In Our Loving Memory

by Comma Typer

Chapter 5

Coming back to now: It was peaceful for history teacher Keep, watching time and life go by in the Canterlot High staffroom. Quark still pulled out jokes nobody really asked for. Lime served several bowls of his signature salad. Strotton busied himself chatting idly with a fellow art teacher about some exhibit in the local museum.

Three minutes to eight-twenty—so said the clock—the knob glowed yellow and the door opened to resounding silence.

Principal Celestia stood at the door.

All hushed as she closed the door behind her. She wasn’t here to just say hi.

“I apologize for intruding on your time out of the blue,” Celestia said.

A pause while she cleared her throat and tugged at her blazer coat.

“But, I just want to wish all of you the best of luck for the new school year,” she declared. “Each year has its own sets of surprises and challenges to overcome, and this is just shaping up to be just that. However, I know we can do it only together with the magic of friendship.”

She bowed her head and took a step back out into the hallway. “So, once again, good luck and have a great day! I’ll be looking forward to it myself.”

Her little piece done, Celestia was off, heading out as everyone applauded her. She was most likely returning to her office, going back to overseeing the school itself.

Silence hung for a few more seconds before things resumed their normal way. Casual chatter fired back up though Quark’s audience still did not get what nuclear fission had to do with bait and tackle.

“Don’t be surprised,” Strotton said as he passed by the sitting Keep who’d seen it all from the comfort of his chair. “Celestia always does her best to encourage us. Good thing she doesn’t do it too much.”

A cautious snort left his lips. The art teacher still harbored much adoration for the principal, Keep could tell that. “We’re grown-ups. We don’t need a whole motivational speech every single day.”

Keep merely nodded, trying to not let the wonder get to him. She was just a normal person, anyway, suddenly thrust into so much power and responsibility long ago.

Seconds later, it was just him and his coffee again.

~ ~ ~

When eight-twenty hit, Keep got up and left the lounge. Better early than late. He’d rather do last-minute preparations just outside the room than way back in the lounge where he still had distance to cover.

As he trotted to his designated class, the halls echoed empty. Most of the students and teachers were currently occupied with classes in their own rooms. He saw little glimpses of their lessons as he passed through the doors’ windows. A bout of laughter erupted from one of them. Maybe a jokester tutor was there. His students must had been glad to have him lighten up their dreary Monday morning.

The lobby inched closer, and so did the room for his eight-thirty class.

Mostly barren was the lobby itself. The only ones there were guards, and they only dropped their stoic expressions to briefly smile at the incoming teacher. There used to be none of them back in the day, according to one of the veteran lecturers here. As time went on, however, they upped security in case anyone attempted to harm the day-night movers themselves. Sure, they were powerful alicorns who could stomp their way through any battle, but, as the saying went, prevention was better than the cure.

Room B-1 was up next.

He peeked through the window. For that, he was grateful there’d been a worldwide movement to update international door standards; now, any door would accommodate almost any creature big or small.

Inside sat a bunch of ninth-graders listening to Spin Out, their class’s homeroom teacher. He’d checked through his own class’s list and photos just to familiarize himself with his students, to put faces to their names beforehoof. Of course, it wouldn’t be wrong to ask if he did forget during the first week or so. Yet another reason to have fun icebreakers.

He sat down by the door, turning his bags onto his hoof and looking up at the ceiling. A light tinge of green to ease his eyes and mind. Keep could go over the history material one last time—with stuff like the beginnings of human civilization and agriculture's rise for lesson one—but, instead, he just thought of now.

Now.

He had waited and worked for a long time to get to here, to get to now. Now, it was so close, he could taste it. He crossed his hooves over in excited anxiety. His now as a history teacher, ready to share and give youngsters a why for and a beauty in history, from that fateful first day in school to now.

In fact, getting here into Canterlot High was the home stretch, and it started with a job interview months ago.

---

Keep was nervous. Very nervous. Uncomfortable and very nervous.

Sitting in the principal’s reception hall with nothing but his bags, his tie, and himself was a recipe for disaster. Add in a dash of having to talk to Principal Celestia herself—she might as well be Princess with how the sun wouldn’t shine without her—and he was close to a blubbering mess on the inside.

But he talked himself down, kept telling himself that Celestia was just a normal person who had to get used to raising and lowering the sun every day. From all accounts, she remained the same caring person she’d always been after turning into a sun alicorn. It’d all become mundane by now: wake up, take shower, brush teeth, raise sun, cook breakfast. There was no need to grovel in fear.

The clock ticked a minute before nine. The door opened on cue, revealing the previous interviewee: an Earth pony named Curve Sketch. She had interviewed for a shot as a math teacher.

Sketch and Keep had chatted lots in the few minutes they were able to meet before her interview. She was one optimistic pony, to put it mildly, wanting to prove all the math haters wrong by showing them it could be more than just doing formulas, that it’s beautiful and aesthetic too. It showed; she’d uncovered works of mathematical art such as a diagram of Pascolt’s triangle and photos of fractal sculptures from her global travels. The two wannabe-teachers had bonded over their similar passions.

“Go knock ‘em dead, Keepsake!” Sketch now quipped before leaving, slinging the bags on her back.

After the farewells, now was the moment of truth, that critical point. Make it or not make it, hired or not hired. Sweat poured down his face.

Breathed in. Breathed out. Breathed in. Breathed out. Hoof on chest. Breathed in. Breathed out. Shook head, readied the mind. Breathed in. Breathed out.

Keep trotted into the room.

The principal’s office was altogether modest. No royal heraldry or anything like that, not like what her princess counterpart had. The walls spoke of yellow and white, colors known for inspiration and positive productivity. On the back lay a bookshelf with a globe sitting on the top. A calendar and bulletin board clung to the wall, crammed with organized sticky notes. On the sun-symboled desk stood the microphone for the school’s PA system and, of course, a fresh apple stood there as was standard for teaching authorities.

Which led to Celestia herself.

He’d seen her before from afar on two or three occasions by passing by the school once in a while. He’d also seen her before as a typical fixture on international news during the first few years after the Change. Former acting president of the country for a while, assisted by the other Celestia who’d lived over a thousand years and had lots of experience and wisdom with nation-ruling. When Amareica was finally running smoothly without her constant wrangling, she didn’t hesitate to return the presidency to a more traditional politician. She’d been itching to return to full principal duties.

Up-close, he hadn’t expected her sheer presence to dominate the whole room like it did now. She was almost a full pony taller than him, but that wasn’t all. Her ethereal mane and tail flowed in the non-existent breeze, sparkling and dancing in the daylight gleaming through the window. Her casual bargain-bought blazer was regalia on her stately figure, complementing her royal-enough appearance.

She was coolly sipping hot tea. It smelled like the green sort. All teas smelled the same to him. He was more of a coffee pony anyway.

“Good morning, Keepsake!” Celestia said, warmness radiating in her words. “I believe you’ve had a good start to your day, judging by how early you arrived.”

“Yes, Miss Celestia. I’ve had a good day so far,” Keep replied. It wasn’t easy not to bow an inch before her. “The early morning shone beautifully, by the way,” he added with a sincere smirk.

It was obvious she was seeking out opinions on her sun job. Let her be, he thought. It’d probably be a long day for her. He was only second among the many applicants slated until sunset today.

She giggled, levitating the tea and its dinky little saucer back onto the table. “You’re welcome, and thank you for the compliment, although it was the pegasi who cleared the skies and made it possible. Still, controlling the sun everyday takes unparalleled dedication and consistency not everyone truly appreciates. Now, please have a seat.”

Keep was already in her good graces. If all went well, she wouldn’t see it as a kowtow trick.

The resume he’d submitted floated in Celestia’s magic glow, scanned over by her prying eyes. Time to get on the offensive and show initiative.

“Do you expect a lot of applicants because of your and your sister’s stature?” asked Keep, half-knowing the answer already. It might not be his best hoof forward, but better his hoof than hers—that sounded wrong now that he thought it through.

“Yes, I do expect swarms of would-be teachers storming in here because of me and Luna,” she replied, circling the rim of her teacup. “Still, it won’t be as bad as my first year back here as a full-time principal.”

She tipped the cup a tiny bit. The tea inside glided an inch to the edge.

“Even so,” she continued, “most of them are quite manageable. In fact, I bring in one or two of them if their passion for friendship-filled education outweighs their personal ambitions.”

Keep’s ears folded in politeness. “I see.”

It wouldn’t be easy to come clean here, but it had to be done as a show of honesty. So, he added, “I must admit, I still am a little starstruck by the prospect of working under cosmos-movers such as you and Vice-Principal Luna, but I’m also quite interested in the unique situation this school’s had in recent times.”

Celestia magically floated the cup down. “Yes. It is quite unique, all things considered.”

The resume floated down to the table too, that yellow glow of hers dissipating. Her eyes locked with his. Time to rein it in and let the interviewer do her job.

“So, Keepsake, tell me a bit about yourself.”

Keep had practiced for this, so he opened his mouth wide and confident. “I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history from First Corners College. Since then, I’ve worked my way up the ladder, starting with being the event planner for various historical societies both in Amareica and abroad—such as the Historical Coalition of Amareica and the International Archives Association for the Convocation of Countries—as well as assisting in preservation efforts worldwide, most especially the Multinational Digital History Servers Backup.

“However, what I really want to do with my history expertise is to instill an appreciation of the past—our society’s foundation—in the next generation. That’s the crux of why I want to be a history teacher.“

Celestia nodded, glancing at the resume again. Not much of a spectacle in her face for now, though it did shine brighter now. “So… as the principal of Canterlot High, I assume that you know what this school means to those who walk through its doors.”

She heeded the silence. Keep’s silence meant yes, he knew.

“Why are you interested in teaching at this school in particular?”

Keep scratched his mane. Totally not nervous. This was a display of yet more confidence, which was what the suave expression on his self-satisfied face was for.

“Well, I must admit I am quite honored to be considered for the role in such a storied institution, to teach at the very school where the world’s new magical age awakened. But, beyond that, I also think of how this school’s ethics play into every facet of school life. The emphasis on values such as friendship certainly instills confidence that this school isn’t a factory spitting out job- or college-ready individuals but that it is interested in building up its students into becoming the best both in character and in academics—both mental and physical, of course. In addition to that, upon canvassing various teachers—both current and former—from several schools in the city, I heard them speak of Canterlot High’s working culture as unrivaled thanks to the emphasis on friendship. That’s also without mentioning the caliber of teachers that are attracted here thanks to its rich history.”

Another sip of tea for the principal. “That shows you have dutifully prepared for this, Keep. A good quality to have.”

She put the cup down again, a couple inches away from the resume. Would be terrible if she soiled the document by spilling hot tea.

“Now, why would you want to teach history in particular to young creatures?” she asked. Keep couldn’t help but notice her moving mane once in a while as it shimmered in the sunshine. “I see that it’s your passion to teach, but why teach history instead of, say, mathematics or philosophy?”

He rubbed his hooves to let prevent the shivers from overtaking him. Things were looking good so far.

“I do believe it’s important to give them a proper perspective on past events,” Keep began, “to give them a solid foundation on how we got here and why things are the way they are now in the world. However, just citing facts and numbers won’t do. Instead, I—”

Wavered.

He wavered. Something was coming on, breaking the script in his head. Rolled his tongue in one cheek, then rolled it in the other. Tried to shoo that pesky something out.

“It’s… it’s like trying to teach a foal how to do calculus,” he carried out, regaining himself. “It’d be terrible if I just show them integrals from the get-go. They’ll be turned off by it and will hate math forever. But, any sensible teacher would start with the basics first: simple counting, then addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, algebra… only after all of that can they teach calculus.”

A cough went to the side, his mouth covered. He had to persevere and get his thoughts in order.

“So it is with history,” he continued. “I-I can’t just say names and dates. They don’t mean a thing to them. But what do foals like?”

He flashed a smile that meant only eureka!, like he finally solved the most difficult item on a math test.

“Stories. History is made up of stories. So I tell them those stories… and then… only then do they get to appreciate the power and meaning of the names and dates, the stories behind them all.

“Finally, it’s also because...”

Keep gulped. That would be fine. Just a little hiccup. Things would get back to normal.

The mouth opened but the words didn’t form.

This was dangerous. He shouldn’t be having this pause. What’s worse, butterflies fluttered in his stomach, traveling to his skull to freeze his brain.

Just a momentary pause, an unexpected break in the script. He could still recover as long as he said a couple words and finished a coherent sentence.

But all he did was lose focus, look at nowhere, and stutter, “Because… b-because...”

Celestia’s look turned into confusion.

Something was coming on, but he couldn’t just blast it out in anger and say gibberish to get it out. At the tip of his tongue, mind delving through memory clutters in search of the missing words—

Because I was there.

---

“Haven’t you heard? It’s over! It can’t be fixed! I was there when the purple princess pony said it!”

Ten-year-old Keep sat in the corner of his living room, still frightened at the strange creature he’d become. Almost everyone was gone; either Dad had brought them home or their parents had rushed to fetch them. That’d left Thistle, Bud, and Alloy by his side, comforting the shuddering colt.

He wanted it to be just a nightmare. He wanted it to be over. To mute the bad news outside. To cover his ears and make it stop.

“Are you sure?!” Dad shouted to their neighbor past the door.

“She’s the princess, so she oughta’ know!”

The conversation was over. Dad closed the door and locked it tight.

Keep's heart pounded, beating too fast for him to keep up. The neighbor had said nothing good, said nothing human. He could only feel the worst news about to explode and destroy what was left of reality.

Dad looked at him and his friends square in the eyes. It was just them and Mom in this house. Mom turned away, and Keep could feel she was close to crying.

“A-are we…” said Keep before he coughed through his new mouth, unable to shake the shuddering off. “C-can we turn back?”

Dad let out a silent sigh, staring at the floor.

“Can we t-turn back to normal? L-like soon?”

Dad shook his head, bit his lip. He never looked at his son.

“But are you—“

“You heard him,” Dad blurted out, sounded worn-out. “He has no reason to lie to us like that.”

Keep opened his mouth to ask again. Asking another time might get him a maybe.

But the colt said nothing. The neighbor had no reason to lie. Dad had no reason to lie. No one would lie about the end of the world if it was happening right in front of them.

So, no.

It would be no humanity forever. A harrowing word: forever. Stuck as a stupid magic unicorn forever. No way to turn back into a human again forever. All of it, thrown out the window forever as tears welled up in his eyes.

“I...”

He choked. Tears choked.

Keep curled up on the floor, leaning against the cold wall.

Dad and Mom hugged him. His friends hugged him too. They hugged him, stayed with him as the world died.

Keep cried.

~ * ~

Eyes red and dry, and they were scary too, but that didn’t stop his friends from eating with him at the table.

It was evening. They said it’s some vice principal who was moving the moon now. Horrible; science was breaking down as well as eating manners too—they were all getting used to eating straight from the plate. Muzzle out, food in. Just like an animal.

“Come on, Keep, it’s not so bad,” Alloy chirped after munching on a lettuce sandwich, her snout so close to the plate like a horse. “I mean, I dream of flying and being a magic pony a lot, so I was like, ‘Huh? Cool!’”

“You were screaming when your dreams came true,” Keep reminded her. It didn’t help that his strained throat made his voice growl.

“Only because no one expected it,” Thistle said. He inspected his antlers as they glowed, vibrating his plate a little. “If it’s up to me, I’d become a dragon instead of a deer because dragons are way cooler.” He looked at his antlers again and knocked on them with his hoof. “But, heh, deer’s the second best.”

“You thought turning into a deer was super lame ‘cause they couldn’t fly!” accused Bud, shooting a cloven hoof at his deer friend. “Admit it!”

“Ugh… fine, it’s lame.” Thistle stuck his tongue out and made a sour face. “But I can’t choose so I can’t complain. Plus—“ he pointed at his glowing antlers “—magic. Can’t deny magic’s cool.”

Keep smiled, but only for a brief bit. He looked to Bud to see what the calf had to say.

Bud noticed his searching look. “What? Yeah, I wanna turn back, but it’s nifty to be a buffalo. Strong, fierce, running free… sounds like a good package to me.”

Keep just went back to eating. He ignored how his friends happily talked about their new selves like it wasn’t so bad.

~ * ~

Keep was outside for the first time. It was dreadful and horrible, seeing no humans in sight but, instead, all these weird animals straight from his bedtime stories. Magic ponies like him, flying creatures like griffons and hippogriffs, others like buffalo and yaks and changelings, even the most human of them like the diamond dogs and the Abyssinians—every one of them, real. Every one of them, no longer human.

Mom had brought him over to Canterlot High, the high school that started this whole mess with its horse statue portal. She had badgered him out of bed and made him come with her, saying that he couldn’t spend the rest of his life hiding under the sheets. Now, he had to help Mom help the ponies here distribute “recivilization goods” or Equestrian care packages or Equestrian boxes or whatever they were called. It was stuff to help society get back on its hooves, she said.

If they were lucky, she’d said, there’d be unicorns from the other side willing to help him out with his magic powers. He didn’t want it. He didn’t want to dive further into this magic nonsense. It would be terrible to become less human and more unicorn. Sadly, he couldn’t say no to Mom literally dragging her whiny son by the ear out into the open.

Once there, he saw the swirling portal floating in front of the school, big enough to fit a truck or two. There were tons of boxes shooting out of the thing, caught by agile ponies and sorted into sections: food, tools, manuals, building materials, so on. By the side stood a tall-looking purple alicorn supervising everything, talking with Celestia—not sure which one—about other portals for other places around the world. Maybe she’s the princess pony they’d talked about yesterday. Keep didn’t care for it though. He was forced here, he wasn’t going to like it.

All day, it was catching and sorting boxes for the wagon drivers to distribute through town. Boring, boring, hard boring work.

~ * ~

“Stupid phone, go to the video already!“

He pressed it with his hoof. Must’ve been the tenth time.

TackTube was horrendous with hooves. Apps were horrendous with hooves. Phones were horrendous with hooves even with glove mode on. Nonetheless, it’d be worth it to get the help he so needed. It was Dad’s recommendation too.

After the thirtieth excruciating time, he finally selected the video and it started loading.

“Hello!” said the yellow unicorn on the video. “I’m Sunset Shimmer and I’ll teach you the basics of unicorn magic, starting with tips on levitation!”

The next hour, Keep did his best, lighting his horn and lifting his phone, his blanket, and other random stuff in the room. The goal was to get them up and stay in the air for ten seconds, and then it was for twenty seconds, and then it was for thirty seconds. Forty seconds, fifty seconds, sixty seconds, more seconds.

It felt alien, this magic thing. It was weird energy flowing through his body like electricity—not the bad type that electrocuted him though. It was a warm buzz that built up to his horn, and, somehow, he was able to use that to feel and hold stuff without touching them at all.

It felt out of this world to make things float with his magic.

By the end, he could levitate stuff for ten minutes straight, but he was drained. He lied down on the floor and slept.

~ * ~

The news used to be dull, but now, he wanted to see if there’s any hope for a second chance, a second shot at humanity.

In the evening, just winding down with Mom. Dad was away somewhere in Equestria, asking around to see how he could help Earth more.

“In the meantime,” said the pony reporter on the screen, “Equestria is almost done setting up portals in over two hundred major cities across the world. This is thanks to the help of Princess Twilight Sparkle and accomplished wizards Sunburst and Starswirl the Bearded who’ve spearheaded the project.”

Cut to Princess Twilight, standing in another city somewhere in this unknown world he knew and loved. The Eiffet Tower was there, so it must be Mareis, Prance.

“I wish things would’ve turned out much better,” the princess said. She sounded like she was swimming in thought. Maybe drowning it in too. “We could’ve had peaceful cultural exchanges between humans and Equestrians. Sadly, that’s not what happened.

“The only thing we can do now is to help Earth adapt to its new status quo. Over the next few weeks and months, we’ll be sending even more volunteers so everyone gets up to speed with Equestrian magic and their new bodies.”

The news marched on, leaving Twilight in its wake. A montage of videos over many reports, from various cities and towns all over Earth, showed no human in sight. They were other-worldly creatures trying to get by.

~ * ~

Laid on the bed, faced the ceiling.

Cuddled by a gentle pillow and his soft blanket, Keep remembered the bedtime stories. The Hours of the Finest Knight: tales of Knight Road who traveled the land of Licorne, saving damsels in distress from evil dragons in their haunted castles, battling against wicked mages to free a town under their spell, and, best of all, having a trusty unicorn steed as his best friend. His Dad never failed to tuck him to sleep with a story beforehand, especially when he mimicked all the characters’ voices. Those nights were fun and never dull.

Keep remembered saying something one night after Dad finished a story. It was a night long before they’d become magic talking ponies.

“Dad?”

“Yeah, sonny?”

“What if… what if it’s all true?”

“What’s all true?”

“Th-the adventures? The magic. Come on, magic would be fun! How awesome would it be to have my own unicorn friend? I wanna get one!”

“Heh-heh! Of course, they’re not true. None of the adventures or the magic’s real. But... yeah, won't it be great if they are real?”

Now it was true. The magic, the fantastic creatures, all of it.

It wasn’t great.

~ * ~

More box chores over at the high school today, hauling them over and sorting them with his Mom. Friendly neighbors were his co-workers but so were a lot of unfamiliar ponies who’d come from the other side, Equestria. There were even a couple pairs that look like twins. Really, they were the same pony but different versions, alter egos from both sides. Maybe he had one over there too with the same name, same voice, and same cutie mark. Super creepy.

“Hey, Keep!”

The pony turned around.

From the sidewalk scampered a few familiar silhouettes.

A bit closer, and they turned out to be his friends again. The deer, the buffalo, and the pegasus, all excited and galloping up to the colt.

“Huh?” was all he could ask when they came to a screeching halt right in front of him. “What’re you doing here?”

Alloy was the first to speak. “We decided that seeing you work here all alone just isn’t good.”

Thistle rolled his eyes and groaned. “I just wanted to stay home, but—“

“Cut it out, Thistle!” Alloy said as he pulled his ear.

“Ow!” He recoiled from the demanding filly, his ear already throbbing red. “Alright, fine, Mom!”

Alloy turned to Keep but not without groaning back at Thistle.

“Okay, Keep, I know you still feel pretty bad about, well, this—” she flared her wings, pointing at the silliness magic had given the world. “But I guess, since we’re all in this together... might as well help a friend in need, right?”

She stretched her hoof out. A welcome, open invitation to something better. No fingers—well, no hooves crossed.

Keep bit his lip. Things shouldn’t have to stay this way, to remain as whimsical and magical as they were. A former human like him would always bounce back from this and regain humanity somehow. The stories always ended like that.

But friends willing to help him just to get used to magic life? It wouldn’t hurt.

“Alright,” Keep replied before shaking her hoof.

So they helped him catch, carry, and sort the boxes around. That once boring job turned into a fountain of laughter and joy, a burden happily shared with friends as they shared what had happened to them over the past few days.

~ * ~

In the middle of downtown, in a big city park, Keep and his friends were hiding in a bush.

No one had noticed them yet, but if they did, they would see the kids busily watching native Equestrians help Earthen creatures out. Unicorns taught others how to cast spells with their horn, and there was excitement whenever they managed to make an apple glow or something else simple like that. Pegasi hovered over the grass, telling their pupils how to fine-tune their wings mid-flight and correcting their wing form every thirty seconds or so. Earth ponies shared to their students about their magic connection to plants and animals, wowing their audience by a demonstration of seeds sprouting right on top of their hooves. That’s not to mention the other creatures present there too like hippogriffs and griffons.

What everyone had in common here was the Equestrians conveying their way of life to the Earthens. This way, life would go on like nothing happened.

Keep and his friends stowed away in that bush for hours. But, those hours were filled with good talk and lighthearted storytelling about what it was like being a buffalo, a deer, or a pony.

For a while, Keep forgot he was a unicorn. Or, really, Keep forgot to worry about it.

~ * ~

The young quartet were at Sweet Snacks for a little weekend dinner. It was Bud’s Dad treating them out for helping him fix all the holes the buffalo family had created in their house. Fries and hayburgers were their greasy feast which they washed down with soda and milkshakes.

While laughing at a joke Bud had cracked, Keep noticed a stranger sitting next to him. It was a pegasus colt occupied with a book on the counter.

The stranger noticed Keep. The book closed shut between his hooves.

“Oh, um… d-don’t mind me… just, uh, busy.” He shifted his eyes here and there. Must be a lot more nervous than Keep was with meeting new kids. “I’m just waiting for my Mom to get something. After that, we’re going back to Ponyville.”

That got Keep’s attention and eyebrows up. “Wait... you’re not from here?”

The pegasus nodded. “Yup. I’m from Equestria. Guess you’re from here, though, right?”

“Yeah.”

Keep passed the awkward silence by circling his hoof on the counter.

“Oh.” The pegasus glanced at his own book. “Bet you probably saw my book, huh?”

He showed the front to Keep. It wasn’t much. Just a paperback with a globe on it and the title in plain letters.

A Quick History of Earth: For Equestrians’ General Knowledge

“Mom says it’s kinda’ weird I read this on Earth,” the pegasus continued, “but I only heard about humans and Earth after the Change just like everypony else. So, it’s like, what do they call it… archaeology or something?...”

Keep didn’t hear the rest. The title alone was too much.

~ * ~

At home late at night, alone with Mom again, watching TV. Dad was super busy on an Equestrian business trip, she’d said; boss wanted to help speed up Earth’s recovery and needed Dad’s help.

“… as both Earthers and Equestrians unite to form the inter-dimensional historical preservation society.” the reporter droned on. “It is dedicated to preserving as much of human history as possible by safeguarding it from decay, destruction, and deception.”

On screen showed live footage of various creatures on stage, cameras revealing their flashy big smiles. They stood in front of an oversized Manehattan museum.

That sure was a big crowd for a museum.

~ * ~

Keep couldn’t say no to Alloy’s invitation. Just some time together in her house, hanging out as familiar friends in this crazy world. Mom said it was for the best. It was certainly better than brooding too much in bed and doing absolutely nothing.

It was okay. They had a nice snack, had a game of chess where Keep got the hang of levitating small chess pieces—he still lost, but it was the experience that mattered—and had fun watering the frontyard flowers Alloy took care of.

By sunset, however, something was off. The frown on her face as she put down the watering can and sat down on the grass said it all.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, trotting up to the filly and sitting beside her.

Alloy swayed back and forth on the grass, twiddling her hooves in worry. “I…”

She looked at her own cutie mark. An anvil. Keep had seen it before and it fit Alloy’s name—alloys were metals, and metals on anvils looked like they were burning. That should be a good thing, but she wasn’t taking it well.

“D-does it mean—“ she drew in lots of breath, enough to puff her cheeks out “—d-does it mean I’m going to be a b-blacksmith?”

Keep trembled. He didn’t ask for this. This was one of those serious moments, being asked for advice and having to give a serious answer or else. Worse, it was cutie mark advice. The stupid chair on his cutie mark meant nothing to him. It surely didn’t mean he was good at sitting on chairs. That would be a dumb talent.

But he had to speak. Keep sucked in a lot of air like Alloy did, hoping that would be enough for good words to come out of his mouth.

“Um… they said cutie marks can have different meanings,” he started. “Like in Equish class last year with the similes and metaphors. Maybe… maybe your cutie mark is a metaphor for… uh, being metal?”

Alloy spat on the grass. She put on a foul face. “Yeah, right. I’d have gotten a gold bar instead, but, no, I get an anvil, and who use anvils a lot? Blacksmiths. Guys who make tools and weapons like swords.” She trembled and her face scrunched up. “I don’t like swords. I don’t like the hot sweaty work they do. It’s an oven there, and—“ she gazed upon the flowers glowing orange by the sunset sky “—I thought I l-like flowers...”

She dragged a hoof down her face, irises shrunk in horror. “What if I end up a blacksmith? I don’t wanna be a sweaty blacksmith working with hot metal all day, making swords I don’t like!”

That was a toughie. Tough enough to warrant scratching his chin like the heroes did in the movies when they were thinking up a plan.

“So what do you wanna be?” asked Keep.

The filly scratched her chin in turn. “I wanna be… um… well, not really a florist or a gardener. I-I like it as a hobby, b-but not as a job. I j-just like my own flowers… and, Mom said I should try out o-other things while growing up too, but I don’t know...” It ended with her looking at her cutie mark again, terrified at her potential destiny.

Keep scooted closer to her, hoping that first question was the right one. “Honestly, I don’t care about my cutie mark, ‘least for now. They say you’re not supposed to force a meaning out of it. You’ll know the meaning when it gets to you. That’s what… what Sunset said in her video, and—“

Keep was knocked on the head by a horseshoe. That hurt, like a train had sped straight to his face with the pain of a million punches.

“Ouch! Hey! What was that for?!”

He whirled around and saw blue-maned Hard Knocks, a classmate passing by on the sidewalk. The pegasus colt wasn’t the friendly type. He was one of the cool kids like Thistle and Bud. Unlike Thistle and Bud, however, Knocks was a lot meaner, asserting his strength with every chance he got.

“Whoops! Sorry about that!” Knocks brandished a hoof at Keep, taunting his victim with a roaring cackle. “That’s for the horseshoe contest in Equestria tonight, which I’ll win! Yeah, have you been there? Oh, I will be and you won’t!”

With a couple groans and grunts, Keep got back up on his four hooves, pain raging in his head. “If you don’t shut your mouth, you’ll—

“Oh, yeah?” Alloy shouted at Knocks.

The colts gasped as Alloy stood up and took Knocks’ horseshoe to her hoof. She tossed it up and caught it with her mouth. Teeth gripped hard on the iron.

“Take this, you dummy!”

Off it flew from her swinging head. The horseshoe hurtled straight at him and struck his face.

Knocks staggered and almost fell down, screaming in pain. The damage was more than done, however—a couple of his teeth tumbled onto the ground.

“Wha?! Nah!” Knock’s frantic hooves were on his head. The bully was totally mortified. “I wath thuuppoth toh haff gooh teef phor muh tentifh thomorroh!“

“What you get, jerk!” Alloy yelled back, carrying a mad grin. “Now, skedaddle! Or do you want to try out my Dad’s horseshoes? You want all four of ‘em?”

But the colt was galloping out of there, screaming away from the dangerous filly.

Keep looked on at the fleeing pony in awe. He also looked on in the pain that still throbbed in his head, but the awe felt a billion times better.

Knocks’ horseshoe still lay on the sidewalk. The bully had forgotten about it in his retreat. Alloy trotted up to it to take a closer look with Keep following close behind.

She turned it around, letting it glitter in the waning sunshine. “Huh. I haven’t read much about horseshoes, but that felt good. If only he had a better horseshoe though. The guide said this type looks cheap.”

Keep did a double take. “Um… wow. I know you’re a genius but, not a horseshoe genius.”

She beamed with a mix of joy and indifference. “Eh, I had nothing to do. I took the horseshoe guide my uncle got from an Equestrian care package. Who knew horseshoes are completely unlike regular shoes?”

Alloy made a silly smile that uncovered her horseshoe fascination, and then she gestured at her hoof. “Like, you don’t just slip horseshoes on. You need a farrier to put them on for you, and it takes like half an hour or more. There are some modern easy horseshoe kits—that’s what they call it—that you just put on yourself and it takes like five to ten minutes. But, sometimes, you need a whole tool kit to do it perfectly... they trim your hooves with a rasp, a hoof knife, and more. Most of the time, they nail the horseshoes on your hoof—really, they use a hammer to nail it on your hoof so the horseshoe won’t go away easily. It’s kind of like going to the barber; you can’t just cut your own mane. Well, you can be your own farrier, but that’s extra difficult...”

An idea turned up in Keep’s head. It was hard to hide the giddy smile he had. Alloy had just given the answer she needed without knowing it.

“What if you’re… um, a horseshoe blacksmith that makes horseshoes… with anvils?” asked Keep.

“You mean a farrier?” Alloy asked back, glancing back at her cutie mark. “That’s what a farrier is. A farrier makes horseshoes and puts them on horses’ hooves.”

Keep nodded his head so fast, he felt dizzy but that was okay. This could be what Alloy was looking for.

“Yeah, like that!” he answered excitedly. “I mean, you like horseshoes, so why not give that horseshoe thing a try?”

She hummed in deep thought. Keep guessed that bringing it back to cutie marks like this might turn her off. Still, it was worth a shot.

After half a minute of waiting for her to do anything other than thoughtful humming, Alloy’s pensive frown faded. In its place was a smirk that spoke of an open mind.

“I don’t know,” she said, “but I think I’ll try. I don’t see how it could go horribly wrong just trying it out.”

Keep pumped a hoof to the air. “Uh-huh! That’s the spirit!”

~ * ~

“Uh-huh. Yeah. Sure. Not really, no. Um, yes. Uh-huh. Okay. Thank you. Bye.”

Mom closed the telephone and turned to Keep who sat at the dining table. He was busy eating his midnight snack of apples.

The colt stopped, putting the apple aside to pay attention.

“That was Alloy’s mother,” Mom said, eyes avoiding her son at first. “I… I didn’t know you just...”

Fear snuck in his veins. Of course, it’d gone wrong, hadn’t it? He’d taken a shot, but he didn’t really know how it’d gone. For all he knew, Alloy was crying in bed because she’d broken her hoof or got scared at all the dirty blacksmith-farrier work she might be forced to do by her cutie mark’s destiny for the rest of her life.

“Did she hurt herself?” he asked.

“No. She’s… agh, how do I say this?”

Mom put her hoof on her mane. Hand on her hair, hoof on her mane—some nervous tics translated well into ponyhood. It didn’t ease Keep one bit.

“Ah… her Mom said that after she bought a farrier’s kit at the market tonight by herself, Alloy realized one of the sample horseshoes would fit her perfectly if she changed it a bit,” Mom said matter-of-factly. “Once she did and put it on, her cutie mark just… glowed.”

Keep shuddered. That was unexpected. Sunset had never talked about glowing cutie marks in her videos yet. “I-is that bad?”

Mom’s face lightened up at that. “I don’t think so. They talked about it with an Equestrian pony, and they said it’s a good thing. It means that she’s discovered a big part of what her cutie mark means.”

She scratched her mane, something Keep saw as a sign of I-don’t-know-what-to-say. “Alloy… she says that it feels better walking with horseshoes like that than going bare-hoofed. Her Mom then told me that the filly wants to see how she can help foals like her, and she already has a plan: buying and selling horseshoes she’ll try adjusting and working on. And you know who she had to thank for that, Keep?”

Keep just stood there, dumbfounded with his mouth open. He already knew the answer: him.

He was so dumbstruck, he didn’t see Mom flying in to embrace him.

~ * ~

Keep was back outside for more volunteer duty. This time, he was to pull a wagon of Equestrian care packages assigned with more than enough food and, oddly enough, horseshoes for the homes he was visiting. He’d asked for it, much to the surprise of his Equestrian supervisors who saw a small colt so enthusiastic to pull a big and heavy wagon.

As he trotted, stopping by each house, he saw the little things, saw the little details one would only get if they just paid attention and looked closely. An Earth pony got a horse-friendly set of seeds and gardening tools. A pegasus family said they’d had too much meat in their stocks and were later thankful for the appetizing bales of hay he’d brought. A unicorn couple had been expecting the horseshoes because they were marathon runners and needed their feet—no, their hooves to stay healthy.

That wasn’t all, it wasn’t just him, and it wasn’t just ponies too. All around him, former humans were helping each other out through these strange times. Colorful changelings were having a blast with one of their friends dressing up as and shapeshifting into a clown. A couple griffons escorted their tiny breezie friend through the city, making sure he wouldn’t accidentally drift into danger. A seapony was teaching other seaponies how to swim underwater in the community pool. Yaks and buffalo worked together to fix up holes and replacing broken stuff in their homes, also expanding their doors to fit their new sizes. An angry-on-purpose kirin-turned-nirik experimented with being a campfire for her kirin companions to enjoy their roasted s’mores on. Finally, it was a bright and clear day partially thanks to the pegasi above pushing the clouds away, doing their weather duties.

They were hopeful. They might be sad about not being human anymore, but they were hopeful and ready to push through the tragedy and recover. They were hopeful that things would get better, that they’d be better with each other. That they’d be better helping each other.

Helping Alloy. Helping the rest of his friends. From there on, the world.

Keep trotted forward, moving on to help the next home with his own hearty smile.

Comments

[Greenhorn]

When Amareica was finally running smoothly without her constant wrangling, she didn’t hesitate to return the presidency to a more traditional politician. She’d been itching to return to full principal duties.

Princess Celestia: Hmmm... maybe I should let Twilight run things and become a teacher for a change. Should be better than listening to those broken gramophone records everyday.
Princess Cadance: Err... auntie? Are you talking about Day Court?
Princess Celestia: There are different?

[Comma Typer]

9815108
That's no way to run Day Court. She should upgrade to just listening to imaginary creatures in her head for Day Court!

[Eroraf86]

Nice bit of bittersweet positivity. Then again, that’s pretty much this whole story in a nutshell, isn’t it?

[Comma Typer]

9815287
Up to this point, yeah. They're usually the kind that get to me, now that I think about it, so I'm honored that this story manages to pass on some of that feeling too! Thank you for that!