April 21st
The arrival in Sydney could not have come soon enough. Twilight, having finished all three of the books that she had packed into her bag, was now going through the Skymall catalogue and was asking questions. Questions that I honestly did not know how to answer.
I was certain that the news of our crimes would have reached the international level by the time that we had landed and that there would be a team of Interpol agents waiting for us as we departed the plane and headed into the airport.
But there wasn’t a single person to greet us as we entered the terminal.
As the four of us made our way towards the immigration clearance desks, I was relieved that we were able to move so quickly. Being in business class gave us the benefit of having next to no one in line in front of us. I had a momentary flash of panic when the agent, a polite middle-aged woman named Judy, had to run our visas twice.
“Sorry about that Mr. Juarez,” Judy said, she pronounced the name with a strong ‘J,’ as she handed our passports and other documents back to me. “We’ve been having issue with our computers all day.”
“It’s no problem,” I replied, trying very hard to sound as calm as possible. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Luna’s grip on Michelle’s hand tighten. “Is there anything else?”
“Oh no,” the agent said with a big smile, ignoring the growing line behind us. “Welcome to Australia.”
“Thank you,” replied Michelle for all of us.
The four of us made our way out of the terminal. I shot Twilight a look as she hurried to place Michelle and I between her and Luna. Michelle was still holding Luna’s hand to my right, with Twilight now on my left, effectively separating the former ponies. I decided now wasn’t the time to question her actions and kept moving.
Thankfully there was a huge line of taxis waiting in front of the terminal for tourists and we piled ourselves into the first one. Twilight sat in the far seat, Michelle in the middle with Luna on her lap, and I sat on the other side of my fiance.
The cabbie took off the moment that I had the door shut behind me.
“Where to, Bud?” our driver asked as he caught my eye in the rear-view mirror. He was a young, dark-skinned man with a shaved head and a huge smile.
“You tell us,” I replied, throwing my arm around Michelle’s shoulders and leaning back into my seat. “We’re here to have a couple of weeks away from everything.”
“How ‘away’ are we talking?” he replied as he glanced over his shoulder at me.
“Away,” I replied.
“And you didn’t bring anything with you?”
“The whole point was to bring as little as possible and figure out everything once we got here.” I paused for a second before saying, “Hell, we didn’t even know where we were heading until we got to airport back home.”
“That’s crazy,” he said as he shook his head in utter disbelief.
“Its what we wanted,” I shot back.
“You got any idea where you wanted to go?”
“We were hoping that you could help us out with that,” Michelle piped in. “Not to mention we need to buy all the things that we need.”
“Eh,” he grumbled for a second. “You guys like the beach?”
“I-I’m not a fan,” whispered Twilight shyly.
“You got it missy,” our driver said, giving her a kind grin before turning back to the road. “You guys ever heard of the Blue Mountains?”
“No,” I answered, sharing a look with Michelle. “Is that a pretty nice place? Can you take us there?”
His smile was so big that it reflected off of the windshield.
.oOo.
Our driver was sitting outside eating a burger and fries that we bought him while the four of us walked through an outdoors store called ‘Rebel Sports’ in Bankstown. It took me several minutes to get used to the prices in Australia as compared to what I knew from home; everything was so expensive.
“What else do we need?” I asked Michelle and Twilight as I looked over our cart. “We have a tent, sleeping bags and mats, fire starters, canteens, batteries for flashlights, a pan and pot, utensils, cups -”
“Matt,” said Michelle, cutting me off before I could go on and grabbing Luna before she could get too far away from us. “I think we’re good.”
“No,” said Twilight, looking up from a book that she had grabbed off of a shelf near the entrance. “We still need a hatchet and saw.”
Both Michelle and I stared at her, I arched an eyebrow.
“What?” she replied as she looked up from her book, her finger holding her place. “It says right here that we need something to cut firewood.”
Michelle just laughed as she lifted Luna to her hip. I walked off to find a hatchet.
.oOo.
We ended up having to go to a place called Bunnings Warehouse in order for me to run in and buy a camping hatchet before we could really move on with the long drive.
Our driver was extremely nice about taking us everywhere and telling us all about the places that we were passing and just generally talking about anything that came to either of our minds.
Twilight, in the meantime, continued to avoid interacting with the Lunar princess.
“Well,” said our driver, pulling into the parking lot of a small convenience store. “This here’s Linden, ‘bout the last bit of civilization you’re going to find for a while.”
“Thanks,” replied Twilight before she opened the door and clambered out.
Michelle and Luna crawled out next and the driver opened the trunk. I climbed out on my side of the car and walked up to the driver-side window, pulling out my wallet.
“I can’t thank you enough for everything,” I said as I paid the exorbitant fare with as little a wince as possible.
“No problem mate,” he replied, counting the cash I handed him and smiling at me. “Take care.”
I was certain that we would have been the center of attention in this stupidly small town, but my fears proved to be unfounded. We pulled everything out of the trunk as fast as possible, I took the tent and my bag while the girls shared the food and other supplies along with their personal bags; Luna had her backpack and Noodle.
No one questioned us or anything as we simply walked out of the town and into the woods.
.oOo.
“What was I thinking?” I muttered to myself, staring into the cooling ashes of our campfire. It was our second morning of camping. We were miles away from the town of Linden, far enough that we shouldn’t be bothered by anyone casually hiking or walking through the woods. There was a small stream that ran a few hundred yards away from the camp that provided us with a good supply of water.
“What do you mean?” asked Twilight, coming out of the tent and rubbing her eye with one hand.
“I guess I never mentioned how much I hate camping, did I?” I chuckled.
“No,” she replied with a small smile of her own. “You never did.”
I sighed and stood, stretching out my back and neck.
“Come on,” I said to Twilight as I grabbed the percolator and the canteens. “Let’s go get some water before Michelle and Luna wake up.”
Twi took the percolator from me and followed, her face as blank as possible.
It was a rather nice place to be outdoors. It wasn't too hot or humid like Austin. Nor was it too cold and dry like Yellowstone had been. I don't know what I expected when Michelle suggested camping instead of staying at a hotel. More kangaroos, maybe.
“You gonna tell me what’s up?” I asked after we were far enough from camp that we would not be overheard.
“Hmm?” she responded. “What do you mean?”
“Twilight,” I said with a sigh, stopping and turning to face my companion. She was looking everywhere but at me. “You know exactly what I mean. What’s up with you and the princess? Aren’t you two supposed to be-”
“No, we’re not.” she snapped, her face flushing and eyes fierce. “After our little outing on Nightmare Night in Ponyville, you would know about that, right?”
I nodded. “I know a version of that night but, please, continue.”
“Princess Celestia thought that it would be a good idea for Luna and I to get acquainted, become friends.”
“Things didn’t go as planned?”
“Hardly.”
We had reached the stream and I filled the canteens and percolator with water. It wasn’t big enough to have anything of use swimming around in it.
“What happened?” I asked as I cracked my neck, still kneeling at the stream’s edge.
“Can we just say that the two of us didn’t get along and leave it at that?”
“I don’t get along with tons of people, Twi,” I said as I turned to look at her. “But if I were in your position, do you think that I would let little things like a disagreement or somethi-”
“She called me blind!” snapped Twilight, probably a little louder than she meant. “She said that her sister was obsessed with a silly, blind unicorn who couldn’t see what was in front of her face, and that anypony with any kind of observational skills would have figured it out long ago.”
I sat in stunned silence for a long moment, unable to come up with any way to respond.
“And then she proceeded to kick me out of her rooms saying that she had no time for the likes of me.”
Twilight was leaning against a tree, her arms crossed and her face flushed and angry. Her shoulders trembled.
“A-and then, she has to go and get herself transformed into that little filly who can’t even remember anything. Not any of the words that she said or things that she did to me, or even her time as Nightmare Moon. Nothing.”
I put the canteens and percolator on dry ground before I approached Twilight. She was looking at the ground, her hair covering her eyes.
“A-and I feel so happy that she doesn’t remember any of it. That’s she’s just a little girl without the power to hurt me like she did all those times.” Her face shot up as I got closer, her eyes were awash in conflicting emotions. “And there’s this part of me that cannot believe that I’m deriving happiness from somepony’s misfortune, even if it is Princess Luna.”
"It's perfectly reasonable to feel that way Twi," I said trying to reassure her. I placed a hand on her shoulder.
"No it's not," she protested loudly. "It's not normal. Nopony-"
"See?" I said, cutting her off mid tirade. "That's just it isn't it?"
"What?" She asked, confused and a little flushed with still simmering anger.
"You aren't a pony."
"What do you mean? Of course I'm a pony."
"No, you're not; you're a human."
"I thought that we'd been over this," she said, fear creeping into her eyes as she took a step backwards from me. "I thought that you believed me."
"Quit being so melodramatic," I sighed pinching the bridge of my nose. "I believe you. You are Twilight Sparkle. Of that, there is no doubt."
"Then what are you talking about?"
"You were a pony. But now you are, for however long, a human."
She stared at me, trying to understand the point I was attempting to make.
"It's not that you're just a pony trapped inside of a human body Twi. You're a human, with all the inconveniences and trappings implied, with the personality and memories of a pony."
I laughed, slapping my forehead, so many pieces were falling into place.
"That's why..." I trailed off, my mind going far too fast for my mouth to keep up.
"'Thats why what?" asked Twilight.
"Look," I said, licking my dried lips. "Your entire personality, everything about who you are; your intelligence, your skills, and your passions are all based on your brain, follow me?"
At her hesitant nod I continued.
"All of that is still there, in this new body, okay? You're still Twilight Sparkle, no doubt about it. But there are certain facets of your personality that are being enhanced or diminished due to the physiology of the human brain."
I saw the comprehension dawn behind her violet eyes.
"Now, following the assumption that your friends are here as well, I would assume that they are coping with their transformation in very different ways than you are."
She nodded, thinking hard, her face screwed up in intense concentration.
"You rely on your intelligence and vast stores of information to form the majority of your personality, so much that, I would wager that you are feeling the change more acutely than any of the other girls." I rubbed my mouth with my hand, feeling the stubble that was begging to be shaved. "That's not to say that the others are stupid or anything of the sort-"
"Of course not," cut in Twilight, a steely look on her face. "But I see where you’re going with your point." She smiled. "In a way, it makes me feel better to know that I'm not entirely myself right now, that its not me that's been changed by your world."
"Good," I said as I retrieved the canteens and percolator. "Now, I don't know about you, but I could really use a cup of hot coffee right about now. What's say we head back to camp and get some breakfast started?"
.oOo.
“But I don’t wanna go to bed!” protested Luna loudly from the inside of the tent. It was after nine o’clock at night on our fourth day. Michelle was trying to tuck the diminutive princess into her sleeping bag. “I’m not sleepy.”
“Yes you are,” I heard Michelle reply. “You were the one that fell asleep during Matt’s story, weren’t you?”
The two of them would go back and forth for several more minutes; it wasn’t their first little battle over bed time.
“She’s just like Sweetie Bell and her friends,” Twilight said, jolting me out of my thoughts. Twilight was sitting in her usual spot, across the dug-out fire pit from me, a stargazing book in her lap. The flames from our small fire were still plenty big enough to light her reading. “Those three are always a handful when it comes to bed times, especially Scootaloo.”
“I’ll bet,” I chuckled, turning the hotdog I had on a roasting spit over. “Michelle’s been babysitting her little sister and her sister’s kids for years. Luna ain’t got nothing on them. Trust me.”
Twilight laughed in response.
I swore when my hotdog caught fire, right as Michelle clambered out of the tent.
“I heard that,” she said as she slapped the backside of my head. “What did I tell you about swearing?”
“Don’t?”
Michelle didn’t bother to respond and just sat down next to me and stole my not-on-fire hotdog.
I shot her a glare and grabbed another one from the cooler.
“She asleep?” I asked, holding the roasting fork over the fire once again.
“Finally,” my fiance sighed as she bit into the burnt food. “Sometimes I would swear that she’s worse than Kelly’s kids.”
“That’s impossible,” I shot back, mockingly affronted. “There’s no way.”
“You don’t know those kids like I do,” was Michelle’s only reply.
The three of us passed the next couple of hours by the fire in relative silence, a combination of not wanting to wake the sleeping princess and not having anything else to say.
Twilight was the first one to retire to the tent and Michelle was quick to follow.
I slid off my log and onto the ground and stared into the fire, my mind blank. I lost track of time as the coals cooled and died, sleep coming easily under the stars.
.oOo.
“Matt,” I heard a voice from some distance calling my name. I knew the voice, but I couldn’t be bothered to remember who it belonged to. “Goddamnit Matt, wake up!”
Something or someone attempted to shake me awake as violently as possible.
“Huh?” I groaned sleepily. “Wha-?”
“Oh thank god,” it was Michelle, her face slowly came into focus as the sleep cleared from my brain.
“Matt,” I could hear the fear in Twilight’s voice and I turned my head to look at her. “Luna’s gone!”
Oh cool, you've caught up with Ponyfall: Australia. Wonder how the conflict on that side of the encounter will get worked out?
Well. That ain't good.
3052105 It's mostly just a matter of some people being impatient with wanting to know what's going on. These aren't very hard to follow at all, but they're not for everyone, either.
I prefer to read things and decide for myself.
Wonderful
Woohoo! You caught up to Slorg & Co. I can;t wait for more intergroup interaction!
That's what happens when you put Luna to bed early!
It's Belle, Mr. Backpack. Otherwise, loved the chapter. Can't wait to see how they meet up.
3069636 It's better than Sweetie Balls
You had to gloss over about four or five (presumably uneventful) days to do it, but it looks like you've finally caught up with Onward Valiant Crusaders and Australia.
3069797 or Sweaty Balls.
3069797 Or Sweaty Balls, for that matter.
3068028 pecking order...
3069937 3069957 3069797 Oh?
3069963
This is something that I've been trying to fix. Luna is going to be playing her co-star roll in he next chapter, and you will get the reason that she ran off too.
Keep in mind what I explained: she's six years old, it's not going to be all the deep or meaningful.
3070457 Your spelling/grammar gets worse the more stressed out you are. Take it easy.
Also, give him a break, people. He's doing exactly what I asked of him, which is getting himself caught up to FMP and I. There is plenty of time for explanations now that we're all caught up, so for the love of God get off his back.
EDIT: For anyone still unsatisfied with how MrBackpack has dealt with Twilight and Luna: It's my call. We could either have
A) given their relationship a lot of attention and dragged things out even longer, leading to a lot of readers having to wait even more for PonyFall: Australia and PonyFall: Onward Valiant Crusaders to update, or
B) done it this way and get caught up, then slow things down and get the back story and character relationships fully fleshed out like we want to.
I'm not blind. I know Twi and Luna need more fleshing out. But guess what? I just saved us literally months of waiting around and picking our noses by getting on the writers' backs and forcing them to play catch up. Now that MrBackpack is caught up, it's only a matter of time before Silverness, Dusty, and Dragon do the same.
3070663
3070457
... I feel bad now . Please just ignore my last comment, I didn't mean to stress you out like that.
Wait, what was with the bit about Twilight's brain being human? I don't get that at all.
3073292 Simple. She may formerly be a pony, but her brain and mind are human now. She has to deal with more extreme human emotions that she herself isn't used to.
3071025 It's a legitimate complaint, but what I've been trying to point out since the last chapter was released is that we already know all of this and that I made the call to get him caught up.
It's just the predicament we were put in. While some of us were writing our stories, we went through 8 different writers for Twilight. MrBackpack joined late and is now forced to catch up quickly. I made it to my point in the story in 100,000+ words. MrBackpack has had to do so in 30,000. Obviously, mine will be a bit more detailed, but now that he's caught up we can slow back down and get it done right.
3073342
"Extreme human emotion?" So... ponies are less emotional than humans? That still doesn't make sense.
3073342
That would make me the 9th writer for Twilight, and I think 3rd for Luna.
3073357
not extreme emotions. This idea requires the assumption that the pony brains are structured differently than a human, that they function with the influence of magic and differing chemical reactions than the human brain. So, while Twilight may be a pony in her reality, her personality and everything that makes her her, is going to be filtered through a different set of chemicals that are not the same as what she's used to. Even with that in mind, would the pony 'mind' be all that different if the human and Equestrian worlds were the same? Probably, but the two worlds are not anywhere near similar, even taking the darker Equestria into account. The Human brain is better equipped to be more harsh and deal with a different and more dangerous reality than the pony brain.
Thus, Twilight, arguably the most intelligent of the mane 6, is going to feeling the change more acutely than the others and its going to affecter in more noticeable way.
3073357 Have you read any of my story? If so, you'll know that Doug has no plans to visit Equestria when/if they ever get a chance to return the ponies home. Why? Because (and I quote) "they don't belong here" because human and pony societies differ so greatly from one another.
Even the best of humans are generally compulsive, dangerous, and unpredictable compared to the ponies. That means the way they think is entirely different. To Doug, if you stick a human in Equestria it would be disastrous, and it's the driving force behind his motivation to safely return the ponies home.
Matt here, being a fully trained member of the medical community, figured that out as well by observing her actions and emotions and coming to his conclusion.
3073357>>3073399 See what you've done, Zennistrad? Now I have to deal with complex medical explanations from a professional in his field at 8am in the morning when I should be in bed.
I also have to realize that having me trying to explain that kind of stuff just isn't sufficient and now I look like a noob compared to Matt.
This is what you wanted, isn't it? You guys all want to see me suffer.
3073401 3073399
See, I'm calling bullshit on that. I have seen nothing suggest that humans and ponies think differently apart from differences in the way their worlds work.
I've been following all of the stories, and from what I've seen, the tensions come entirely from differences in culture due to the fact that the ponies live in a fantasy world, not because ponies have some sort of weird, alien way of thinking.
3073597
No one ever said that the ponies ever had a "alien" way of thinking. What I'm saying is that their basic cerebral structure, as ponies, is different when compared to the human brain. The chemicals are different, the electric potential that the brain and entire body functions on, is different. Ponies live in a world that is permeated with Magic and I assume, by basic reasoning and understanding of the effects of environment on development, that their entire physiology requires magic, in some way, to function. So, now that the ponies are on Earth, a world without magic, even if they were still equine in form, assuming that they could even survive, would have to adjust to the non-magical nature of the world, thus changing how their brain works and, by changing how the brain works, changes the way that they think.
And that's still assuming that they are equine in form. By changing them into Humans, not only have we removed the magic from the equation, we've changed every variable required for the formula to equal out to the same personality. Instead of Pony + magic + horn = Twilight Sparkle, we have human + intelligence + books = Twilight Sparkle.
Yes, there are cultural differences to be overcome, but there is also the idea that Twilight was feeling resentment to a MUCH greater level towards Luna than she ever felt before and did not understand how to deal with it nor did she understand why she was feeling that way. That's why Twilight was avoiding Luna at all costs and it came to a head in this chapter. Not only do we have character development for Luna when/if she ever gets back to normal, but we also have more history to the characters that we didn't have before.
Can I give my two cents?
Good.
3073597
The idea that they think differently, as I believe the term was used, is more based on anatomy. He explained it better in the response to you, but essentially the equine brain is different from the human brain even in real life. Imagine what it would be like for a magical pony. Of course, we're all forgetting one very important fact, and that's the fact that makes these stories some of the most awesome.
These are perspective pieces.
Take three people (psychologist, physician, mathematician) and put them to work on why a single event happened in somebody's life. There's a great chance that the psychologist will see it through the lens of psychology, the mathematician will have some probability-based answer, and the physician will have an answer based on... physician-y things. All of them could be wrong, none of them could be wrong, but that's generally what happens. People see things through the lens of their own experiences.
The fact that nobody else has had a medical perspective is because nobody has had the same experiences as Matt. And that's a good thing. These stories would be boring if the people weren't different.
Nice chapter again.
And Luna is missing. Wait! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!!!!!!!
Call the heavy infantry! We have to find her!!!
Dragon
Why aren't the Ponyfall writers updating anymore?
3091810
If you're talking about TheSlorg and FMP, then it was the fact that they had written themselves into a corner and NEEDED me to publish this chapter.
when is the next chapter going up and how da faq do you follow and fav on this website?!?!?!?!?!? Pm me the answer.
And now I have just 'finished' to read all this. Now, tomorrow AJ Ponyfall.
3188304
Make sure to read TheSlorg's and Fullmetal Ponys's if you haven't already. We've hit the epic 3-story crossover.
3188383
Actually that's why I start to read this, 'cause for any reason I couldn't at the moment I start to read, find a connection among the other fics.
And yes I've been reading TheSlorg's and Fullmetal Pony's fics.
Nevermind, I found the reference. I had skiped one chapter by mistake.
So how long do you think till the next chapter
3480187
Hoping for this weekend.
Cool story. I enjoyed it.
Also, cool icon. 4 is cool.
3481682 So is how all the characters going to meet up already planed and est how long do you think until the other writers in your group are caught up with each other
Oh and do I think these books were like, made for me, i mean you give it metallica apple jack gives it five finger death punch which makes me wonder if you are all friends and keep connected
I'm so confused about this... Does Luna/Celestia love twilight?
In the middle of the woods, Luna ran away... welp, looks like it's time go a' trekin.... YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!
AUSTRAILIAN LUNA HUNTER GOOOOOO!