Princess Luna, Dreambringer, Patron of Stars and Nightmares, was standing less than a meter away, expression annoyed. This was the kind of thing ponies had nightmares about. She’d done something dumb enough to upset Equestria’s rulers, and now she would face terrible consequences. Even worse, her guest from another world somehow couldn’t tell a princess when he saw one, and didn’t even know to bow. He stared stupidly at her, mouth hanging open, and didn’t even try to share the proper respect.
She’s not Nightmare Moon anymore. She isn’t going to turn us to stone or anything else evil. Probably. She was still the Princess of Nightmares; she’d still made the Tantabus…
“P-please, Princess. This pony isn’t… He’s a stranger visiting from far away. He doesn’t know anything.”
Tracy glared at her, looking hurt. Though what he had to be upset about when he wasn’t the one who would pay for his ignorance…
At least he was smart enough not to argue, or to say anything stupid to the princess. Yet. “This is Princess Luna,” she said, desperation in her voice. Anything she could do to try and stop Tracy from getting them both in trouble. I do not need a royal decree against the flower stand right now. “Diarch of Equestria. Winter and Spring are her seasons, kinda like Summer and Autumn are her sister’s… I’m talking too much, aren’t I?”
The princess touched her shoulder with one hoof, silencing her. “I fear you must misunderstand my intentions. I am not here to pass judgement. Though I admit, I am always curious to hear how far the children of the night have traveled.”
She turned towards Tracy, who managed something that was very almost a bow, and mostly just seemed like he was tripping over himself. “What is your name, bat?”
“Tracy Maxwell,” he answered, without half the respect due to a princess. “Rose is right, this is only my third night in Equestria. I probably don’t know enough to be talking to someone as important as you.”
Somepony, Rose thought, though she couldn’t point out the mistake. Not without it being even more obvious how rude Tracy was bringing to the scariest princess of Equestria.
“From whence did you travel, Tracy Maxwell?” she asked. “I have heard no creature describe themselves in those terms before, not for countless eons. You must have much that is useful to share with the ponies of Equestria.”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Several hundred miles and one universe.”
Rose tensed, expecting the moment of discipline to come at last. Obviously Nightmare Moon wouldn’t be happy with some… monster traveling from another universe. If it wasn’t for how much help he’d been to get the flower stand running again, she might’ve even been happy about this.
The princess only clicked her tongue in a curious way, then turned. “I’m sure that’s quite the tale. Sadly I will not be permitted to hear of it tonight. If we never meet again, may the skies always be clear in your flight, child of shadow.”
With that blessing—an ancient recitation Rose recognized even if Tracy obviously wouldn’t—the princess slipped around a corner and out of sight.
Rose remained bowing for a few seconds more, expecting the princess to return moments later. Would it be more respectful if she thought they were too afraid to move?
“She’s gone,” Tracy said bluntly, nudging her with a hoof. “I don’t know what you were so afraid of, Rose. She seemed pretty normal. Like… the Queen. She’s supposed to be pretty easy to get along with.”
Rose waited a few moments more, though it seemed like Tracy was probably right. The princess did have a festival to run, and probably wouldn’t be coming back. Tracy hadn’t done anything that insulting, really…
“Queens are always evil,” Rose argued, finally dusting herself off and standing again. “Princesses are always kind and gentle. It’s basically a law of the universe.”
“A law of the Disney Channel, maybe.”
But her companion already sounded cheerful again. To him a chance to meet one of the rulers of Equestria herself barely even mattered. It was just something else that had happened during the festival today.
Rose took a few deep breaths, trying to clear her mind. She hadn’t brought the alien here to make him feel unwelcome, she wanted to show her gratitude for his help! Her fear was probably overblown, anyway. Nightmare Moon was ancient history. “There are two more sections to get through,” she continued, pulling him back along the way they’d come. “You’ll want some cider, everypony does.”
He let her lead her through the rest of the festival, one season at a time. He didn’t seem to understand most of the old poems, but at least he listened and acted respectfully when anypony noticed them.
He wasn’t half as interested in the ciders as she’d expected, instead drifting towards one of the rear booths of the community display. Thanks to their resident member, they had several actual Wonderbolts in attendance this year, bragging about the shows they put on and recruiting for the new season.
Tracy practically dragged her over, forgetting the cider and listening to the story with awe and disbelief on his face. Finally he pulled her aside, whispering urgently into her ear. “Rose, uh… this probably sounds crazy, but… can those ponies actually fly? Heavier than air feels incongruous with everything else you have, and I can’t explain those uniforms any other way.”
“Thank you for not asking them that,” she hissed back, though she was every bit as graceful as she claimed to be. “Of course they can fly, they’re pegasi.” She nudged his wings, eyes narrowing. “Bats fly too, you know. Even if you aren’t good enough at speed-flying for the most competitive parts of the…”
That probably wasn’t polite. She settled on poking one of his wings again. “You can’t seriously be telling me that you didn’t know that. You’re just playing dumb on purpose.”
He fell back from the crowd, and there was nothing at all mocking in his tone when he spoke. “It doesn’t even seem possible to me, Roseluck. Flying around with living wings… that’s what birds do, not people.”
They left the display behind, and went through the last season’s section. With his necklace complete, all that was left were the souvenir shops, and the sculpture garden. He walked between them in awkward silence, occasionally seeming interested in something but never buying anything. He left without any of the paintings or little models that ponies usually bought on their first trips.
They were halfway back to the flower-cart before she realized why. He wasn’t from Equestria, he probably didn’t even know how to use bits. One more thing for me to feel guilty about…
“I’m glad I was wrong about you, Tracy,” she said, slowing even more as they approached the cart. She didn’t want her sisters to hear them, and make it out like she was getting romantic or anything. Obviously she wouldn’t be doing that with an alien, that just didn’t make sense. “You weren’t an invader. It looked like the stand would sell out of everything when I left. This is going to be our biggest year ever, even without half the items.”
Tracy nodded, looking infuriatingly smug. But she could forgive him a little of that, this time. “It’s a shame you waited as long as you did. I, uh… I don’t really know much about how companies work, but my business teacher was all about numbers and metrics and stuff.”
“Keeping it up to date will be its own adventure,” Rose went on. “I’ve… well, you saw what I did for accounting. Mom was the best at that stuff, but when she died…” She sniffed, then sped up. This stallion had already seen her in pain, she wasn’t going to show off even more of it.
“I could probably help. Your notes from each day were good, it’s just about keeping them scanned in. Now that I’ve been promoted, I could probably afford to grab you a Raspberry Pi or something to use as PoS. Then you wouldn’t even have to fill out notes each day, it could just send everything to your merchant account. Or… okay, there’s no internet on your side. But we could figure something out.”
You don’t seem to care about making sense, she thought. But maybe it didn’t matter. If he was going to keep helping, then she had no reason to feel anything but grateful. “There should probably be something in it for you. Not that we’re not grateful, but my sisters and I aren’t a charity. We can’t keep—” She stopped abruptly, and he smacked into her for the second time that night. He still had to work on his situational awareness.
“If the stand starts to recover, we could pay you. Enough bits for you to…” She lowered her voice to a sympathetic whisper. “Look, I know you probably don’t want anypony to know, but not being able to fly isn’t going to solve itself. There are a few remedial flight classes in Canterlot. Lots of pegasus ponies who never visited Cloudsdale, or didn’t get a chance to learn for other reasons. I’ll have to check in on it, but I’m pretty sure they only meet once a week. That’s not too often, is it?”
He spread his wings defensively, backing away from her. At least the Spring section was emptying out now. There were still plenty of smaller groups of ponies, probably the ones who traveled from far away or just got off work. More importantly, they had a little space to themselves. Everypony was in Autumn or Winter by now.
“I’m sure flying is awesome, but that’s a lot of commitment for something I won’t be able to do in nine months anyway.”
“Sounds like more reason to do it than ever!” Rose nudged him, and no longer had to force her excitement. “When you move out, you’ll be… going back to your side, right?”
She barely even waited for him to nod in response. “Then why the buck would you want to leave without learning? It’s your only chance… even if you don’t use it for that long. You don’t have to join the Wonderbolts, but… I’d love to be able to do something like that.”
Tracy was silent as they reached the cart, expression thoughtful. Finally he spoke again, the same tone he’d used whenever he was about to say something he knew was stupid. “It doesn’t seem very fair, Roseluck. The pegasus ponies can fly. The ones with horns can move things around. Does that mean that most of the ponies I know—you and your family for instance—are you just screwed?”
She had to take a moment to consider her response, parsing the unusual words he’d chosen to represent his displeasure. Finally she shook her head. “I’m sure there are earth ponies who wish they could do magic, but there are probably unicorns who wish they were as strong as us. My family, we might not be able to fly around like you, but we use our powers to find flowers so rare that nopony else can. We keep them fresh and alive long enough to compete with a big chain like Barnyard Bargains. Besides, I don’t think anypony can be unhappy when they’re using their special talent.”
Tracy looked like he was going to ask about that one too, but he fell silent as they returned to the cart and the ponies gathered outside it.
Lyra and her fiancé. They’d both bought crowns, though from the way they leaned against the cart it seemed they were mostly here to chat.
Lyra was the first to notice them, spinning around and waving enthusiastically. “Roseluck! You showed the human the Equinox festival, eh?”
She nodded, ears flattening at her volume. Lyra didn’t seem to care much if anypony overheard. In fairness to her, it didn’t seem like anyone listening cared what she said.
“It was very enlightening,” Tracy said, saving her. “I’m still trying to figure out what I saw, but I’m glad she invited me. It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything like it on my end.”
“Since you’re here, I was hoping to ask you a few questions,” she went on, tugging on Tracy’s foreleg. “I’ve been going over my notes from my trip across the mirror, and I was hoping you could explain some things—”
Tracy spread his wings. “That’s uh… Tonight probably isn’t the best time for that. But if you’re really interested, I guess it wouldn’t be fair for me to learn all this and not share some things in return. Maybe you could stop by at night—or wait, morning. Morning on your end, yeah. I’m usually at work when it’s night for you.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Bon Bon said, reaching over to adjust Lyra’s crown peremptorily. “She gets like this sometimes. I’m sure most ponies wouldn’t want to get grilled about Equestria either.”
“It’s fine,” Tracy said again, and Rose found herself feeling a twinge of something she couldn’t place. It didn’t… No, obviously she wouldn’t be jealous. She wasn’t in any kind of relationship with this pony, and Lyra’s future spouse was two feet away. It wouldn’t be like that. “I just don’t think it will be very interesting to you. Where I come from is so… rigid, compared to this place.”
They arranged the visit just a few days from now, and the pair of them slipped away, rushing to get to the next station. You’ve been waiting for him this whole time, haven’t you? You knew he’d be here.
“I’ll let you get back to it,” Tracy said, as soon as the pair had vanished into the crowd. “Thanks for showing me, Rose. I think I might need a moment to process all this. Can I get back to you on the flight thing?”
“We still don’t know if the stand is going to survive, so that shouldn’t be a problem. Just think about it.”
He turned away, and didn’t even ask for directions back to the house.
You know, I keep expecting him to get distracted while moving and only after a short time, realize that he's flying. And then the inevitable...
Princess Luna is the bane of nightmares, not patron.
OK, I see what's going on.
Huh. I would've figured autumn fell under Luna's domain and spring Celestia's, given on which end of the equinox each one is.
Well, Luna's aware of the extraplanar immigrant and doesn't especially care. Good to see; there was always the possibility of her going full "Purge the demon!" depending on this Equestria's history with other universes.
I do love how the question about pegasus flight really drove home just how out of his depth Tracy is for Rose. He's from a very different world, my dear.
I want Pinkie to hear about this and bake a raspberry pie with USB ports in the tin that actually works as a computer and is still delicious. Somehow. Because Pinkie.
I do look forward to Tracy and Lyra's friendship. And Rose realizing that she's gone and fallen for the handsome bat again.
This was a great chapter and I greatly enjoyed the section with Luna. Of course there had to be a meeting with Lyra she wants to know all the secrets of the human. It's good that BobBon is able to serve as the voice of reason even if Tracy doesn't mind.
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I was actually thinking of So Long and Thanks for all the Fish. Tracy trips in the middle of something and forgets to fall and suddenly, flight happens. Like you though, I expected that the landing would be less pleasant... not quite W.E.Coyote but painful enough.
Little caught off guard by the brevity of the Royal Encounter but at least Rose has had her chance to make her apology.
Unlike Tracy, I’d be onboard with flying under my own power... piston powered propulsion is fun but self soaring would be stunning.
Hundred? I'm quite certain Rose's house just a few dozen feet away from the town's market.
Lyra’s visit is going to be interesting. Tracy has working internet. He can look up the answer to almost any question she can possibly ask. Will she ever leave?
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I'm guessing he's adding in the miles from his hometown to the city he moved to for his job to that count.
Another great picture from viwrastupr I like how confused Tracy is to Rose's confusion
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Think it is in reference to where his home was before he took up the internship. Traveled a few hundred miles across Earth and then jumped universes.
Hi Luna..bye Luna
Huh. That meeting with Luna was far briefer than expected. I'm kind of surprised she didn't try to arrange a one-on-one meeting at a later time, since apparently Equestria hasn't had contact from a being from another universe for quite a long time.
Didn't he see ponies flying when he first landed in Ponyville?
Seems that Romance tag might be coming into play here, now that Roseluck isn't staring bankruptcy in the face?
A wild Luna has appeared!
A wild Luna has left!
So visitors from other universes may be somewhat commom, what with her blasse response to him telling her that bit of info.
Nice chapter, good work.
I am looking forward to seeing Tracy learn to fly! Him freaking out the first time he crashes and is basically unharmed should be... very fun.
Wooooooo. Ah like this chappy. You teh kool.
Oh man, of course Lyra showed up.
One thing:
I'm guessing you meant 'him'?
Lyra and her fiancé -- fiancée
Luna seems strangely undisturbed by the prospect of a visitor from another universe.
That meeting with Luna ended rather... abruptly. I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing a little bit more of her in the future, otherwise, I'm quite confused about her inclusion in the story.
So Tracy is reluctant to fly because it wouldn't be fair to the Earth ponies he's been with? Don't need to worry about that. Reach for the skies. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Though maybe a little bit of that is probably the fact that can't really do it with his equestrian liaison/travel guide/buddy/potential marefriend Roseluck. I wondered if Tracy would have ever spent any significant time outside exploring if it wasn't for her.
Can't wait for that interview with Lyra. I want to see how the EQGverse is different from Tracy's world. And also how jealous and clingy Roseluck might become.
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Or maybe I was right about Discord's bet with Luna (and her enignatic statement she greeted them with kind sound odd, as if she knew something)
First, hasn’t Tracy been seeing ponies flying around already?
Second, didn’t we already see Tracy wonder what flight would be like?
I'm guessing he gets lost.
I am still holding our hope that they WON’T get in a relationship.
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Well, it won't be long til we find out. I figure love princess might also be involved somehow. Love is her domain after all.
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Tracy: I'm an inter-dimensional alien.
Luna: I have to go now. My planet needs me.
I mean its the only way she's so calm, right? You sure she isn't an alien as well?
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Yup, he considered wanting to fly too. Quite strange for him to ask that. Even if he didn't see any flying ponies, it shouldn't strike him as strange considering what he experienced so far.
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Next after that, somepony freaks him out of his fangs by pranking him with a thundercloud
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Yeah, that flying comment is at least one detail amiss...
Trace seems very 'Earthly' in his frame of mind. I guess he's well aquintanced with that river in Egypt.
If physics says it's impossible, but obviously being done, then you're missing something. (Said the scientist)
Luna? That was abrupt.
I think you guys might be right, she is either on to something, or some writer was heading into territory they didn't want to deal with
Maybe after his lease is up, he'll renew or Discord will offer him another way to visit.
Yes, you bowed, and I'm sure this is going to be a "please don't do that, no need for formalities" sort of moment with Luna here.
Ha! Thank you for finally calling it out, Tracy!
You know, Tracy really needs to sit Roseluck down and explain to her just how very different his universe actually is in comparison to Equestria. She keeps assuming things she takes for granted like Tracy will as well, because she has no frame of reference of what is or is not in his universe so to know better yet.
Of course, Tracy in turn barely has any frame of reference for the differences of Equestria either...but he at least has enough of a head start to start putting two with two so to know where there'd definitely be some...shall we say...culture clash.
See, you say that now...but even I can see the writing on the wall, Rose.
Clearly, that's still more than Roseluck and company, seeing you saw their error practically straightaway and they kept overlooking it.
Nah, that's not going to fly. Roseluck will just look at those things with the same sort of expression my grandmother would--with utter bafflement.
Well...it IS Lyra. She probably spouts stuff like this aloud for everyone to hear all the time.
Honestly, I'm more surprised that Lyra had waited even this long to ask anyway.
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To be honest, I'm not sure Luna truly understood what Tracy meant by "and one universe" and didn't interpret it literally. She still seemed to take him as a fairly normal bat pony as she departs, at least, nothing for her to be truly alarmed about.
Maybe if she makes mention of it to Twilight later, though... At any rate, I'm quite sure we haven't seen the last of her in this story. This does sort of feel like a...prelude...to later encounters with everybody's favorite princess of the night.
I suspect it was also the author's intent to keep the encounter fairly normal, partly so to serve as a contrast to Rose's complete overreaction to her appearance, and partly probably to help set the tone for likely later encounters with Luna and how they will likely go as "normal" as this one did, at least initially.
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I'm thinking he's still wrapping his brain around the idea of creatures like ponies being capable of true flight and can't quite believe it's really a thing yet. Probably also still hasn't ruled out that there could be some other explanation for it too, which is probably what my brain would want to assume and confirm isn't actually the case first, were I in Tracy's horseshoes.
Queen Novo wasn't that bad.
Just very Seaquestria-centered in her vision.
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Yeah, that's a fair point, but if that were the case I would have expected something more along the lines of "How can ponies fly?". At least to me, the wording suggests that he doesn't think it's possible at all, which seems to be at odds with what he's seen before.
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That is the Pinkest Pink I have Pinked all day. And having just watched the finale (FINALLY), it could almost be canon. Because Pinkie.
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Well, if we want to be really technical, it truly isn't physically possible even in the Equestrian world--magic has to make up the difference. Tirek's little feeding fest in the season four finale proved that. So, I guess...Tracy wouldn't be that wrong to assume that?
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Again, a fair point. Still worded weirdly IMO if his seeing of flying ponies earlier was intended, since it'd clearly be possible for ponies to fly, but there's indeed magic involved.
Now I'm imagining Tracy bringing in a few whiteboards' worth of scrawled equations showing that it's physically impossible for pegasi to fly and trying to explain to a very confused Rainbow Dash why she should not, in fact, be hovering right now.
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That is, admittedly, a fun mental picture.
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It was hinted that they use magic for thrust, and at least in part aerodynamics for control. This would give Twilight an excellent opportunity to lecture him about how pegasi can fly! He has yet to experience the fabled Twilight lecture after all!
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You realize the story is tagged romance, right?
Starscribe said in the Discord it's supposed to be a slow burn, though.
Uh, the hippogriffs would like to have a word with you, Rose.
Having recently cobbled together an Arduino-based IoT coin-op conversion interface, Tracy is fooling himself if he thinks slapping a RaspberryPi device into things will be a viable solution. No, start out with a logging calculator (the ones with the paper tape), and work your way up from there. Making a PoS solution is not for the faint of heart...
Chapter 2:
Yeah, even if it was three months ago, you don't forget about that unless you're willfully pressing that cognitive dissonance...
Keep going! ;)
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She's demonstrated how difficult it is to alter your upbringing and taught conceptions. Take the Nightmare Moon unbidden thoughts as another example, even though she consciously reprimanded herself for her reaction she had internalized the habit.
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See, in the ultra-fine print section 31 it talks about the combining of lessee contracts in the event of a matrimonious union (or the initiation of proceedings towards that event), in which much of the lease becomes void pursuant to a full property purchase agreement, yadda yadda legalese ensues...
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So you're saying there's a chance.
Maybe when Lyra's over she can notice a picture of some tropical fruit. Maybe make an offhand comment about them being expensive in Equestria. A trip to Costco and the flower stand has another product to sell. It could set up a few scenes where Tracy finds out mangos are basically bat pony crack and another where the flower sisters get a visit from the apple mafia.
derpicdn.net/img/2020/4/24/2330292/large.png
That is something I honestly haven't noticed before you pointed it out but it is true.
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The contract is rock solid!
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It's what Hasbro executives were thinking of when they said "no queens" to Lauren Faust.
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Oh? And yet there's Queen Chrysalis and Queen Novo. I believe the ruler of the Kirins is also a Queen.
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You misunderstand. Early in development, Lauren was brainstorming a "Queen Celestia", which didn't fly with Hasbro and so she became Princess Celestia. "Queen Chrysalis" (at that time only in Meghan McCarthy's script, never actually said on screen by any characters) was okay because she was a villain. And that was at the end of Season 2, not before Season 1 even began production.
10259577
I think I remember hearing about that. Still, it is a Disney thing.
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You're right, and it's because of evil Disney queens that Hasbro didn't want a "Queen Celestia".
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Bah, what does Hasbro know.
Anyway, thanks for the info.
Well, that bit with Luna was... disappointing. I mean, it's set up, used as a cliffhanger in the last chapter, and then.... nothing. Not even a buildup of tension or any real foreshadowing, save maybe seeing her again later. Seems rather pointless to even include it in the story at all.