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by Sleestack

Celestia's Tale

The guard began leading them through the giant doorway.

She was standing, only a few feet from them. She was much larger than any pony Trip had seen yet. She had a very warm aura to her, almost motherly. “Are these the two troublemakers?” she asked jokingly. “And have they had something to eat?”

“Yes, the two ponies you requested, Rose Entrance and Phil Stern are fed. Phil already seems to be in a more stable mood than before.”
“Please, call me Trip.” Trip said, putting on his best smile.

“Very good.” Said the Princess. “Now, if you could, please?”

The guard nodded and turned around. Once he had left the room and the door closed behind him, Celestia lowered her head to the two in front of her.

“Now, I bet you have a lot of questions about-”

“Yes. Very much.” Trip stopped himself. “But, I’m trying to think of the best order to ask them all in.” he pondered for a second. “Yes. Okay, why did you think to feed us?”

He looked over at Rose. Her expression was one of total shock and disbelief.

“Rose, it’s alright.” said the Princess. “He’s just a little nervous.”

“But...” she was so offended she couldn't conjure up the exact words. “He interrupted you! The Princess!” she turned to Trip. “That is the most rude thing I could ever think of! You’d be lucky if she didn’t have you arrested right now!”

“Rose, it’s alright. I was basically done with my sentence anyway.”

She still wasn’t satisfied with the answer. Rose stared at Trip, fuming with anger.

“But, to answer your question Trip, it is very important for a growing young man to eat a healthy diet. And from the information I’ve gathered, you haven’t been doing well on that front. You must have been famished.”

“Famished? Information?” Trip paused. “Man?” he took a step towards the princess. “Can you say that word? I thought you didn’t know what that was?”

She smiled and nodded. “I know quite a bit about you, and where you come from, Trip.”

Trip could only stare at her. “How?”

“Because,” she said. “I’ve been there myself.”

Trip’s eyes widened. “What? When? How?”

---

It happened right after the Grand Galloping Gala. I had just sent the girls home. You know, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Pink- yes. Them. Anyway, I was reflecting upon the events of the night as I was walking home, and I noticed something strange. There was nopony out. The streets were empty. Granted, it was late, and lots of ponies had probably gone to bed at that point, but usually, there was at least a few walking around, maybe some shops open. Nothing. No stores were open, and when I looked in the windows, there wasn’t anypony in them, either. I was completely alone. It was a very strange feeling.

And what was even stranger, was the fact that I seemed to be getting nowhere, or, rather, where I was going didn’t seem to be related to where I was ending up. Well, by that, I mean, I was trying to get back to the Castle, and for some reason, no matter which way I went, I ended up somewhere completely different. Eventually, I ended up right at the gates of the castle, but as I walked through them, I ended up in a random part of the town again. I was completely frustrated and confused. I ended up trying to knock on doors to get somepony to help me, but no one did. It was the most bizarre thing.

I ended up walking for what felt like hours. This worried me even more, because I was supposed to rise the sun, but I was finding myself too weak to conjure up the magic to do so. And I was also worried about what happened to everypony. Then, I saw him.

A completely black stallion, walking away. He had just turned a corner. I ran after him, but by the time I had come around that corner, he had completely vanished. I started walking in the direction I thought he was going to be, and of course, I ended up somewhere completely different. I felt like a tourist in my own town. Looking back on it, I really should have tried flying, but it didn’t occur to me at the time for some reason.

I continued walking, and I knew that the sun should have been risen. But nopony was awake to see it, so I didn’t feel so bad about that. It was about that time I noticed the tears. You’ve seen them, I’ll bet? Yes. No, I don’t know exactly what they are. But they started happening very frequently. Mostly in the sky. I had a very close encounter with a few on the ground, though. I wasn’t sure what would have happened if had fallen into one, but I wasn’t particularly interested in finding out.

Soon, I became exhausted. I tried continuing on, but my fatigue was getting to me, from all the walking and running. So I laid down. I figured, if anypony found me, that was at least somepony who hadn’t disappeared!

I laid down and closed my eyes. It’s not very royal for one to sleep in the streets, I know, but I really didn’t care at the time. Part of me was convinced that I was just having some bizarre dream and that if I went to sleep, I’d wake up in my bed.

After a few minutes, I heard something. I jerked back awake, and saw him again. The black stallion, standing only a few feet away from me. I stood up and ordered him to tell me what was going on. I don’t know what came over me. I should have been asking him kindly, he could have been just as scared as me, but something in me thought that he had something to do with the whole situation. He didn’t answer. I tried focusing my vision- it was all blurry from when I went to sleep- and I saw that his eyes, and saw, they were completely blank. And he didn’t have a cutie mark. And he was very big. I’m not sure if he changed size between the first time I saw him and the second, but he was much bigger than the average pony. Not as big as me, though. But still bigger than most.

Anyway- he wasn’t affected by me yelling at him, even after I repeated the order in the Royal Canterlot Voice. You see, long ago, my sister and- oh, alright. I tried using the Voice on him, and he wasn’t phased at all. In fact, I think he smiled at it. I probably imagined that, though. But I took a step towards him, and between us, one of those tears appeared. I jumped back from it, but I could still see him, through the tear. He was even clearer to me then, somehow. He walked towards me, not falling, not affected by the tear at all. Then, somehow, he was right in front of me. He grabbed me by my horn, and dragged me back into the tear. I tried fighting back, but somehow he was stronger than me, and was unaffected by my magic. He backed himself into the tear and could somehow walk through it as if it wasn’t there, but once my hooves came past the edge, I could tell I was going to fall through.
Then, my entire body was only being held by the stallion by my horn. He looked me in the eye, and gave me a smile. And what was strange about that, was that it wasn’t an evil smile, but a genuinely happy, pleased with himself smile. And then he let go of me. It was around then I blacked out.

I woke up, in a place completely devoid of color. There were trees, everywhere. But they were all black. And the roots- yes! I thought you would know what that place was. Well, I remember it distinctly. Did you see the dog there? Well, when I was there, there was a dog, a greyhound, if I recall correctly. A red greyhound. It was very friendly. I wanted to pet it, but moving any part of my part body was extremely difficult. Of course it was, and you probably know why- yes. They were on every one of my hooves. But even moving my head was difficult.

Then, one of the trees, a huge one, with a lot of leaves started moving towards me. The roots reached out towards me and surrounded me. I felt my bones moving. It felt so strange. But then I passed out.

I woke up, and my vision was blurry. I tried moving different parts of my body, but nothing moved how I remembered it did. I had things at the end of my hooves- yes. At first I thought they were strange, but I did eventually realize they were useful for holding things. When I came to, I walked out of the alleyway I had woken up in. And everypony- or, should I say everybody? Everybody stared at me as I did. Yes- I was walking on all fours. I quickly picked up on the fact that I should have been walking on two legs. Then everybody moved on.

I was worried. Everyone was wearing clothes. I couldn’t tell if I was right away, so I had to ask a man. He laughed. I was apparently wearing a ‘shirt’ and ‘shorts’, but no shoes. He also told me that my hair looked huge. It’s strange- I could have looked down at myself to see, but something just kept me from doing that. Like I was afraid to see what I was. Isn’t that a silly idea?

Hmm. I suppose. I tried walking around, and I definitely angered some ponies- err, people. I was used to ponies leaving room for me to walk between them, so I ended up running into a lot of people. One woman threatened me, and one man even pushed me. Thankfully, other people intervened before he could get too violent.

I had been walking up and down the same block for nearly an hour. I was afraid to cross the street. The big vehicles- yes, cars- moved so fast and looked so much bigger than me... but I did cross the street. People stopped their cars very quickly for me. A few of them ran into each other. One of the people in the cars got out and made me stay there. He was very angry at me.

Soon, your version of the Royal Guard showed up. The police. I tried explaining my situation to them, that I was from Canterlot, and I had no idea where I was, and most of them just became confused. But one laughed. He said ‘This isn’t My Little Pony, ma’am.’ He then explained how his kids watched the show, and that Canterlot was something from that. I asked him to tell me more. He reluctantly took me back to his station and explained it to me.

The name? Sin-Sea-Nat-Tea? Did I pronounce that right? Oh, alright.

I was very confused to learn that I was part of a children’s program. Even more confused when I realized I shouldn’t exist, that I was merely a work of fiction. But the man said he would allow me to sleep at the station that night, and that he would try his hardest to find out what had happened to me.

I went to sleep in a cell. It was quite different from the Castle, I can assure you that. He kept giving me water and other little snacks, because he didn’t want me to feel like a prisoner. He even got me a pillow and let me borrow one of his jackets for a blanket. I did get to sleep, eventually.

I had a dream, where lots of things were explained to me. It was like I was sitting in a dark room somewhere, as neither a human or as a pony, and there was a voice that was explaining many things to me without actually saying anything out loud. The “voice” told me there was many worlds, that sometime people in worlds create other, less defined worlds, in the form of books, plays and “TV shows”. And that I was a part of one of those worlds, that was created by the world I was in at the time. It told me I didn’t have to feel bad because I was fiction, that I was real to many people. It told me what ‘people’ were, and that I was one at that moment. I did find comfort in these words, or lack of words. It also told me that sometimes, beings can slip between worlds under the right conditions.

Well, I didn’t understand many of the things it said about that, but one important part was that a being could only travel to another world fully if there had been enough damage to that being’s soul. That a being could only travel between worlds if it had experienced a great amount of pain.

I came very close to losing my sister. I also have to make sure all of Equestria will maintains harmony. I’ve seen many valiant, friendly, and smart ponies come and go. So, I’m not a stranger to pain and heartbreak. And since you’re here, you must be familiar with it yourself, Trip. Is that so?

Comments

[spritefan10]

One question: How did Celestia get back to Equestria?

[MrSpartan]

So our world is connected to all the others yes? VERY cool. I bet the world of fallout 3 is probably only stone's throw away from our tree. Maybe 'worlds' of star wars, lord of the rings, elder scrolls, marvel comics ect are out there too! So awsome!