Chapter Ten: Confessions
The eight ponies and one dragon walked back to Twilight's castle, Swift Wing coming along without even being pulled. His tears had long since dried up. He said nothing as they led him up into the stairs into the castle. He said nothing as Twilight wrote a letter to Celestia and Luna. He said nothing as the ponies attempted to question him, asking about his dimension of origin. He said nothing as Fluttershy attempted to bring him food, and he refused to eat any of it. He didn't even say anything as Rainbow Dash yelled at him for manipulating her. The sky-blue pegasus had to be restrained by Applejack and Rarity.
Instead, Swift simply sat there, staring blankly down at the crystal floor. In the adjacent room, he could hear Rainbow arguing with Applejack, while Pinkie tried to calm everyone down. They'd returned Swift's saddlebags to him, having the decency not to go through them, but he hadn't touched them. He absentmindedly rubbed his hoof in a circle on the cool floor.
Because, to him, nothing mattered anymore.
The door opened with a glitter of magic, and Swift heard the sound of hooves trotting back into the room. He spared one quick glance of his eyes to see that it was Princess Twilight approaching him, but he still said nothing.
"I, er..." Twilight started, as though words were failing her, "I want you to know that we don't all agree with Rainbow. We don't all think you're some sort of infiltrator. There's no evidence of that." She walked over in front of Swift's face so that she was forced into his peripheral vision. "But I need to know how you got here, and why. I promise, you have nothing to fear from us. Please, Swift."
Swift continued to rub his hoof into the floor. His tail swished back and forth, but his eyes remained glued to that same spot.
Twilight sighed, sounding sort of annoyed. It was the same way everyone reacted when he didn't automatically get better after a few words of encouragement. "Look, Swift, I'm trying to help you. But I can't do anything for you unless you let me."
"Yeah, right," Swift grumbled under his breath, finally breaking his silence.
Twilight's keen ears managed to catch his words, though Swift was beyond caring. The alicorn gritted her teeth, stomping one hoof into the floor.
"Are you trying to antagonize me?" she demanded. "I have nothing against you, but my patience has its limits."
"There's absolutely nothing you can do to me that would be worse than what you're planning to do to me," Swift mumbled, "so you might as well get it over with. I have nothing to say to any of you."
Oddly enough, Twilight's expression, rather than growing more tense with anger, softened a little bit at his words, her muscles relaxing. Swift briefly wondered what would possess her to have such a reaction, but he ultimately didn't care.
"Why are you so angry?" Twilight asked, sounding genuinely curious. "Since you arrived in Ponyville, we've done nothing but show you kindness. Rainbow Dash even taught you how to fly, keeping it a secret when you asked. Why are you treating us like your enemies?"
Swift curled his foreleg and clenched his teeth, anger bubbling in his chest. Here she was, planning to destroy his whole world, and yet she acted like she was doing him a favor.
"Because now you're going to take it all away from me," he snapped back, "disregarding whatever I want, of course, because I don't matter to you. Because I'm not one of you. All I wanted was to live a quiet life in this town, and you wouldn't even let me have that. You couldn't just forget that whole dimensional anomaly thing and leave it alone. Thanks a ton, Twilight."
"So you did intentionally come here," Twilight concluded, and Swift silently cursed himself for letting that slip. "I figured that had to be the case. But why?"
"Why do you think?" Swift demanded. "All I wanted was peace. Peace and quiet. I would've left you and your precious ponies alone if you wanted me to. But no, we can't let Swift Wing have anything nice."
"But I don't understand," Twilight continued, as though he hadn't spoken. "Why would you leave your home universe for Equestria? Don't you have friends and family back there? Why would you—"
Before he knew it, Swift was screaming.
"BECAUSE NOBODY CARED! BECAUSE I DIDN'T HAVE ANY FRIENDS! BECAUSE I FAILED AT EVERYTHING I EVER TRIED! THERE, I SAID IT! ARE YOU HAPPY?! I'M A BIG, FAT FAILURE AND I RAN AWAY! I RAN TO EQUESTRIA, THE ONLY PLACE I THOUGHT I'D EVER HAVE A CHANCE OF BELONGING! ALL I WANTED WAS A SECOND CHANCE, A RESET BUTTON, ANOTHER OPTION!
"I CAME HERE BECAUSE I THOUGHT I'D FINALLY FIGURE OUT WHAT MY PURPOSE IN LIFE WAS! I THOUGHT I'D FINALLY SEE WHAT I WAS MEANT TO DO IN MY CUTIE MARK! BUT I DIDN'T GET ONE, BECAUSE I'M STILL NOTHING! AND NOW YOU'RE GOING TO SEND ME BACK TO MY PATHETIC PIT OF A LIFE JUST BECAUSE 'YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND!' WHY COULDN'T YOU LEAVE ME IN PEACE?! WHY COULDN'T YOU LET ME MAKE BELIEVE?! WHY...why...why couldn't you..."
Swift ran out of breath, every bitter and resentful thought having made its way out through his mouth. He trembled where he stood, his eyes starting to drip. His legs wobbled, and he thought he would lose his balance soon. He tried to take deep breaths, but he couldn't manage it.
Finally, he looked up. Twilight was staring at the pegasus in front of him, her expression frozen in what looked like a surprised gasp. She'd backed away a few steps, but she didn't look afraid. If he had to guess, he'd say her expression was more pitying.
Looking past Twilight, Swift could see that the door had opened again. Apparently, his screaming had attracted the attention of the other six mares, as well as Spike, who were currently staring at him with similar expressions. Even Rainbow Dash's face had softened, and she looked more confused than anything, mouth hanging open and ears flattened.
"I...I didn't..." Twilight started, trying to find the words.
Swift snorted, dismissively waving his hoof, even as tears continued to drip from his eyes. "Save it," he growled. "I don't need your empathy. It's completely worthless."
"I would disagree with that sentiment," came a voice. "It comforts ponies in times of sorrow."
Nine heads turned around. At the entrance to the castle stood two large alicorns, one white and one navy blue. Everypony except Twilight and Swift quietly bowed, though Celestia waved them off with one hoof.
Swift wiped his eyes angrily, glaring at Celestia and Luna from across the room. "It also does nothing to actually solve your problems," he snapped back at them. "It's what people do so that they can say 'I helped that person' without actually doing anything for them."
Twilight gasped at Swift's biting remark, but he didn't care.
"I understand that you are angry, Swift Wing," Celestia replied. "However, I assure you, if you have no hostile intentions towards my little ponies, or any other creature, you have nothing to fear from us."
"What do you care?" Swift retorted. "I'm not one of your little ponies. Surely you must know that by now?"
"We know," Luna replied. "When looking into your dreams, I did not see your true nature. We respect your privacy."
"Evidently, you don't, given how you sicked Twilight on me," growled the pegasus.
Twilight opened her mouth, probably to scold Swift for talking back to the princesses, but Celestia silenced her with a look. She shook her head, unspoken words passing between the former teacher and student.
She turned back to the pegasus. "I gave Twilight no instruction regarding what to do with you. Additionally, I would remind you that she has done nothing to hurt you in any way. You are not a prisoner, though I would very much appreciate it if you would stay for the remainder of this discussion."
Swift bit his lip, but made no move to leave. What would be the point?
Luna continued. "Swift, would you like the two of us to continue this conversation alone? I will not reveal the contents of your dreams to everypony else without your permission."
Swift sighed, leaning back down onto his knees once again. "Do whatever you want," he said. "They might as well hear it. I don't really care anymore."
Luna looked a little perplexed at his answer, sparing a second to glance at her sister. The two exchanged a few expressions, communicating without words. Swift didn't make a move.
"Who was the being in your dreams? The one who was demeaning you?" Luna asked.
"My sister," Swift answered without emotion. "She did that to me for my whole life, as you might've guessed. It's partially her fault I'm like this."
"Sister? But she wasn't a pony."
"No, and as you may have guessed, I'm not actually a pony. I was changed into this when I got here." Swift shut his eyes, hating to tell the truth, but seeing no point in resistance or lying. "In fact, Swift Wing isn't my real name. It's Mark. I just picked the first name I thought of when I saw that I was a pegasus."
He saw a few eyes widen at his revelations, but nopony freaked out.
"So...if you're not a pony," Twilight followed, "what are you?" She magically opened her saddlebags, producing his phone. "Are you—?"
Swift groaned, surprised he managed to forget the phone. "I'm a human. A species you're familiar with, I know. And no, I'm not from the world Sunset Shimmer lives in." Swift stretched his limbs, trying to keep them from falling asleep. "I came here because I was tired of everything. I failed out of college, I was working a dead-end job, my life was going nowhere, and I was such a loser that nobody wanted to be friends with me. I could see everyone all around me doing amazing things, advancing their lives, falling in love, and I was stuck sitting alone in my room all the time. Probably the only person who even cared that I was alive was my mom, and she couldn't help me. All I wanted..." His eyes began to water, threatening to drip again, but he stopped them, not wanting to show any signs of weakness. "All I wanted was a chance to start over. Something I'm sure a lot of people want. Then, one day, somebody approached me...a man in a black cloak. He said he could send me to Equestria, the land of my dreams, a place where I could forget everything. So I took his offer."
"Wait a second!" interrupted Applejack. "Your tellin' me you just up and left your ma alone in another universe? Did you even tell her where you were goin'? Did you—"
"It wasn't like that!" Swift snapped back. "She was well off, she didn't need me to survive. I didn't still live at home, I wasn't that much of a loser." He laid his head down on the ground again. "Besides, she has my sister, who always told her I should've never been born. She's probably telling her that as we speak."
Applejack opened her mouth again, but was shushed by Rarity.
Swift got back to his hooves once again. "But none of you care about that," he summarized. "You only care that I'm here, that I'm not supposed to be here, and you believe I have to go home." He shook his head. "Let's get this crap over with."
Nobody spoke for a couple of seconds. Finally, Twilight cleared her throat. "Swift...we weren't going to force you to go home."
For the first time since he'd gotten there, Swift was actually surprised. His eyes widened, his wings involuntarily sprang outwards, and his tail ceased its rhythmic swinging. He placed his hooves against the ground, lifting himself up slightly.
"You...you weren't?" he managed to stammer out.
"Morally, we can't force you," Celestia admitted. "You've committed no crimes, and you clearly aren't some sort of spy, so we don't truly have a good cause to send you back against your will."
"However..." Luna added.
Of course, Swift grumbled mentally. I should've seen this coming.
Luna continued, "We believe you should strongly reconsider your decision to move permanently to Equestria, and think about your own world. Think about the pon-er, people you left behind. Think about your mother. Think about—"
"Look, if you're gonna go down this path," Swift cut her off, "I'm gonna tell you right now, you're wasting both of our times. There is nothing you can say to me that would convince me to go back."
Celestia looked rather surprised at Swift's response. "Surely you must've just made that decision in the heat of the moment. From what you said, your home life was sad, but surely there must be something you miss."
"No. Absolutely nothing," Swift shot back. "Like I told you, I don't have any friends. My mother doesn't need me. And besides, she let my sister insult and degrade me until all my self-esteem was gone and I was left a socially maladjusted freak. She'd insist 'Oh, your sister loves you, she just doesn't know how to say it,' literally right after my sister said she wished I'd never been born."
"But they're your kin," Applejack snapped at him. "You just up and left them in your home universe. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"
"We haven't spoken in years," Swift replied. "I couldn't talk to her anymore without my sister butting into it. You need to understand something, Applejack. If Big Macintosh did nothing for you except tell you you were worthless garbage, would you want to spend time with him? Would you?"
Applejack opened her mouth slightly, but she apparently couldn't think of a response.
"Look, that doesn't matter right now," Twilight interrupted. "Let's change topics for a second. First of all, if you're from a completely different dimension, how'd you even know you were going to Equestria? How'd you know how to try and blend into our society? How'd you know about Sunset Shimmer's world? Did that man in the cloak tell you everything?"
Swift bit his tongue, actually at a loss for words for the first time. He should've known this was coming since they'd brought him here. He'd known way too much about Equestria to excuse as coincidence. Now came a moment he dreaded.
Where he'd have to explain to them that they were a cartoon.
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love it
Welp, he could just call the tower from Song of Spheres, and explained why they are cartoon, and how he knows, but that's just me XD.
The big moment is coming: he must explain how they are all part of a cartoon.
This story is good. Glad I decided to check it out.
10263242
Fantastic idea, but I doubt he knows about it or if it's legit.
Awesome chapter, I wonder how they'll react to the fact that they're depicted in an animated TV series. (I doubt he'd depict it as children's tv, but who knows?)
I don't think they'll assume that they are from a cartoon, but rather their world was viewed in the dreams and musings of creators and artists.
We'll see. I look forward to it.
"Simple answer there. In my universe, we have ways to look at other universes throughout the multiverse."
"How?"
"Don't know how it works. Some people just...create the means to view them, and they share the views with the rest of us."
That. That right there is what you need to say. You don't have to say they're from a cartoon. Technically speaking, they existed regardless of the fact that they were a cartoon.
Incoming Awkward moment!
Erm, did he actually ever mention the cloaked person?
Edit: nvm, I need to learn to read.
I haven't read your story yet ( I will ), but my OCD wouldn't allow those likes to stay at 199.
So many is on how trouble some and awkward it is going to be to simply tell that there's stories about them where he comes from.
Tall tales and Fairytale's though.
With the way the multi-verse works and the apparent availability of cross-dimensioning, for all we know, a copy of their puplished 'Friendship Journal' could've ended up in Mark's original dimension.
What I don't get is why Celestia and Luna seem surprised that someone could've, aware or not, been so bad a family, and the world left someone so lonely - that starting over all on their lonesome in an appearingly better world, seemed a good idea.
["I didn't think much further, till it started happening all the time [....] I needed a place where I could hide, somewhere I could call mine [....]" Genesis - no son of mine]
10263292
I like your line of thought.
He did go binging history books to compare notes, it makes sense there'd be disparities.
10263475
Yes he did.
In the middle of his post rant at Luna and Celestia.
10263561
So he did! Musta slipped out of my head.
His is just a storyteller's universe. The stories some people come up with correspond to other universes, and he just picked one.
Well done, It isn't as cringie as it could have been. Many Authors just go over board with this part. A part I really think shouldn't be in these stories in the first place. The "Coming out as human scene" is way over used in stories and isn't really necessary. Although I will admit that it serves an actual purpose here in this story.
You do realize that if he says they are a cartoon and he knows their future, Celestia WILL HAVE TO send him home. He would be far to dangerous to national security to allow him to stay. Someone with "future knowledge" as well as national security secrets "How the elements work, where the tree is, where Star Swirl is." falling into the hands of a foreign country. Oh my god, the ponies would be screwed.
The Monk
“maybe one day she’d get someone willing to pay hundreds for an apology gift for her. Hopefully it would just be an apology for forgetting an anniversary and not one for assaulting a member of a dinner party. Amethyst didn’t want that much excitement in her life.” -Dropbear
Luna, Applejack.
some families just don't work. thankfully mind did but know enough people had HORRIBLE families
10263657
this is before season 9, though
10258276
You only have 3 more chapters right
wow, he finally saw that he can stay....
that was fun, please more!!! and keep it up!
(Please make the chapters a 'little' longer than this one and I see it as a perfect chapter!)
I'd try to bullshit and come up with some nonsense about how he got some memories when I got transported to their world. I still can't understand how the cartoon explanation is supposed to ever work out.
It's very by the books. The plot layout.
10264770
I don't know. Other authors have pulled it off, I think I can.
Yes please explain to me how I am nothing but a cartoon. Are we going with the theory that every fictional story, is technically an alternate dimension?
10263657
Minor spoilers for the next chapter, so if you don't want those, ignore this comment.
This is pre-season 9 in his world, so he doesn't have any future knowledge. Plus, did they ever explain in detail exactly how the Elements work, or show a map to the Tree, or exactly where Star Swirl went? (I know the Tree is right next to the old castle, but we've never seen a map of the Everfree or anything, so he wouldn't be able to find it on his own.
10265376
You have no idea just how long I stared at this comment wondering if I wanted to listen to it yet or not.
Just evil ; )
The Monk
“And it's the cowgirl with a disturbing love of apples.” -Hawker Hurricane
10265045
Oh, I don't mean that it can't be done. Just thinking how if I was in that situation that'd be literally the last thing I'd want to do.
I'm not saying this to change your mind or anything. It's your story and I'm here to read it. By all means, do what you want to do. That's the whole reason I'm here. I've said it in other places before: if I wanted things to go the way I wanted them to I'd be writing my own story, you know?
I'm just thinking how I'd imagine things going, but that's the beauty of it. It's not like there's one correction conclusion. To me that explanation ends with "you need therapy" or "off to the dungeons with you". The fact that you're going in a different direction from that is what makes it interesting to me. It's different from what I'd expect so I cantt help but be curious.
Hope that made sense
Aww cliffhanger this story rea- *holding up my hyper temper* really was something!
10263292
Given that ponies clearly have intimate, personal knowledge of the multi-dimensional nature of the universe sufficient to craft artifacts capable of casually bridging the gap...I would expect nothing he could say would surprise them.
Celestia has had the mirror between worlds in her closet for who even knows how many centuries, Starswirl the Bearded is a known dimension hopper and clearly he's not the only one, every one of the Mane Six has personally walked into an alternate reality from a comic book...why would any of them so much as blink as the realization that there are dimensions where their universe is known as a story?
If anything, the punchline here should be "please don't overeract! Maybe I shouldn't even be saying this, and oh gosh I don't want to rock your world...oh please forgive me this terrible and horrifying realization...but...you are fiction where I come from!!! Oh dear, oh dear! Whatever I have done, telling you that your entire world, your entire universe is fiction someplace else!!!"
(Awkward silence)
"...wait. Does that mean that my life before I came here was fiction someplace else?"
*cue existential crisis*
*faints*
10267594
PFFFFFFF!
This chapter was not enjoyable to read. Mark's endlessly bad attitude pretty much crushed any degree of sympathy for him, while he lashed out at every pony trying to help him with biting remarks and generally bad behavior. I can relate to the sense of feeling worthless, but the way he acted didn't seem even slightly justifiable or relatable. Where does the narrative have to go from here? Is this conflict the only driving narrative in the story?
10274038
I'm sorry you feel that way. I'll grant you, Mark's attitude is not the best in this case. If he had a better attitude, he would've gone and told Twilight everything from the beginning. Though I personally don't blame him for getting annoyed when they try to convince him to go back. Mark wanted what a lot of people want: A reset button. Now, the ponies, who don't really grasp how bad his life was back home, are trying to convince him to go back to a place he hated. I think a little annoyance on his part is justified.
10276841
I'm glad I never thought of that story.
Kinda surprised that of all things triggered your thumbs-up.
Anyway, Rainbow isn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer.
Huh. I didn't even consider that.
Celestia: "By the way, Twilight. I got the dog you sent me.
"
"
" *she teleports in the timberwolf*
"
"
Twilight Sparkle: "Dog? What dog? I didn't send you any dog.
Celestia: "This dogwood.
Spike: "ooops!
Twilight Sparkle: "
10277035
Celestia: "Don't worry; after I gave him a little taste of the sun, he's been a good little doggo."
Twilight: "Wait, what do you mean by that?"
Celestia: "..."
Twilight: "...Celestia?"
Celestia: https://youtu.be/h7d-pR8dcm4