep schedule.

It was undeniably daytime out as I slipped my shirt back on and headed downstairs, barefoot. Spike was in the kitchen, putting something in the oven as I walked in. Given our brief meeting, I couldn’t help but just stare for a few minutes as he puttered around, humming to himself as he cooked, seeming like he was having the time of his life.

When he finally did turn around and realized I was standing there, he yelped out loud and jumped backwards, planting his hand squarely on the hot cooker. I winced, but he barely even seemed to notice.

“I, gah, dude, you gotta make more noise when you walk or something. You’re gonna give a guy a heart attack!” My grimace only got bigger as he continued to hold his appendage to the stovetop. “What?” he asked, following my eyeline. “Oh, that? Meh, don’t worry about that. Dragon claws are remarkably heat resistant,” he said smugly, pulling his claw free and blowing on it, wisps of smoke curling off the ends of his claws.

I gaped, not sure what to do. To be honest, it was pretty freaking badass. I settled on just shaking my head in a bemused sort of way and sat down at the table.

“Oh, yeah, hang on. I’ll be right back!” Spike raced out of the room, only to return a few seconds later with a notebook and a pencil. “I gathered from the way the discussion was going last night that talking probably wasn’t an option.”

I flipped the book open, still shaking my head in amazement.

And you just had this set aside for me?

He chuckled. “I’m Twilight’s assistant. You have no idea how well-trained I am at preparing for any possible scenario.” I didn’t really have anything to say back to that. My head was still spinning like crazy, and being able to see the town outside the window wasn’t really helping.

“So, you’re a human, huh?” Spike said, setting a rack of what appeared to be muffins down on the counter to cool and taking a seat at the table across from me. “I guess you couldn’t sleep after last night’s excitement?”

I rolled my eyes. I think it has more to do with th me being unconscious most of yesterday.

“Ah, yeah,” Spike said after reading my writing. “So, what do you think of Equestria so far?”

I’m freaking out is what I think. Spike raised an eyebrow (how does that even work with scales?), but didn’t say anything as I continued writing. I mean, I’m sitting in a pony’s house right now talking to a dragon. That’s not normal where I come from. NOTHING here is normal where I come from.

He laughed. “Eh, I wouldn’t call me ‘normal’, not really. Dragons aren’t exactly common around here. But I get what you’re sayin’.”

So how does a dragon end up living with a pony, anyway?

He leaned back, kicking his tiny footclaws up onto the tabletop. “‘Because Twilight’s crazy powerful’ is the short answer. You already know that Twi is Princess Celestia’s student, right?” I nodded. “Twi applied for her school as a filly, and there was an entry exam. Every unicorn who wanted to apply had to attempt to hatch a dragon egg.” He waved a claw over his body, stretched out casually between chair and table. “Me.”

So... do not many ponies pass or something, if you’re rare?

“The thing is, the test isn’t really about succeeding. Dragon eggs are crazy resistant to magic, so nopony was ever really supposed to ‘pass’ the test. It’s more about seeing how powerful and creative a foal is, that sort of thing. Nopony saw Twilight coming, though. That’s when I was born.”

She raised you?

“Yeah, pretty much. Her family helped, sure. I mean, she was only a filly at the time. But we grew up together, so she’s basically my older sister.” Catching my expression, Spike anticipated my next question. “Oh, I’ll be eighteen in just a couple of months. Twilight’s twenty-three.”

But No offense, but you look like a kid.

“Aw, yeah, I know,” he said breezily, waving a claw dismissively. “That’s part of being a dragon; I’ll live crazy long. If I were a pony, I’d be an adult pretty soon, but I’m still barely out of being an infant by dragon standards.”

That sounds... uh. I struggled for the right word. Awkward.

“Yeah, it can be. I mean, I went to school like anypony else, so I’m educated, you know? But I haven’t hit a bunch of shifts in my growth, or really changed much at all, so I still look like a kid—and honestly, I suppose I still am.” He shook his head. “Still, I do feel older a lot of times, and it can be frustrating.”

Dude, I bet. So, being the only dragon around, do you ever feel like I do right now?

Spike cocked his head to the side. “How’s that?”

I scrawled my response and flipped the paper over for him to read.

Scared to go outside.

His expression scrunched self-consciously. “I, uh, honestly? No.” I raised my eyebrow in a Seriously? sort of expression. “Okay, see, this pony you’re living with? She’s, like, a national hero. And I don’t mean like an athlete or something, I mean as in she’s saved Equestria multiple times.” Spike rocked nonchalantly in his chair. “She and her friends are—well, there’s this power called the Elements of Harmony, and Twilight and her friends are the ones who wield it. Aside from the Princesses themselves, Twilight’s probably the most powerful pony in Equestria. So, obviously, she’s gotten a lot of attention over the years. And once the papers and magazines have run out of stories about her and her friends, they figure ‘hey, maybe that dragon she lives with will an interesting story?’, and so... yeah.” He flashed me an embarrassed grin. “I’ve been interviews and highlighted by basically every publication in Equestria at one point or another. Everypony knows about me, so it’s not really a surprise when I show up somewhere.”

Like, not at all?

He shrugged. “I mean, yeah, foals and stuff still gawk the first time they see me, and occasionally I’ll get a strange look, but the only time it was even a thing for me was when we went to the Crystal Empire, and even then everypony there was pretty much brainwashed, and then I was a hero when I left, and—” He shook his head. “Sorry, dude. I guess I really just don’t know how you feel...”

I frowned, but I could hardly blame the guy.

“Hey, just because I don’t know what it’s like doesn’t mean I can’t sympathize, right?”

I gave him a wan smile as I pulled my notebook back to myself.

I just don’t want to be seen as a monster.

“Yeah, I get it.” The dragon’s chair fell back to the floor as he got up, offering me a fist to bump. “Hey, don’t sell Equestria short, though. The ponies here will be great, you just need to give them some time and a chance.”

I bumped his fist with my own and nodded my thanks as he went back to check on his baking.

Maybe I will give them a chance...

Author's Note:

I hope to god the formatting isn't too confusing... :\

Comments

[Adamanthys]

Not bad... not bad.

Some interesting world building with spike and both Twilight and Dash seem pretty well in character. Looking forward to more, assuming the main plot elements start to manifest soon.