Simon Says
Twilight hadn’t checked the time for a good while now. She was still busy trying to process the vast amount of information she’d learned from this device that the not-minotaur. No, the human, had given her. Now, she was calm as calm could be in such a situation, the situation being far more complex and quite frankly disturbing than she’d like or was used to.
She’d freaked out and had quite a severe mental breakdown once upon a time thinking Princess Celestia would send her to magic kindergarten over something so miniscule as not sending a letter on a certain day and missing a deadline, but she was thankfully long past the days of such neuroticism.
No, right now she was calm.
Yes, she was… practising breathing exercises, and sitting in the far corner of the bed against the wall with her eyes closed, trying to relax and soothe her incoming headache and greatly hoping she was wrong. Overall, she’d say she was handling the idea that she wasn’t in Equestria or let alone on Equus itself, rather well.
If there was somepony here she could confide in, she’d actually happily admit that she really wasn’t handling things too well, but right now what was keeping her from toppling over the edge into a full blown breakdown was the fact that this was a great opportunity for knowledge. The scientific pursuits that could be gained from such an insane situation could greatly benefit her world. Such potential majorly outweighed the overwhelming sense of dread that was burning a pit in her stomach.
That was of course assuming she could figure out a way home, which she didn't think was too impossible, she was Princess Celestia's protégé after all. She’d seen through Chrysalis's ploy when nopony else had and kept on through all the doubt, she'd completed Starswirl's great unfinished spell, and that hadn't been solved for hundreds of years by the mages of the Royal Court! Granted, it hadn't done much but fill her with a greater sense of magical strength, like reaching into a deep well of energy to cast more powerful abilities, but that was something to use here now. It was that no matter what, she had persevered, and her friends had returned to the way they were. She could definitely figure out how to get back to Equestria, all she needed was the correct mindset and not to give up.
It did make her curious how Equestria would fare without her though, the Elements were nothing without all six bearers…
Her friends were all strong minded, and there hadn't been anything major since Shining Armour and Cadence's wedding, Chrysalis certainly wasn't coming back anytime soon. If something did pop up then there might be a chance that one of the Princesses could utilise the Elements of Harmony as a stand-in with them now having new bearers, if indeed Princess Celestia could use them on her own in the past then it seemed like it might be possible to her mind, the Princess had as much magic as Twilight did to be capable of harnessing Magic itself. At least, it was a theory anyway.
She hoped they would be fine.
Her thoughts turned back to more current and pressing matters, a number of questions were running through her mind. One question had already been answered in that the food she’d been given from the human in charge was edible and hadn’t caused her to go into any shock from allergic reactions, and a quick detection spell showed she wasn't manifesting any signs of illness. Going through the datapad, it really was the case that they were the same sort of greens she’d eaten in Equestria, as they shared a basic periodic table of elements, give or take a few that were apparently unique to Equestria. They also did seem to share the same sort of science of agriculture, albeit far more advanced, so she could only assume some practices must be universal.
It still left other questions. What of this universe’s politics, who was in charge that she could ask for assistance in getting home? Looking up basic information using what little level of English she'd learned was one thing, elemental tables were apparently common knowledge, the same for the fact that she was in an utterly alien star system was also as plain as day to everyone else and maps and charts were highly accessible, but what about authority?
The humans of this home had mentioned an ‘Alliance’ enough that it was clear they were important, so she looked that word up and found that this Alliance seemed to rule most of the planets in this part of the universe. She could consider asking this authority, but then again it might be a moot point as the humans she was currently staying with were surprised at her magical ability. All searches on this device for magic had only turned up what appeared to be ancient myths and legends of humans from an abandoned planet called Earth-That-Was, and any capable of doing true magic beyond the sort of circus magic Trixie practised had died out long ago. If that was the case then there were no humans alive that could help her on the level she required.
What of other races? Again, there were myths and legends of species she knew; gryphons, unicorns, pegasi, dragons, minotaurs, sirens, hydras, there was even a snake-like woman that had the powers of a cockatrice and turned people to stone. But none of it was current, in this time and day the only species around were humans.
What was she going to do to start? These people were friendly enough ─other than the large muscular one─ but she couldn’t simply continue leeching off their kindness. She was already learning the basics of their language beyond the alphabet and a few phrases, that was a great start in that regard. Now that she could safely use magic without incident, by listening to the words coming from the datapad with a language spell she could glean a true sense of the meaning of the words she was seeing and hearing.
However this ‘English’, unlike on Equus, was just one in an absolute myriad of different languages in this universe, one of over one-hundred and eighty primary languages which didn't even count the massive amount of different dialects and sub-languages. It was some small luck however as according to the current calendar system the two main spoken languages were English and Mandarin, the former being the more common of the two.
That was going to make things a lot easier, even more so that she could tell the difference between them, going by what she’d picked up so far. It seemed incredibly common for most people to cut Mandarin into their English, especially for curses and the like. It was a lot to take in, but she’d done much harder things in her life, the mounting stress and worry was quite small in comparison to her optimism as she cracked on with learning a great deal more about this strange new world.
When she finally did put the datapad down many hours later, the sun still hadn’t come up.
Granted, she’d cast 'stay-awake' and 'over-focus' spells like she had back when she’d sat exams for Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, but it greatly enhanced her ability to process and understand information, and even if taxed her energy to the point of collapse the price had always been worth it. She was also stronger now than she was back then, so currently the worst she felt was an ache in her limbs and a slight pulsing pain behind her eyes when she pushed the magic. Ignoring it, she turned the tablet off and got comfortable under the duvet of the bed she’d been given.
It took very little time before she fell asleep.
* * *
Simon slowly awoke, finding River had settled down beside him with quite a content smile on his face. It was rare for her to sleep so well at all during the week when she had most of her scans and tests to see if her medication was still working properly. While he had his misgivings about overstimulation causing her to have further episodes of schizophrenia, she seemed to be doing alright now. If she truly was breaking the medication down faster than usual then she wouldn't be so stable at the current moment. He had a sneaking suspicion that perhaps Star's influence was having more of a positive impact, good things that occurred usually helped her state of mind and balanced out the negative.
Shocking, who knew.
Leaving his room to go and get ready for the day, he quickly poked his head into the one currently housing Star who was lightly snoring away. It was rather amusing to see a small alien equine snore and wasn’t too different to when River did the same. Scoffing at the thought he carefully rescued his datapad back from where it rested neatly on the bedside table and left as quietly as he'd come.
The morning was the same as any other, when he was properly washed and dressed he went to the galley and prepared a small breakfast from whatever fresh foods he could find that weren’t in a sealed package. For once they'd still had some goods left from the last stock up after the previous job. The only other person that would likely be up at this hour was their captain and he’d have already eaten, so maybe he wouldn’t have to endure the man until he’d at least had some coffee.
That didn’t stop him from being disappointed as Jayne came through into the galley lightly drenched in sweat, up earlier than he usually arose from his cave for his imposing daily exercise routine, and definitely on the prowl for food. Jayne paid him little mind beyond striding over and immediately snatching up the strips of chicken breast Simon had planned on turning into a sandwich.
“Excuse me?” Simon pointedly asked, knitting his eyebrows together.
“‘Scuse ya few’wha?” Jayne spoke after taking a large bite of the meat.
Simon sighed and glanced at the bread he’d buttered, the slices now going to be devoid of any meat that wasn’t packaged, incredibly dry, and lacking any decent flavour. He mused on the possibility of breaking his hippocratic oath and euthanising Jayne in his sleep for the great misdeed. He turned his attention upward to the odd sound of metallic clopping coming from the aft hall he’d entered the galley from, and was a little surprised to see it was Star, up already and apparently full of energy.
Of course the sound of hooves certainly made sense now.
“Good morning, Star.” Simon smiled toward the small pony, despite knowing she couldn’t reply back.
“Good day, friend!” Star did indeed reply, in clear English.
For a brief moment Simon was baffled into silence by her quick response, though recovered fast enough to manage a small laugh. Jayne scowled and swore, eyeing Star with distaste.
“I see you’ve picked up a few words,” Simon smiled, ignoring him. “You’re a fast learner.”
“Yes! I take a lot of hours study,” Star nodded. “Still not perfect, but I know enough to talk, sorry if I bad.”
“No, no, it’s good!” Simon shook his head. “Honestly I wasn’t expecting this at all, how did you manage to learn so much so fast?”
“Magic.” Star beamed, as if it was the most obvious answer.
That would have made him very sceptical, had he not seen her levitate items and learn all the basics within the space of the few hours or so that he was teaching her yesterday. She trotted over to the counter and jumped up, resting on her oddly-sizable haunches upon the chair.
“So… not to be rude, but may I eat?” she asked in an incredibly polite manner.
Thinking about it, maybe it was for the best that Jayne stole the chicken. Star probably wouldn’t like seeing him or anyone else eat meat as she was likely primarily herbivorous, and while Equines were opportunistic omnivores when the situation called for it, he doubted meat was part of her main palette.
“Of course,” he replied to her, turning around and grabbing a few packets from the cupboards behind him. “Hope you like pre-packed vegetables.”
“Beggars can not choose.”
“Picked up some sayings too, very nice,” Simon hummed. “You’re well on your way.”
“I can learn more.” Star nodded, then met his eyes for a moment. “In fact… you can be a big help.”
“Oh?” Simon wondered, placing a bowl of veg before her. “What did you have in mind?”
“A mind spell,” she slowly said, as if she was unsure. “Will not hurt you, will just allow me to see more... words? More feel of words... more of normal.”
“Mind reading?”
“Sort of? But I know if not,” Star waved a hoof. “Not hurt, but not a... normal thing, feel it is rude not to ask for a yes.”
“Well that’s fine...” Simon smiled, preparing something else for himself to eat. “River constantly invades mine and others minds without asking... she doesn't mean to but it's not something she can control most of the time, so it’s no trouble.”
“She can do magic?” Star wondered, her face lighting up.
“Well… in a sense, I suppose?” Simon shrugged. “If we as humans have magic, then psychics are as close as we’ve got.”
For a short period there was silence as they both ate, and from Simon’s point of view, he felt he was being studied by her eyes as much as he was examining her. It was nice to have something new and interesting drop into everyone’s lives, even if that something was an alien equine from god knows where. Speaking of which…
“I never asked for your name, Star,” Simon stated, looking her in the eyes again. “My name’s Simon, but what’s your name? The Captain and I went with Star based on the marking you have on your haunch.”
“It is close, in fact!” Star giggled a bit. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, I sure it is the correct words. It is nice to meet you, Simon.”
He smiled, a little amused when she held her hoof out for a handshake. Politely, he took it gently and shook, giving her a nod. She smiled and went back to eating for the moment.
“The irate gorilla over there is Jayne,” Simon tilted his head. “He doesn’t like new things.”
Jayne scowled at him, swearing in Mandarin.
“Come to think of it… He doesn’t like anything that doesn't commonly involve sex or violence.”
Twilight hid a laugh with her hoof, looking at him. “Nice to meet you, Jayne.”
Jayne, for his part, did not return the greeting. Instead he scowled even further to the point his brow was so lowered it seemed his face might collapse in on itself, snatching up the other pieces of food and his gun he’d been cleaning at the table and skulking off away from the two.
“Not very social.” Twilight noted, her posture deflating slightly.
“Don’t worry about it, Twilight, you’re not missing out on much there,” Simon sighed, a smile coming to him. “Besides, everyone else will like talking with you. Especially─Ah, Kaylee.”
Twilight turned as Simon's attention focused on the source of a noise, increasing as Kaylee moved into the galley. Kaylee had apparently heard them conversing and was now moving towards Twilight with intent. Before Twilight could react or protest she was quickly swept up off of her stool into a loving hug, being squeezed like a teddy bear for all she was worth.
“Nice to meet you, Kaylee.” Twilight managed between a breath.
Simon was unsure if Kaylee could actually sound any happier or higher-pitched at hearing Twilight speak in plain English to her.
Stats
Page generated in 0.024 seconds
Total duration
1,068 users online
1,629,977 hits today, 2,167,270 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Tis a good read. Please keep going.
Nice! I like the rules of magic upbraided put and you've managed to explain things well without making it awkward.
Finally, an update.
9313810
Aye took a while.
woohoo! you has risen from the depth of the tartarus block!
YAY more Firefly MLP
Given her time with the pink one Kaylee’s greeting is probably not overly concerning to Twi.
Well if we follow the Wedonverse theory there are magic users and non humans in the verse, they just hide very very well. If you dunno the Wedonverse theory it basically boils down to Buffy, Angel, Dollhouse, Firefly and Cabin in the Woods sharing a reality. Firefly's "the Earth that was" being destroyed in a demonic Apocalypse, humans fleeing to space with a handful of vampires and other supernatruals hiding among them.
Oh, I wouldn't say that Twilight. Sure, the Elements of Harmony may have less power than before with you being on a space adventure, but the individual Elements have a magic of their own, me thinks.
Resistance is futile. Give in to the fluffy cuteness.
Well, I'm certainly glad to see an update! Hopefully that block is spit into kindling! This was a good chapter and I enjoyed it.
So happy to see this updated, and very said to see it stop once again. Seriously, I need more.
Awesome, need more of this. I know it has been a while.
9556536
Aye is has, but it aint dead. Update hopefully soonish.
9558363
Can't wait!
Than you for writing this. I know others have said it, but I, too, feel that you've captured these characters, and I look forward to additional chapters.