The Student

by Fireheart 1945

Chapter 2; Infiltration

Celestia, in her disguise as Silver Mane, ran over her mission in her mind.

The reason Equestria was on Earth was simple; their old world had been dying.

The ground outside of Equestria had refused to grow crops, fierce winds had begun to sweep across the world, and tidal waves had begun to level cities. Only Equestria had managed to hold out, due to the use of magic, but even there the symptoms of ecological collapse were being felt. The Crystal Empire, despite it's magical defenses, had almost been swallowed by unending snowstorms. And the Cloudsdale Weather Factory had been unable to keep up with the demands upon it, given the unnatural weather and other problems.

They'd all tried to cope and to reverse the problems; in an effort to make up for crop loss, winter had first been shortened, then stopped altogether in Equestria. The Weather Factory had been continually built up, tripling it's previous capacity. Scholars of all nations had searched books of all ages, trying to find ways to combat the disaster and to discover its root cause.

Nothing had availed them; the giant walls Vanhoover and Tall Tale built were overwhelmed by the seas, and the efforts to skip winter led to rapid soil degradation that only worsened crop yields. Attempts by Twilight and her friends to create a shield to protect Equestria had only been partly successful; it had kept back the oceans, but also cut Equestria off from the rest of the world and did nothing to stop the rotting of the land. In the end the shield was abandoned, as were most efforts by other nations to counter the continuing blight.

Scholars had eventually found that it was possible to send part of a country to another world. Ironically, it had been a yak to find that out. Not that Celestia had anything against yaks, but they were most well known for stomping and breaking things, not for brilliant scholarship.

Celestia, her sister, her student, and her friends, had invited the all the other races to their land, and had searched for other worlds where they might be able to teleport their land to. Ultimately, they'd selected this one. The Princesses and Elements, with the help of the other sapient species of their world, had combined their powers to bring the Equestrian continent to Earth.

It was unlikely they'd be able to move again; given the massive drain in energy and the months the Sisters had spent in the hospital afterwards due to the near-draining of their magic, in addition to the slow recovery of the other leaders and the damage the various magical items they'd used had sustained, this was it.

The discovery of humans and their history had not boded well; naturally they discovered this new land on their globe via their satellites... and, sadly, the displacement of water had severely damaged coastal cities throughout the world. South Georgia Island, next to which Equestria had spawned, had been nearly wiped out by the waves sent at it, and throughout the South Atlantic, there was terrible damage.

This had caused numerous diplomatic incidents when the former inhabitants of Equus met the humans, many of whom were not happy given the damage and loss of life. Fortunately, Twilight, in absence of the Sisters (who were still laid up in hospital beds at the time) had managed to negotiate ably with them, along with several members of the species who had come along. She, along with the rest of the council that had met the humans, had refused to speak of the disasters that had led Equestria and the other peoples of Equus to make their journey, but had managed to agree that Equestria would either pay for or help to repair the damage caused by the displacement.

It was fortunate as well that magic still worked; unicorns could still cast spells, pegasi could still fly, and earth ponies were about as strong as ever. But there had been consequences for moving to another world. For one thing, she and her sister could not, and did not need to, control the sun and moon, one thing Celestia was both relieved about and missed at the same time. In addition, Earth clouds would not hold up pegasi no matter how much the latter tried, and only clouds brought from Equestria could be used for buildings. That of course included Cloudsdale and the aerial locations within the the big spell's area of effect. No matter what the Cloudsdale teams tried, Earth clouds stubbornly refused to be molded by pegasus hooves, and they would not yield to reformation of any sort; that had remained true when Celestia had discretely left for a human university, and as far as she could tell, it remained true.

Another discomfort was related to the cloud problem; the weather of this planet could not be controlled. This had led to unexpected storms unleashing their payloads of rain and lightning - very lethal lightning - upon unsuspecting ponies and other species. And, in order to maintain the ecological balance, the spell had reversed Equestria's North and South; the Crystal Empire (much to their relief at not being stuck in an empire of melted mud) was now in the far south, just off the coast of Antarctica, and southern cities like Klugetown were now in the north, much to the initial confusion of everyone. In addition, in order to save what they could, the scholars - the Royal Sisters included - had been forced to cut off sections of their continent; Equestria, the Crystal Empire, parts of the southern deserts that were inhabited, these were brought along, though not before all inhabitants who wished to leave their dying world had come to Equestria.

There were benefits, of course; the soil had begun to improve almost upon their arrival, and since the sun and moon were not under magical, manual control, there was little if any chance a villain could use them whatsoever. Furthermore, human medicine and medical knowledge in general was far superior to traditional Equestrian medicines, and thus, when imports of technology came in, Celestia and Luna had healed faster than they would have otherwise.

She could still remember the long months in the hospital, virtually unable to even levitate a cup of water, let alone anything else. Thankfully, her system and Luna's had healed properly, though they'd had to be careful for some time afterward.

Even before they were fully well, they'd had to deal with the other leaders and the species they represented. All wanted equal representation with ponies, which she and her sister were willing to accept. One of the problems was that each race wanted its own territory, especially the griffons, dragons, and yaks. Another was the unreformed changelings; they, including Queen Chrysalis, had come along, and there were fierce negotiations with them. Even with all the other peoples against them, Chrysalis had not been willing to concede much, other than close surveillance upon her and those who remained loyal to her. She had been willing to accept an arms limitation - the unreformed had a strict limit on how many weapons they could possess - but few expected her to actually hold that part of the bargain. It was only the fact that the unreformed changelings were the diehards who absolutely refused to reform, and the fact that they needed a queen, that Chrysalis and her followers were allowed to join this new society at all.

All races - ponies, changelings (reformed or otherwise), griffons, yaks, kirins, hippogriffs, dragons, diamond dogs, and even species that had long accepted subordinate roles such as sheep and cows - had eventually come to a compromise. Celestia and Luna would remain in charge, but there would be a Council under them, made up of each races' leader (Chrysalis and Thorax had nearly come to blows before they were separated and accepted being representatives of 'different' species). The power of the Royal Sisters was curtailed; major decisions needed to go through the Council, and a two-thirds majority was required for most petitions to pass. Ponies could stay wherever they had lived, and those nobles, mayors, and others in charge could retain their power, but had to accept all other species as equals with ponies in everything, in addition to allowing the other races an equal opportunity to share in local politics. Any job that could be done by a member of a certain species - for example, a kirin as a fire fighter or a dragon as a blacksmith - would be fully allowed, so long as they went through the education and training those jobs entailed.

There were also major changes in how each species was to behave. Dragons obviously weren't allowed to destroy everything and anything in sight as they'd been used to previously, and unreformed changelings had to wear a magical necklace that would remain on their person no matter what shape they took on, while yaks had to accept that breaking things, especially things that didn't belong to them, was no longer going to be tolerated, except for specific instances. Reformed changelings had to accept being checked every so often to make sure that their unreformed brothers and sisters hadn't infiltrated them, griffons had to contribute to the economy if they wanted money, and diamond dogs were forbidden to practice any form of slavery, with many similar changes taking place.

While the treasury had remained robust, as it had accumulated much during the thousand years or so of peace, it had nevertheless been badly drained during the disaster. Fishing, of course, could quickly resume as normal, but farms needed massive help getting started, and many ponies had lost their homes, either due to the crisis or to economic reasons. In addition, the many races who had come to the Equestrian continent needed homes as well. Much work needed to be done... and of course, the Council squabbled about all of it. The United Species Council, which was what the Council called itself, was not the most friendly of organizations. Indeed, the Royal Sisters had felt considerable frustration that legislation that they could have passed easily just years before were being vetoed simply because the two-thirds majority wasn't met.

One of the most pressing issues was, of course, the humans. Finding out they were the only sapient species on their planet, and that they numbered around 7.5 billion, was shocking. However, given how many nations they were split up into, the fear of a sudden invasion by the entire world was thankfully very little, and the South American and African nations nearest to Equestria were not the most militarily able.

The military. Another thing that had to change. The Royal Guard had served well in the past; they'd kept their Princesses from being harmed, and worked well in dealing with criminals and with minor to moderate problems that required force. But spears were no match for automatic rifles, machine guns, and artillery. Equestria needed these in a hurry, with Twilight Sparkle all too eager to learn just about everything (thought military studies were only part of her studies on this new world. Shining Armor had begun a program where each species joined a united military, one that would operate purely by merit and not by blood, money or power. All members of the military would be taught how to use modern weapons and train in combining these with their races' own abilities.

Despite the difficulties of social change and the aftermath of ecological meltdown, Equestria had survived, and managed to present a (mostly) united front when dealing with the humans. And all of them, even Chrysalis, agreed that human history was simply too violent on the surface to allow for any immediate cooperation. Humanity would need to earn Equestria's trust before being allowed in on a major scale. As such, the Council actually agreed that only ambassadors and those who worked for and with them would be allowed into the country. No trade and no other contact, beside payment and repairs in nearby countries to make up for damage and loss caused by the displacement, would be allowed. After learning of tyrants such as Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Vlad Tepes, Equestria wasn't going to let their society be infiltrated by potentially violent extremists.

A convenient loophole - one could argue, correctly, was deliberately built into this policy - was that this didn't ban ponies - or other species - from leaving the country. Given that most of the other species were busy trying to build or rebuild homes, that meant that ponies generally led the way in foreign endeavors. As such, humans often got the notion that Equestria was purely a pony nation. Technically, it had been throughout history, though times had changed once the crisis had struck. Their misconception, however, allowed for greater secrecy; changelings, reformed and otherwise, could infiltrate human societies to discover what they could, and could serve as a secret service (though again, Chrysalis and her loyalists had to be restrained). The Defense Intelligence Service was roughly 75% reformed changelings, 5% unreformed changelings (and Chrysalis was fortunate to get even that), with the remaining 20% being made from other species. Most of their work, ironically enough given their name, was to gather intel from human nations, and to spy on human communications and media such as they could. However, the point was continually stressed and made throughout the organization that this was all about defending Equestria from external threat, not a means of aggression.

Twilight's main duties were, obviously, scientific research; Celestia had set her in charge of all of Equestria's R&D efforts. Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts were busy forging an air force for the nation, and were responsible for defending the nation from aerial attack. Applejack was tasked with reviving Ponyville's agricultural economy, at which she had had decent success. Fluttershy was given the task of preserving and, so far as was possible, restoring the environment around the fabled town. Rarity was, naturally, busy trying to make clothes for both private citizens and the military, which, though profitable for her, was tiring. Pinkie Pie was... well, Pinkie Pie, busy as usual at trying to make others happy and throwing parties at Sugarcube Corner every night to help the common folks there, pony or otherwise, rest from their burdens and enjoy a break from their work. Cadence, having a nine-year-old daughter to care for, still ran the Crystal Empire and oversaw the Crystal Heart; the shield that artifact could emit could be a last-ditch solution if there actually was an invasion.

As for the Royal Sisters...

With governance, in many ways, in the various appendages of the Council, and without celestial bodies to control, Celestia and Luna nonetheless still had important duties to uphold. While laws had to be addressed by the Council, Royal Courts were still held every day so that the common citizen could voice their concerns, of which there were many. With the sudden influx of other races in Equestria, the natives and their new neighbors didn't always get along, and divides of culture led to disagreements, legal or otherwise. Celestia had taken it upon herself to address these problems. While she often felt satisfaction at solving some of the issues brought before her, more times than she would have wanted the problems had to be taken to a courtroom, with defense and prosecution making their cases before a jury decided the verdict. The Royal Sisters also took the duty to defend the country personally - if the situation called for it - seriously, and they, as did the leaders of the other nations, held general-level positions in the new military.

Luna was still busy every night defending her subjects, native or otherwise, from nightmares. Oddly enough, despite the proximity of human nations, she seldom felt called by her magic to defend human dreams, and even then those "dreams" tended to be disorganized messes, unlike the streamlined and structured dreams most ponies and other races of Equus dreamed. A pony's dream about a romantic evening out would usually remain just that; a human dream might feature the dreamer being aboard a train doing something one moment, while the next the dreamer might end up underwater next to a tree for no discernable reason. Discord loved to tease Luna about that kind of chaos.

Discord's... role, such as it was, hadn't changed much. He still enjoyed time with Fluttershy and often played practical jokes upon unsuspecting citizens. However, he had taken a keen interest in humans, mostly their senses of humor. He'd sometimes - illegally - listen into human radio communications, sometimes even going so far as to turn himself into a piece of equipment (such as a set of headphones or a recording device) in order to do so.

With the new situation as it was, and with the stresses of the sudden changes, Celestia often felt homesick; the detachment from her sun felt like loosing a friend to a terrible disease (with Luna saying the same thing about loosing the celestial body that bore her name), and she often tried to scry Equus, to check in and see what was going on. Sadly, every time she did so, she either failed to get anything, or only got confirmation that things had gotten worse since Equestria's departure; oceans covering most of the former coastal areas, constant magical and non-magical storms, bones of deceased creatures, and the continuing decline of the planet's ecology. It became clearer and clearer that there would be no returning home. Even with the sun and moon back home set on automatic (which may have been another reason the Sisters wound up in the hospital), their world wasn't recovering.

But to return to her mission, the reason she had decided to don a disguise and enroll in a human college was simple... and complicated, all at once.

Despite the efforts by the secret service, and Twilight's own prodigious efforts to learn all she could, relatively few ponies could really piece enough of human culture and communications together to form a clear, constant picture; there were so many cultures and so much history to go through that even Twilight, who was head researcher, could not put the data together fast enough. The secret service's trouble of intercepting communications was made more difficult by the fact that unencrypted radio was used less often than it was in Equestria; television, the internet, and social media were largely not available to Equestria (which lacked technologies such as the internet and iPhones), and governments naturally had codes in place for official and secret communication. Add to that, the distrust felt by Equestrians toward humans was apparently mutual; ambassadors had, time and again, tried to pry into Equestria's history... namely, its very recent history, and why they had come to another world. Many human nations forbade ponies to travel their lands until the ban on humans coming to Equestria was removed. This didn't stop individuals from travelling to those lands that didn't ban them, but their experiences hadn't been extensive enough for Celestia's taste.

With the other alicorns busy and with the weight of her continent upon her withers, Celestia had lost her temper in a recent Day Court. It had been a minor issue, really; a pony was upset that his dragon neighbor had burned down his fence, the dragon claimed the pony had stiffed him when the latter had asked the former to... she couldn't remember, but the debate that had ensued there in the throne room had got almost physical. Given how ridiculous the whole thing seemed, and with more important cases no doubt in waiting, she'd used the Royal Canterlot Voice to give both of them a vicious tongue-lashing.

Luna had heard, of course. That night, the sisters had discussed the issues of governing a now multi-cultural kingdom - well, technically a federated principality now, but still - and how it was wearing Celestia down the most. Luna had suggested that her sister take a few days off, but, after doing so, Celestia still found herself losing her temper, or coming close to doing so, more often than usual.

With work still needing to be done and needing a long break from her millennium-long rule, Celestia had suggested going in disguise as a unicorn in some human land and doing something to learn more about them and their history, something that would allow her to experience things from the human side of the divide and be able to handle them more capably upon her return. Luna had been almost apoplectic about the idea, noting the many reasons it might not work and the potential trouble she'd be in if she got caught, but in the end, she had agreed, under certain conditions. In the meantime, the monarchy would work to keep Celestia's absence a secret. The Day Court would be suspended, replaced with a judicial council made up of various judges to decide minor cases, referring the bigger ones to the actually judicial courts. Luna would cook up a story about Celestia's mental health being impaired by the displacement spell and of the white alicorn's need to remain bed-ridden until doctors could cure the disease. Neither of them were comfortable about the lie, and neither intended to keep it in place after Celestia returned. However, most ponies had bought into it, especially after several doctors apparently examined her and "found" a dislocation within the brain that supposedly partially blocked her magic.

That was easy bit; even Chrysalis was apparently fooled, even though she had clearly gained some ambitious ideas with the Sun Princess seemingly out of the picture. The harder part was being able to get into a human nation and into a college somewhere; college, mainly a history focus while at a college, would add to her experience and knowledge gained by being in the human world. Additionally, Celestia had, since Luna's return, felt her little sister ought to have more time ruling anyway; the Solar Princess had spent enough time in the spotlight, now Luna could take her turn with it.

And of course, she counted on the magic of friendship to help her...

She looked at the watch - located on her fetlock - that she had hastily brought from the campus store after the morning debacle. She had fifteen minutes to get to her next class, after which she'd have half an hour to eat lunch before another class. She checked the illusion spell that hid her wings; it was still working strong, and her saddlebags kept those wings from expanding outward when something unexpected happened.

So far, her endeavors in the US, and in the province - no, state - of Maine had been pleasant enough. However, she'd had quite a surprise and a momentary scare when she saw humans in the countryside casually riding horses. The bus driver had to explain to her that Earth horses were just animals, and that they weren't being abused so far as he was aware of. Nonetheless, it had taken a while for her heart to be put at ease; she had wondered whether the humans around her only saw her as an intelligent horse to still be ridden upon, like the Earth horses. She had shaken that mentality rather quickly - most humans were curious, not imperious, toward her - but it occasionally tried to poke it's way back into her brain, and a hoofful of bad experiences kept giving it just enough food to not starve, such as when one man told her to "go back to the barn."

As for the college itself... she'd arrived at Joshua Chamberlain University* just a few days ago, and had gone through the necessary procedures and paperwork (they still, with their technology, had paperwork!?) along with a tour of the college grounds and given a small dorm room, one where she could be alone without a roommate, as she intended for that to be her one place of privacy.

The humans on campus - they seemed to consider themselves Americans first rather than human first - were certainly interested in a pony being on campus. They certainly asked a few awkward questions, such as whether or not she preferred hay bedding and similar nonsense, but that was largely ignorance. She brought them up to speed. She more or less told the truth; she lived in a house with a bed, kitchen, and the facilities and services necessary for living. Of course, she left out the fact that the "house" was in fact a massive palace, and that the palace facilities went far beyond what was necessary. She also told the truth that most ponies lived in houses, the same as humans did, and that they were essentially a nation equal to any on earth. That, given the fact that Equestria was badly behind on technology, was also technically true but incomplete. It also left out the catastrophe that had forced the relocation, and trying to fend off why Equestria had migrated an entire continent to Earth could be trying, especially since many of the other students weren't content with, "You'd have to ask the Princesses about that."

Speaking of Princesses, it was surprising how few nations on earth were monarchies; most had alternative systems of government, though most had some prior history of monarchy. Democracy, Republicanism, and dictatorship seemed to be the most common forms of government. It had been... disturbing, to say the least, to find out that the French and Russians had both killed their respective monarchs at different times in history, though she hadn't yet started her classes. No pony would have thought that up (or at least she hoped not), though maybe Chrysalis wouldn't have qualms about killing a head of state in order to gain power for herself. She hoped to learn more of the circumstances in her classes.

Today was when all of her preparations would be utilized. She would learn about human history, and get to know humans as friends.

Or... well, she didn't want to think about or. Or could mean Equestria would have come to a warlike planet all too willing to destroy it, and would have to live in permanent isolation. That would not be sustainable; either Equestria, a small continent, would need more resources and thus have to open up trade with warlike powers, or it would be invaded. Neither of these conclusion appealed.

She had to succeed. And she was determined to do so.

Author's Note:

*Not a real campus, just one I made up for this story.

I put Equestria in the South Atlantic because, well, as far as I can tell it's more or less original, though I have my doubts regarding the weather (mainly that which is temperature-based) remaining largely the same.

I also know that many will probably attack me because the way I worded the reason for Celestia's choice to galivant to the US seems to make no sense. And, honestly, I sometimes have trouble with wording. I apologize.

Comments

[shining paladin]

awesome chapter mate keep it up cant wait for the next chapter

[DonnyMason]

Introverts tend to have a lot of pent-up energy that they need to release. While introversion is not an indicator of intelligence for additional information go to the given link introvert in college in this link introvert can mean that you are more likely to struggle with socializing in college compared to other people Introversion is different than shyness which is more related to an unwillingness to engage in social situations.

[Silentwoodfire]

Surprised you didn't use UMO since it has a agriculture unit present, though the fact she's in my state is nice.