Chapter 4: It Speaks! (Re-written)
Those whose intentions are unknown have been easily labelled as an evil to the peaceful nation of Equestria. Nightmare Moon, Discord, Sombra, Chrysalis, and Tirek have all discovered this peace and attempted to either conquer or destroy it. So when this strange creature begins to speak, the elements are unsure what to make of it. Is it here by chance, or for a more sinister purpose.............
"Actually, I was lookin' for help." said Tim.
The ponies present all recoiled collectively the instant words came out from his mouth. The monster, no, the creature not only talked but spoke Ponish to boot. Twilight was rendered speechless by this revelation, as were the others. Multiple thoughts came racing through her mind.
"It talked! It's talking, it's actually talking! This isn't just some monster from the Everfree Forest, this thing is intelligent! What is it and what is it doing here!? Did we just come into contact with some unknown race?"
She looked at her friends, all of them were equally stunned as her. Even Fluttershy, who moments ago was warming up to the creature seemed somewhat phased by its ability to speak. Tim started feeling a little weird at the awkward silence he was receiving, and thus repeated his last statement in an effort to break it.
"Uh, I said I was lookin' for help." Tim repeated.
Alas his efforts did nothing, as they continued staring at him like before, mouths agape and pupils wide. At this point Tim was getting a little irritated from the lack of response.
"Hello!? Earth to horse folk, y'all just gonna stand there or are ya' gonna respond?" he asked.
Twilight snapped out of her train of thought, completely forgetting that it had asked a question and that nearly twenty seconds of silence had passed without answering it. She tried to answer its query, but all that came out was her stuttered thoughts.
"It....speaks? I..i.i..it actually speaks!"
"And it speaks like Applejack?" added Rainbow Dash.
"Or she speaks like me." Tim suggested.
They all gave him a peculiar look, which he took as having rather negative connotations to it.
"And what exactly is me supposed to be?" Applejack responded. "You sure don't look like anything we've seen or heard of before."
"Truth be told, I could say the same for y'all." Tim informed. "Definitely wasn't expecting to be talking to horses today. Well I was, but that wasn't the case when I first saw y'all."
"We're ponies, actually, not horses." Twilight informed him.
"Oh, sorry about that." Tim said.
"It's.....alright." Twilight said, hesitant to use the term "ape" in case it didn't apply, or worse, offended. "When exactly did you first see us may I ask?"
"Last night. I reached the edge of town and scoped the place out. Saw a few of you walking the streets and figured I'd wait till daylight to make contact."
"So does that make us the first ponies you've talked with? Like, ever?"
"Yes. I can definitely say it does." Tim replied without hesitation. "Fairly certain that you guys wouldn't be talking where I'm from."
His last statement pretty much confirmed Twilight's suspicions. In front of them stood the first instance of an unknown species, making this exchange a first contact scenario, and it nearly ended with Rainbow charging into him. Now aware of the repercussions this could have down the road, Twilight sought to immediately rectify the situation.
"Well, I can-"
"And just where the hay are you even from?" Rainbow Dash interjected rather harshly. "Last I checked, I never heard of any apes that could talk."
Tim chose to ignore the rather rude terminology and was about to answer. However, the thought caught up to him that telling too much information to creatures he just met might not be the greatest idea. He certainly needed information if he was going to get off this world, but he didn't want to do anything that might endanger the Survivors or everyone living back in New Damascus in the process.
"I don't mean to be rude, but I'm not certain if I can tell you that. Hell, I don't even know if I can trust y'all." Tim stated.
Reeling from Rainbow's rude interruption that was only making things worse, Twilight felt a little unsettled from the creature's claim as she and the others could say the same for him. Formal introductions aside, they didn't know why he was here or what his plans were, or even what he was.
"What have we done to warrant distrust exactly?" Applejack asked.
"Oh, I dunno, maybe the fact that one of you came up and nearly attacked me might have something to do with it." Tim stated.
"Well that's...........quite understandable actually." Rarity relented.
"Why didn't you say anything when we first arrived?" Fluttershy asked. "If you had said something I'm certain none of us would have taken any action against you."
"Unfortunately, I had no way of knowing that." Tim explained. "Y'all came around that corner looking like you were ready to pounce. Shit, I was scared that if I even so much as budged it provoke y'all. Seems it had the opposite effect."
"Technically, we were waiting for you to attack us." Pinkie clarified.
"Seems one of y'all didn't get the memo." Tim retorted, eyeing Rainbow Dash.
All eyes hit Rainbow Dash at once, expressions ranging from faces that expressed inconvenient agreement to outright glares of guilt.
"We're sorry about that." Twilight explained, ultimately agreeing with the strange creature in this regard. "Rainbow has a tendency to jump headfirst into a problem. I'm fairly certain she's sorry."
"Yeeeeeeeaaaaah. My bad." Rainbow replied rather half-heartedly.
Tim simply raised an eyebrow at the lack of sincerity her statement carried.
"Wow. Color me convinced." Tim quipped.
"Nevertheless, we apologize for the drastic action." Twilight proclaimed. "When we heard a monster was within the vicinity of town, we assumed the worst."
"Monster?" Tim said.
"Yeah, monster." Rainbow reiterated before flying up eye-level with him. "Care to explain why three panicked ponies came running up to us about you?"
Tim could safely say that this particular pony was testing his patience, especially with the accusatory attitude she was so keen on directing towards him. The friction was pretty apparent, enough for Twilight to intervene by flying in between and separating the two. Twilight gave Rainbow one look that expressed a clear desire for her to nix the suspicion, to which Rainbow begrudgingly complied.
"Perhaps monster was a rather rash term." Twilight suggested as she flew back to the ground with Rainbow. "We simply heard that a creature was here from the trio of ponies you probably already saw."
"Were two of them pink and one beige?" Tim asked.
"Correct. Now granted, those three have a tendency to overreact, which is probably what happened in this case?"
"You're pretty spot on there." Tim confirmed. "I didn't mean to scare em', but I wake up and next thing I know, they're running and screaming like a bat outta hell. Didn't even get a word out before they bolted."
"Yeah, that sounds pretty typical for those three." Spike quipped. "They're quite the drama queen team."
Tim snickered a little from Spike's clever play on words. Things were beginning to go somewhere as Twilight realized he was slowly warming up to a proper exchange in conversation.
"Then it seems that this was all one big misunderstanding." Twilight suggested with a smile. "I can assure you that we're trustworthy and won't cause any further trouble for you so long as you don't do so for us."
Tim felt no sense of deception in her tone of voice, and felt a natural inclination to believe her. But the dilemma of whether or not to share information still weighed on his mind.
"Well, you won't have to worry about any trouble from me." Tim happily informed them. "Last thing I set out to do was stir stuff up."
"If I may ask, why did you come to Ponyville?" Twilight asked.
"Well, what your friend said wasn't far from the truth, I kinda am lost." Tim informed them, gesturing to Fluttershy. "I came here with the hopes of getting information, I didn't exactly plan on dishing out my own."
"Well, how about we compromise then? It is the cornerstone of diplomacy after all." Twilight beamed.
Tim was beginning to sense a general friendliness in this girl, a welcome change to the suspicion and mistrust he was getting earlier from some of her friends.
"What did ya' have in mind?" Tim asked.
"A simple request, really. If we can ask you some questions, we'll answer yours." she proposed. "If anything enters any territory you're not comfortable with, we'll move onto something else. Deal?"
Tim gave it some thought, and ultimately found himself warming up to the prospect.
"Okay, that seems fair enough, they give me some of the info I'm lookin' for and in turn, I give em' some of mine. Seems like a fair trade. Nice way to start things off." Tim thought to himself.
"That sounds reasonable. Alright, you got yourself a deal." Tim agreed.
"Glad to hear it, ask away and we'll answer as best as we can." Twilight replied.
Twilight's friends proceeded closer towards him to engage at a good speaking distance, with Rainbow Dash taking a place to his left and Fluttershy to his right. The other four all sat or stood in front of him as he sat back down on the bench.
"Alrighty then." he said, "First question is the one that's been on my mind since I got here. Where exactly am I?"
"You're currently sitting on the outskirts of Ponyville." Twilight replied.
"Ponyville? No, no, no, not the town. I meant what is this place?" he said gesturing around him.
"I don't understand, do you mean the gazebo? Do you even know where you are?"
"No clue, that’s why I'm askin'." He explained. "All I remember was wakin' up in the heart of that Forest over yonder. Was there for maybe five or so hours before I stumbled across this place. Other than that I can't say where I am."
Twilight and her friends all gasped, a clear indication they knew something Tim didn't.
"You mean you woke up in the middle of the Everfree Forest?" asked Fluttershy, sheer terror in her voice.
"I guess so, why is that bad?" Tim asked.
"Bad? The Everfree Forest is a terrible and frightening place, darling." said Rarity.
Tim couldn't help but laugh a little at that statement.
"What are you talkin' about!? That place was amazin'! I've never seen so many trees in my life. Not to mention clean water and hell, I even saw some little critters runnin' about!"
"You mean all the wild animals and monsters!" Pinkie explained.
"What, you mean the raccoons? Possums? Those bunnies with the antlers or the bright orange birds?" Tim said with disbelief. "Gotta say I've seen worse."
"Okay, but what about the weather that occurs on its own! Without any direction from the weather ponies." Rainbow Dash stated.
"How the hell does that even work? Why wouldn't weather occur on its own? But now that you mention it, the weather was rather pleasant to be honest with ya'. Sun poked through the canopy with a nice gentle breeze."
They all stared at him, wondering if he was crazy, insanely lucky, or maybe even both.
"How come our trips to the Everfree can't ever be that nice?" Applejack pondered.
Twilight would have wanted an answer for that as well, but it was becoming apparent that they were getting off topic.
"Getting back to the conversation. Like I said before, you're in Ponyville, a principality of Equestria, our nation. That's about as specific as I can make it I'm afraid."
"Equestria, huh? Alright, definitely a long way from home." Tim said in a quiet voice. "Guess that answers that for the meantime."
"Any other questions?" Twilight inquired.
"A few more. Guess I'll ask who y'all are? I got that her name's Fluttershy and she's Rainbow Dash. So, who are the rest of ya', and what do you do around here?"
Twilight practically gleamed with light at the opportunity to formally introduce herself. Being a first contact scenario it felt like she was in the midst of making history.
"My name is Twilight Sparkle. I'm the Princess of Friendship, one of the four princesses that rule this land as well as one of the elements of harmony. In fact all the elements are among the ponies you see before you. Mine is the element of Magic, to be specific."
"Wait, you're a princess?" Tim said in surprise. "And here I had no idea I was in the presence of royalty."
"Yeah, but honestly, it's no big deal. I don't like to flaunt the title around in my day-to-day interactions."
"A Princess, Huh? Guess she's the authority around here? Best to probably stay on her good side. Shouldn't be too hard, she seems like a friendly enough person, horse, no...pony. But what the hell's an element of harmony? Might just be some sort of title."
Next up was Rarity.
"You can call me Rarity, local designer and fashionista, I run a renowned boutique here in town, and I'm the element of generosity. I must say I.......uh......like the pattern on your jacket. Though it does look like it's in need of a wash, darling."
"Hell, you ain't wrong there." Tim admitted. "Though to be honest, I don't think just one wash is gonna cut for this old rag."
"I think you may be right." Rarity giggled. "Maybe you can stop by my shop sometime and we can get something a little more presentable for you."
"She seems nice enough. But what kind of a designer is she? Like a weapon designer or part fashioning? Odd, she don't look like the metal smithing type at all. Plus what the hell's a boutique? Some sort of workshop maybe?"
Next up was the orange mare with the cowboy hat.
"Name's Applejack, pleasure to meet ya' big guy. I run a little farm called Sweet Apple Acres outside of town, finest apple orchard in Equestria. Like Twilight said, we all so happen to bear one of the elements. Mine's honesty."
"You own a farm?" Tim asked in astonishment.
"Yep, sure do. Me and the rest of the Apples. It's been in my family for generations and since that time its grown to about sixty some acres. Odds are me and my brother are gonna inherit it when the time's right."
"Hot damn! That must be quite an achievement."
"Sure is in my book."
"Sixty acres of farmland! I bet the farms here actually have a decent yield, wouldn't that be a sight to see. Similarity in accents is a bit uncanny but damn if that voice of hers don't sound a bit like home. Like her hat. Wonder how I'd look in a cowboy hat?"
After Applejack was finished came Fluttershy
"As you already know I'm Fluttershy. My element is kindness. I mostly work with the animals in and around Ponyville, my own animal shelter is on the other side of town."
"So like dogs, cats, and other pets?" Tim asked.
"Certainly so, but I also help creatures of all sizes, some even from the outskirts of the Everfree."
"That's very...well, kind."
"Well I can safely say her element fits her personality. That smile might have been the cutest little thing I ever did saw. The fact she stood up for me when she didn't even know me........I'll remember that."
Fluttershy smiled and blushed a little from Tim's compliment, before the next pony came up to introduce herself. The pony who more or less seemed to have it out for him.
"The name's Rainbow Dash. Few things about are that, A, I'm awesome, B, I'm the newest Wonderbolt, and C, I'm the fastest flyer in all of Equestria! I'm also the element of loyalty, making me one of the coolest Pegasus ponies you'll ever meet."
Tim was silent, uncertain of whether he even wanted to respond or not, but ultimately settled with one word.
"Impressive." Tim deadpanned.
"Yeah, I know." Rainbow said pridefully.
"She that much of a show-boat? God, I don't like her. She's mean, and bossy, and her hair color hurts my eyes! Seems like she has a bone to pick even though I didn't do anything. Though she's at least loyal to her friends. Guess that's one redeeming quality."
The last of the ponies then took the time to continue the series of introductions.
"Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie! The biggest party pony and party planner EVER!!! I'm the element of laughter! Wow this is so exciting, I've done plenty of parties before, but I don't think I've ever done one for a new species! Tell me what flavor do you want your cake, White or Chocolate?"
"Wait a minute, what do you mean wha-"
"WHITE OR CHOCOLATE!" she screamed with glee.
"Ch-chocolate I guess!" Tim stammered.
"Okay this one's quite the eccentric, more so than me most of the time. And what's a party planner? Like a search party? I don't get it, do people around here go missing a lot or what? Man, now that I think about it they sure do got some weird names around here."
"No silly, party as in like a celebration!" Pinkie explained in her usual cheery tone. "And my name's not weird."
"Oh, okay, well that clears a few............WAIT! DID SHE JUST READ MY MIND!!!"
Before he voiced his alarm around this break in reality, the small reptile that was sitting on Twilight's back hopped down and began to finish off the series of introductions.
"And I'm Spike! Twilight's #1 assistant and go-to dragon!"
Tim's eyes were still fixed on Pinkie Pie, putting what Spike said in the back of his mind as Pinkie Pie just smiled deviously at him. He was rather unsettled about what happened, but Tim had made the assumption that these ponies no longer had the intention of hurting him in any way, so his nerves began to relax while the group before him were waiting for his other questions.
"Okay, well, a pleasure to make your all's acquaintance." Tim said in earnest. "Guess that leaves maybe one last question, what exactly are ponies in terms of your place as a species?"
"Geez, this guy doesn't get out much." Twilight thought to herself. "Then again, it's pretty clear he's not from around here. Maybe he got displaced somehow?"
Twilight ceased her theories to address his question.
"Like I said, we're ponies, the primary inhabitants of Equestria, though there are other creatures who call it home."
"Like other species? Like ones that can talk like you and I?" Tim inquired.
"Indeed. Equestria may be the pony homeland but it's not uncommon to find the likes of griffons, donkeys, and the occasional Minotaur. But when it comes to ponies we make up the majority, and as you've probably noticed we even have a few differences between ourselves."
"Yeah, y'all are different colors. I get ya'."
Twilight and the others frowned or rolled their eyes at his response. Their reaction was enough to clue him in, for at that moment another query on the difference in extremities came to mind.
"Oh, my bad, you meant the like the wings and stuff on your body, yeah I've been wonderin' about that. Y'all like different sub-species or what?"
"Of a sorts. Each one of us represents the three different pony types that make up Equestria, earth ponies, pegasus ponies, and unicorn ponies." Twilight explained as she pointed to Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity for examples.
"What about you then? You seem to have both wings and a horn. So what, that make you like a Pegacorn?"
Her friends snickered just a little from that, though Twilight let out an unamused sigh and corrected him.
"No, I'm an Alicorn. I'm one of four Alicorn Princesses that rule this country together. We're the rarest of the pony types, in fact we may very well be the only alicorns in existence."
From these few questions, Tim was able to gather an immense amount of information that gave him an idea of what to expect from the society of this world. Prospects looked pretty low when it came to means of returning home, but perhaps that wasn't the case.
"Okay then. Thanks for answering what you could. Think that's all the questions I have for the moment." Tim stated.
"Very well, now that you've asked your questions, We'll ask ours."
"That was the deal. Ask away."
"Well, I think I speak for everypony here when I ask this. But what exact species are you?"
Tim stood up once more, this time gesturing to show himself off.
"I am what you would call human." he said. "Homo sapien if you wanna be scientific."
"Human?" Twilight thought.
Twilight had studied the multiple races of their world during her studies at Canterlot and even more so here in Ponyville. However, she had never once heard of a "human" race or its scientific term. Looking around it was clear that their current environment wasn't so appropriate for the conversation she wished to have with this being. She wanted a place where she could take notes, hear everything this human had to say and assess it properly. She needed to talk to him somewhere more private, this was after all a "First Contact" scenario with an unknown species, and talking in a tight huddle at a gazebo wasn't exactly ideal.
"Listen, would you mind if we took this conversation to somewhere a little more....I don't know, intimate?" Twilight asked.
"Sure, that actually sounds nice. Must admit that this bench wasn't the best nights' sleep I've had. What did ya' have in mind?"
"My castle isn't too far from here if you wou-"
"HOLY SHIT! This place has a castle!?" Tim exclaimed.
The sudden rise in volume caught everypony a little off guard. Tim noticed the effect and sought to make amends, though his level of excitement never once dwindled.
"Sorry, it's just, I've always heard about them things! Man, I've always wanted to see one!" Tim explained.
"At least his enthusiasm is to be admired." Twilight thought to herself.
"Well, I guess now will be your chance." Twilight chuckled. "Grab your things and we'll head straight there."
"Roger dodger." He replied.
Tim grabbed his rifle and slung it across his shoulder, eager to get under way as he followed them. As the group escorted the human towards Twilight's castle, Spike hopped back up on Twilight's back.
"Hey, looks like you got your wish. What did you think of the gazebo? Pretty boring like I said huh?"
Twilight smirked and nudged him with her wing as he let out a lighthearted laugh.
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6643941 Hey THANKS!
FIRST....love this story...Need more like it.
6645160 Thanks man.
Really nice story.
Though when i saw the title i partially expected those guys
static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/11111/111115829/4545801-5326323873-Beyon.jpg
6645700 LOL, that picture made my day!
moar plz
MMMMMM
Another one of this to add to my plate.
I have four main problems with this story so far:
1. The writing could be better
2. The plot is progressing WAY too quickly
3. This chapter was basically one massive exposition dump that not only contributed to the hasty plot progression but also, in my opinion, portrayed the mane 6 out of character (for one thing, I highly doubt any one of them besides RD would be excited about fighting a monster)
4. You gave away too many details in the description. Thanks to the paragraph that was meant to do nothing more than catch my interest, I now know generally what's going to happen for, at the very least, the next couple of chapters.
I'll continue reading, but I thought I would at least comment about these.
3 days ago: I just blew through this fic, damn me and my obsessive reading!
Today: 3 more!?! OH YESSSSS!
6649794 Dig the Chi-Rho symbol, Roman history buff, or religious affiliation to it?
7193422 Both
Improve on vocab and your writing would become stellar. Aside from that, I love this and find myself more interested than usual.
Actually, he LOVED the Gazebo
I agree with your decision to ignore the Equestria Girls human world. Otherwise, the human survivors would migrate to the Equestria Girls land of multicolored humans and there would no conflict or drama.
8127371
So that's what they're calling that machine, also it had to be Germany to making this device... Ger-mane-y... yeeeeaaah, I'll just go
Voiced.