Immigrant troubles

by Fireheart 1945

Chapter 1; In the cold, dark night...

It had been another long day at the military history museum. Another long day full of people crowding to get a look at glimpses of the past. Another pay day.

To Luke Martin, it had been an exhausting if fulfilling day. History was his forte, the very thing he was good at. It was a rewarding job, even if it required a major in the subject at college and the money he'd needed to fund those classes. Not to mention the pay wasn't awful, either.

The one apparent downer this evening; it was raining.

Luke sighed as he fingered through his jacket for the keys to his pickup. The sky had been cloudy all day, but the rain had waited to come until just before his hours at work were over.

He found the keys after a moment, then unlocked the door to the truck, hopped in, and shut the door before starting the engine. The truck purred to life, and he drove out of the employee parking and onto the highway.

It was a long drive to get home. Luke may have liked to live near a city, but he wasn't keen on living in one. A suburb wasn't exactly living rural, but it was fairly close.

As he drove, he thought about some of Earth's most recent history... well, Earth, and that of another world.

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It had been a few years already, yet it still seemed like yesterday. The first portal had opened up just outside Washington, D.C., a spiraling blue circle shot through with stripes of white, ten feet in diameter, with the colors fluctuating and twirling within.

Naturally, the local military forces had surrounded the location, fearing it was some sort of threat to the United States and its leadership.

What they couldn't have expected - and few could have - were a group of variously colored ponies sitting on the grass just outside the swirling mass, calmly waiting. There were a few guards with them, but per orders they made no effort to attack the regiment that had set itself up around them.

Princesses Celestia, Luna, and Cadence, along with the Mane 6, Shining Armor, and four Royal Guards, had been waiting patiently and without fuss; Celestia had been sipping tea as the Army approached, and Luna had simply watched with an inscrutable expression on her face. The Mane 6 were almost as tall as humans, if you counted their head and necks, and Celestia and the other alicorns had been even taller.

It took a couple of days before footage of the event got out; the event had been fully filmed by the Army.

The ponies had waited until a platoon of soldiers come within ten feet of them. It had been a tense standoff; the infantrymen held loaded weapons, and the wrong move by the ponies could have ended in disaster.

Celestia had set down her teacup - which was empty by that point - and smiled warmly a one soldier came close. One of the Royal Guards had begun to move to stop him, but Celestia waved him away.

The soldier had patted her on the muzzle a few times, then scratched her ears. Celestia continued smiling as he moved to her chin, relishing this particular contact. The other ponies clearly weren't sure how to react, but seeing as the Princess wasn't being threatened, they didn't interfere.

At last, she spoke, and in perfect English; "I'm grateful for the warm and kind welcome, but if you don't mind, we have important business to discuss with your President and government. Can you please bring us to them?"

The soldier, looking around, remembered where he was and what was happening. He withdrew, looking embarrassed, but otherwise clearly not regretting what he had done.

A few hours later, the ponies and their escort had crossed the Potomac and arrived at the U.S. Capitol building, and had met with Congress and the President. It had been a pleasant meeting by all accounts; Celestia had been the warm, motherly leader that My Little Pony; Friendship is Magic had portrayed her to be, and had charmed everyone. Luna had been wary, but gradually lowered her guard, and Cadence had been kind and talkative.

As for the Mane 6, they had lived up to the selves depicted in the show. Twilight had asked innumerable questions; in fact, much of the meeting with Congress had featured her asking questions as if they were going out of style. A Congressman had shaken Applejack's hoof, to recoil when his hand met a cold metallic object; the farm pony was wearing horseshoes nailed to her hooves, proving once and for all that ponies did in fact wear and use the things for their intended purpose. She had apologized when she realized what had gone wrong, and had struck up a conversation with a Senator from Idaho. Rainbow Dash had talked almost exclusively with the soldiers, while Pinkie literally could not keep still; Fluttershy had made numerous attempts to hide in her own shadow, but had slowly come out of her metaphorical shell and had spoken with a few people. Rarity had complimented numerous Congressmen on their appearance, and had offered to make suits for them to help the diplomatic process between Equestria and America.

The brony fandom had almost exploded in the literal sense when the footage had gotten out and it had been confirmed that it was not a gigantic practical joke. Other people were wary, and quite a few were outright hateful.

Within a few weeks, however, the home response had stabilized, and the diplomacy and kindness of Equestria's leaders had melted much of the opposition. Far from wanting anything out of the ordinary, Celestia and Luna had asked to open embassies in the various nations on Earth, as well as contact between the two different worlds. It was something to which many of the world's nations happily agreed.

---------------------------------------------------------------

Luke pulled himself out of his memories. He'd been a fan of the show, though not the most excitable, and had been overjoyed to know that the anthropomorphic ponies really existed. However, being from Maine, he didn't have much opportunity to personally meet them; so far, most of the portals only operated in embassies. There were some that were used for delivering cargoes between the worlds, but so far they were for that use only; if you wanted to visit Equestria, you would need a passport and a trip to an embassy.

He stopped at a red light and took the opportunity to rest back in the seat. He pulled out the cross that hung around his neck, silently thanking God for such a wonderful day. While the rain may not have been fun to drive through, the field trip with all those middle school kids had been fun, and he had a chance to do what he loved; answer questions and teach.

Praise be to Jesus, Amen.

He put the cross back as the light turned green again and stepped carefully on the gas. The world had changed since the ponies had came, but much had remained the same; national borders, by and large, were still the same, and the political landscape was largely identical. There were a number of independence wars, primarily in Catalonia and Kurdistan, but those conflicts were the only new major wars that were being fought. North Korea was still threatening the world, Iran was being the pain in the Middle East that it had been since 1979, and the US and Russia were generally rivals.

At least we never fought any major wars against each other, he thought. Especially in the past couple of decades.
That could have been... beyond disastrous.

He wasn't sure why the ponies had decided to make contact with Earth, but they had been generally honest in their dealings. Some had even moved temporarily to Earth countries, either gaining or trying to gain employment there. Some pegasi with good intentions had tried to get jobs as weather controllers, noticing that human countries had none. What they'd failed to realize at the time was that their hooves had no sway over Earth's clouds, and their idea for a quick and easy occupation had wound up a disappointing failure.

It was obvious to just about everyone by now that the Royal Sisters weren't naive fools. The portals, which had been made by Equestrian magic, could be shut down easily, and the only way any human was allowed inside was after being examined by Luna herself, via dreams in which she scrutinized the memories and thoughts of the people trying to enter. There were many complaints of breaches of privacy, but after four would-be terrorists had been caught and jailed by the Equestrians, most protests had cut off. Someone had apparently attempted to send in a spy. Equestria had not given away just who had tried to spy on them, but the spy had been declared persona non grata, or, in other words, permanently banned from Equestria. However, he was only released after being imprisoned for those six months. The infiltrator, an anti-brony, had had to deal with the very ponies he hated for that time; he had been more than ready to leave when Equestria finally brought him to a portal and booted him out.

At the moment, the museum was closed for the weekend, which was all to the good; a new exhibit was being added, and it would take time, time that would be well spent this Saturday by the people doing the construction. While he liked his job, he enjoyed his time off. He lived alone; he had never had much - for the lack of a better word - luck with getting a girlfriend. It didn't bother him as much as it might have, though. He was still young and there was plenty of time. For now, he was on his own, at least in regards to marital concerns.

I think I might re-watch some episodes of the original Battlestar Galactica, he decided. The 1980s show might not have had the graphics of the re-booted 2004 version, but there was a flare, a dash, that it had and the new one did not. Not to mention he had problems with the newer one. Or maybe Gettysburg. Come on, make up your mind...

He turned onto a narrow street. It wasn't an alley, but it gave that sort of feeling; the buildings were fairly close to the road, and there were only two lanes, just wide enough for two vehicles going in opposite directions to pass in relative safety. it was the shortest way back to his house, and even though it might have looked scary at night, so far no incident of any regard had happened to Luke while he was driving down it.

As he drove down it, he saw a cluster of... something on the side of the road, something that hadn't been there before.

Hello, what's this?

He pulled over, hit the brakes and took another look at what he was seeing. Something had been the wrong word; someone was the proper one. After a few seconds of taking in the situation, he realized he'd been wrong twice. There were multiple someones sitting there in the rain... and they definitely weren't human.

Three miserable looking ponies were sitting there on the cold, hard sidewalk; one was trying to shield the others with a pair of wings, and unfortunately doing a poor job of it. They tried to hide from the beams of the truck's headlights as Luke came to a stop several feet away. Luke looked outside briefly; no one else was coming up or down the street, so he got out and headed over to the other side, a flashlight in hand.

A large stallion was attempting to shield a mare from the wind and rain with his wings. Luke thought they appeared odd, until he realized there were no feathers; the wings were made entirely out of some leathery material. A much smaller pony, a foal, looked up from under his father's wings at the human intruder.

Bat ponies, formally known as thestrals, were a rare sight in Equestria; they were even less commonly seen on Earth. They were secretive and usually kept to themselves. In fact, they usually weren't seen at all during daylight hours (not that the current time counted as daylight hours) even in their native land. The fact that three of them were sitting here felt unprecedented in itself.

The two parties simply stared at one another for a few moments, neither sure of what to make of the other.

Finally, the stallion whispered to the mare, who nodded, and he folded his wings only to bring them bursting out again, so that they made him look bigger than he was; the mare took up the cause of covering the foal with her wings.

"Please calm down. I mean you no harm."

The stallion didn't answer; he just remained in the same position. The mare hugged her foal tightly. It occurred to Luke that they appeared exhausted, as if they - or at least, the parents - had been awake for days on end.

Luke didn't know what to say. Indeed, it appeared that words weren't going to resolve the impasse.

Then he heard a growl. At first, he thought it came from the stallion, who hadn't moved so much as an inch since he had approached. But the pony hadn't moved his lips.

The foal squirmed in his mother's forelegs. He whimpered something. The growling came again, but this time it Luke was able to pinpoint it coming from the foal.

Poor thing! Sounds like he's starving.

Luke reached into a pocket in his jacket and lifted out a packet of Oreo cookies.

"Yum!"

Without further ado, the foal - a colt, if Luke's memory of horse/pony terminology was correct - jumped out of his mother's forelegs and ran forward.

"No! Come back!" she called after him, but the child, too focused on his hungry stomach, didn't hear her.

Fortunately for him, Luke had no intention of inflicting harm. He opened the packet, knelt down, and held out one of the cookies. The colt instantly took it in his hoof and shoved it into his starving mouth. He eagerly chewed it to pieces, ignoring the fact that some of the crumbs fell to the ground.

Luke gave him each cookie - there were three in total - one at a time. One at a time, the foal devoured them, not caring how he looked while doing it. Luke thought he looked adorable, but that thought was battered by the fact that the poor child was so hungry.

"Mmmm," the colt hummed, now sniffing the packet. "One more?"

"I'm sorry, but there were only three in the bag, and I didn't think I'd run into a hungry family this night."

Metallic hoofsteps came near. Luke looked up; the mare and stallion had closed in. He stood up, not sure what they were going to do.

The mare scooped up the foal in her right foreleg; he squealed in surprise, but she had been gentle. She whispered something into his ear that Luke couldn't hear before setting him down.

Having done that, she bowed her head. "Thank you," she said in gratitude. "You have no idea how badly he needed nourishment."

"You don't look all that well off in that regard yourself," Luke replied.

"My husband and I haven't had anything to eat in days," she admitted. Her demeanor and face spoke of mental exhaustion and the desire to have someone to talk to. "We've given what little we managed to gather to little Shadow here," she went on, motioning to her son.

The stallion hissed something fierce into her ear. She responded in kind. He sighed, and relented, but kept his eyes squarely on Luke.

He looks like he was from the Lunar Guard, Luke thought. The more he studied the stallion's face - the motionless, piercing eyes, his posture, and what little he'd seen of the pony's behavior - the more he was certain he was right.

"You need to get out of the rain, fellas. It's going to be a cold night."

"We would, if we had anywhere to go!" the mare burst out. She seemed immediately embarrassed that she had given that information so freely, and her husband appeared displeased.

Luke didn't know what to say. Clearly, this family had suffered something terrible. "You have no home to go to?"

This time, the stallion attempted to keep his wife from answering, motioning to her with his muzzle and trying to urge her silently to follow him. She ignored him; "No. We... we don't currently have one."

"Can you go to an Equestrian embassy-"

"That would be... troublesome," she replied.

To everyone's surprise, the colt spoke up; "Mister, they kicked my daddy out of Luna's Guard, and then they kicked us out of our house here!"

"Bright Night!" the stallion hissed, speaking audibly for the first time.

The colt - Bright Night - continued speaking. "We got no money, no food, and no house. If ya got something to help us, we need it."

Luke felt something burning in his belly; a firm resolve. He knew what he had to do, and he couldn't leave them out here to starve and freeze to death. "I think I have room for you all at my house," he said,

"W-what?" the mare stammered.

"Come on. I'm not leaving you out here."

"Thank you, but no," the stallion said firmly, in a deep voice that confirmed Luke's suspicions on his former employment. "We can manage on our own. We don't need your help."

"Shadow, we've tried going it on our own for three days now," the mare said, showing frustration. "If we don't take the help we can get, we will all die."

"Aurora-"

"No," the mare, presumably Aurora, answered. "We need a break, and here's one staring us in the face. We're going."

Shadow stared at Aurora; she stared back. For a moment, they continued the contest. Something in her eyes, however, must have been stronger, because finally, the stallion looked away, groaning.

"Alright." Luke looked back at his truck. "Sorry to say I don't have a King Cab. I'm a bit of a bachelor, and like I said, I wasn't expecting to run into a family of homeless ponies. Only have a front seat in addition to the driver's, I'm afraid."

"Then-"

"I've got a tarpaulin in the back, and some bungee cords to keep it in place. I think I can keep two of you at least partly dry while the third rides in front. The back window in the cab has an opening, so we'll be able to talk to one another. If that isn't acceptable to you, then I'm not sure what to do. You don't look like you're in any condition to fly."

"Bright Night can go up front," Aurora stated at once. "I'd rather our baby stay safe and dry."

"Mom! I'm not a baby!' The young pony protested. "I'm a big colt now!"

Aurora gave him a comforting smile. Luke knew she was amused, as mothers typically are when their children claim a maturity they haven't yet reached. "You'll go up front, with the man. We'll be watching you from the back."

"I'll get the tarp set up," Luke said. "It shouldn't take more than a moment.

"Right," Aurora said. "Bright, you go with...?"

"Luke. Luke Martin."

"You go with Luke, into the front seat. Momma and Daddy will be with you soon."

"Yippie!"

Author's Note:

Yeah, I'm a bit terrible at beginning stories. Sorry for the lousy intro. And possibly bad first chapter.

The cover picture (a thestral holding a baseball bat) is supposed to be Bright Night, only without the cutie mark and orange jacket (and for now, at least, the hat and bat). You can find the original (or at least where I found it) here. When I saw my friend Texas Style Brony put this picture on his November 2nd blog, I just couldn't not make a story with that on it.

I was also influenced by another story about pony immigrants, but I fear the author would take this story as a sort of slap-in-the-face kind of criticism (which it is NOT), so I'm not sure about labeling his story here.

And yes, technically it is legal, at least in Maine;

Yes. Riding in the bed of a pickup truck is allowed if you are older than 19 years old.

Also, been thinking about going with more traditional hoof structure with this particular story. Most of my stuff, I go with this;

But for this one, I'm considering going with this;

I know it's a concern that seems petty to a lot of people, but I get tired of seeing horseshoes in the show never actually being used for their intended purpose (Except in a dream sequence, which is a bit dubious, or, in one very short instance, on Trouble Shoe's hoof at the beginning of an episode).

The picture on the face of the story was something I liked, but I was considering replacing it with this one, because it conveyed the idea of troubled immigrants better;

But I decided against it; I didn't want to imply kidnapping (which will NOT be happening), which unfortunately the picture above does.

I've decided to submit this early, before the second chapter is finished, to give my readers a Christmas gift. I know it's not perfect, and I'm sorry for that. I hope you do like it, though, as I intend to give it a lot of work and love. God bless you all and Merry Christmas!

Comments

[fenji]

I hope the writing comes easy for you with this one, can’t wait for the next chapter.

[SupremeOverlord]

This is a great beggining, but I feel like some parts of the story are unnecessary, like the part where Russia or as you sprcifficly mention Vladimir Putin send a spy. I simply see no reason in this part existing if it is not going to impact the events of the story. I mean is there a reason for it or are you just adding the typical "Russians are always the bad guys" stereotype to your story?

[Crescent Glaive]

This is a instant fave

[Boof Man]

8628955
Could just be random details added to make the chapter longer, but it was more or less pointless information.

[SupremeOverlord]

8631289
Could be, but this has a chance of alienating a large portion of readers, many of them russian and those like me who dont appreciate this kind of writting without some valid reason.

[Fireheart 1945]

8628955

8631289

To be honest, I put it in there because I'm still a bit cheesed off about the Crimea stunt Putin pulled a few years ago when the Ukraine was going to try breaking away from Russia and joining the EU. Why wouldn't he try doing something like this? The guy tore away a piece of the Ukraine and coerced half of it to fight a civil war against their government, all without being properly punished or having his actions condemned. He wouldn't hesitate a second to try to seize an advantage.

However, I can understand why people are upset and derailed over that. I didn't think it would be the big deal that it's become.

8628857

8629259

Thank you. May God go with everyone.

[SupremeOverlord]

8631900
Ok, I understand the reasoning behind it, but it is not advisable to do so in a multinational environment like this site without a good plot reason, although your reasoning is a bit hypocritical because US did the same thing with kosovo and Putin is an extremely smart statesman to do something like this but ok. What is done is done. I just hope it doesnt influence this story because a lot of users here are Russians

[Fireheart 1945]

8632365

Well, I can edit it so that's out, if it's that big a deal. I just thought it would be something minor.

[GKC]

hoping to see more of this

[Truthseeker]

Not a bad start, the dialogue doesn't feel as organic as it should. Have the characters, or at least the main character speak like a person actually would. He seems like a nice guy and being a historian is always a good thing in my book. I love history myself (my favorite era is World War II). Overall, this is a good start, you have established the base-line personality of each of the characters and they seem realistic. Just modify the dialogue and you will have a good, solid start.

[Destiny Chaser]

An intriguing premise, consider me interested

[My Little Epona]

Ooh, I really like this so far! It's good to see a religious story with so many likes and readers, too.