Chapter 05 - Dinner & Talking 2
The Backyard Anomaly
Chapter 5 – Dinner & Talking 2
Michael listens to the windchime noises as Celestia levitates the fork up in the air to eat some spaghetti. He clearly enjoys the relaxing noise as it somehow reminds him of his childhood. His mother always used to have these windchimes in her garden. He is getting distracted.
Blinking a few times, he looks towards the alien creature who is sharing dinner with him. Besides the hectic start, he must say that this winged pony is quite enjoyable to be around. Nevertheless, the ACASC is already searching for her and it’s only a matter of time before they find her.
“So, how long does it take for your magic to charge up enough so you can…”
She just smiles while looking at her floating fork, clearly too focused on the meal in front of her. Celestia then blinks a few times and finally looks towards Michael, a bit of tomato sauce on her chin while she slurps up spaghetti in an un-princess like manner. She blushes a little and quickly licks her chin clean.
“Not that I don’t enjoy your presence here. But I already have heard the higher-up’s talk about a winged unicorn horse at work, and they seem eager to catch the ‘anomaly’. They even asked me if I knew anything about ‘it’.
He sighs in worry and finally indulges in his meal as well.
“That’s not... good news.” She states while grabbing some more spaghetti with her fork. “My magic is getting better and better, but I will need all my strength If I want to access the aether bands. I could try some first attempts in a few days.
“Aether bands?” Is this some bloody voodoo shit?
Celestia rolls her eyes and flares her nostrils a bit before taking another bite and swallowing it. This human clearly is quite a good cook and host, she thinks. A weird, bold but interesting and friendly one, nonetheless.
“The Aether bands are the purest form of magic and are one of the deepest structures of matter and time, Joseph. They basically connect different worlds together. Do you humans not know this? We teach this in magic-kindergarten.” She looks at him with an unimpressed expression while he just gawks at her with wide-open eyes.
“Other worlds? B-band that connects? Magic Kindergarten?” He clearly needs a while to take this in.
Clearly, Celestia expected this knowledge since he had an entire moving theatre and orchestra in his living room. But she remembers that it had no magical properties at all so it’s understandable that humans have no understanding of the aether bands.
-Then the authorities probably also can’t help her, so better stick with Michael for now…-
“Whoa, this is a lot to take in…”
She gives him a grin. “Well, we have some time, right?”
He just nods, clearly still a bit overwhelmed by this information.
“I need a drink.”
Celestia just giggles, eating some more spaghetti while smiling after the bewildered human while he walks into the kitchen.
She hears him move stuff around in his fridge. He then speaks to her with his head still in the fridge.
“You want something too?”
She thinks for a moment, wondering if she should ask for anything specific. But she feels excited for some reason, a soft smile finding its way onto her lips.
“Do you happen to have some white wine?” She calls to him from the living room.
Michael doesn’t answer and simply walks back with a big bottle of wine and two glasses.
“I can’t believe I’m sharing some wine with a talking magical pony from a different universe.”
He shakes his head with a smile and opens the bottle, filling her and then himself a glass.
Celestia levitates the glass with her magic and retorts with a smirk on her muzzle. “And I can’t believe I’m sharing one with an intelligent, talking hairless monkey.”
With a snort, he lifts the glass towards her, and she lifts her glass with a hoof.
“Cheers, Celestia.”
“Cheers, Michael.”
They both take a sip and Celestia just looks at him for a while a melancholic expression on her muzzle. He puts the glass of wine away and looks towards her.
“Do I have something on my face?”
“N-No.” She ruffles her wings a bit and empties her plate with the last bite.
“It just has been a while since I had a meal like this.”
He gives her a questioning look, not really getting what she means.
“As a princess, ponies always put an act around you. Everypony tries to be on their best behaviour because they are scared of me. But this is not the case with you, dear human.”
“Scary? You?”
Michael snorts at that.
“You are an adorable multicoloured little pony! How could you be scary?” He sips some more wine with a smirk on his face, not noticing the rosy colour on the alicorns cheek.
“You know I could have thrown you into the dungeons for such belittling words, right?” She narrows her eyes a tad bit.
He looks a bit intimidated now, wondering if she is serious or not. “Well, now I see why they think you are scary.” He says with a chuckle.
“I’m kidding. I could do that, but… your cooking is simply too good.”
Michael just rolls his eyes. “And I could let the ACASC do gruesome experiments on you, but… I like your windchime noises too much.”
He grins at her while filling her and his glass of wine up again.
“Windchime noises?”
She gives him a confused look while taking another sip from the wine in her magical grasp, clearly enjoying its taste.
“Can’t you hear it?”
Celestia tilts her head but then opens her eyes in realization.
“Oh, you mean my magic?” She focuses her gaze on the glass in her magical grasp. It shines in the golden aura her horn produces.
“Yea! I like it! Sounds… relaxing.”
Celestia blinks a few times, her cheeks getting a bit red once again and she could feel her body heating up a bit. She can’t remember anypony giving her such a compliment. Of course, she has received countless compliments in her long life. May it be to brownnose the princess or simply try to gain political power within a party. Barely any were genuine but hearing such a… different but deeply personal compliment from this alien creature warms her cheeks quite a bit.
“Thank you, M-Michael.” She uses the glass of wine to hide her face a little, taking another sip.
“Then, I will make sure to play my windchimes if you ever happen to have troubles sleeping at night.”
Now it is his turn to blush. He chortles a laugh and shakes his head, a bit embarrassed. “
T-hanks. I’m looking forward to that, heh.”
For a while, both don’t say anything, but for them doesn’t feel like an awkward pause.
“So, Michael. Tell me more about this ACASC group you happen to work for.”
Michael shifts his body a bit uncomfortably at this question.
“Well, The ACASC are a network of laboratories and offices all over the entire earth. Basically, they capture anything dangerous or worth studying. May it be wicked and dangerous monsters or fascinating artefacts from ancient times. We have them secured deep down in an underground facility in hopes they will never see daylight again. Heck, they even have a military branch!”
“We saved many lives and made great advanced in various fields of science. But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. We also do many gruesome experiments with the anomalies. Most anomalies are just objects and most living anomalies are not sentient. However, there are a few who are… But the higher-ups insist also doing these ‘experiment’ with the few sentient anomalies we captured.”
Michael looks away from Celestia, clearly ashamed and troubled by his own occupation. Celestia can relate to him. As a princess, she had to do various things she is not proud of in order to protect her nation. She had to since she is the princess. But there is still something she is not understanding.
“So why do you even work for them if they are such a dangerous or even evil organization? You don’t seem like a bad po- er- human.”
Michael sighs, leaning a bit back in his chair, his hands now laying on the wooden table in front of him.
“Trust me, I’d quit… if I could…” he stares through the windows into his garden, the moonlight barely illuminating the various trees and hedges. “If I could, I would do it.” He pauses once again, sorrow now clearly visible in his eyes.
“Michael? Are you alright? Do… Do you want to talk about it?”
Michael looks into Celestia’s eyes for a while, his face suddenly expressionless and pale.
“Michael?” She asks with worry in her gentle voice.
“I- uhm“ Replies Michael weakly.
He wants to explain to her, but as he closes his eyes for a second, he winces in pain from a vivid flashback.
“M-Michael. P-Please!” He hears his little brother scream in pain and fear while being strapped to a chair. Michaels Boss, Vogel, stands next to him with a vicious grin on his shadowy face while a different figure in a haz-mat suit injects something into his little brothers’ veins.
Michael is breathing quite faster now, clearly in great distress while gripping the table firmly, a mixture of fear, regret and anger visible all over him.
Celestia folds her fuzzy ears towards her skull as she looks into Michaels clearly hurting eyes. She stands up and walks around the table towards him.
“Michael? Are you alright? Don’t worry they can’t hurt you.”
She gently touches his side with her left foreleg and uses one of her wings to brush over his back in a comforting way. He jerks a bit as he comes back to his senses. He takes a deeper breath and looks towards Celestia who is suddenly standing so close to him, looking with her big eyes into his. He quickly relaxes at her touch, blinking a few times as he looks at her caring face.
“N-No! Sorry! I-It’s just a little migraine. Nothing more, really.”
Celestia of course knows it’s a lie but doesn’t question him further.
“I see. You gave me quite the scare for a moment.”
She resorts to simply giving him a quick hug, as it is normal for ponies when they see someone in distress. He seems to be surprised but she feels him lean into the hug a bit, brushing his hands over her back just a tad bit. He would find it weird to get a hug from anyone that quickly, but right now he is happy to receive one. Plus her fur is super soft and warm.
“You should rest more, too much work can give you bad migraine. And as a hardworking princess, I know that from experience.”
She gives him a wink and elicits a chuckle from him. “Point taken. Well, time for dessert!”
Michael quickly gets up and grabs the boxes witch he bought from the bakery. Bringing them to the table, Celestia is already licking her lips in anticipation of the sugary treats.
It barely took Celestia a few dozen seconds to demolish the slices of cake. Michael only had one, but he did not mind. Seeing the cute alien pony in front of him demolish the sugary treats like a hungry monster was enough for him.
He grabs another fork of his own slice and then asks her another question.
“So, what do you do as a Princess back in… Equestria? I bet you must have a nice and prosperous life concerning that expensive regalia and tiara. Just that necklace of yours is probably worth more than my entire house.”
Celestia then looks down towards her necklace. She almost forgot that she is still wearing her golden adornments. Since she isn’t a princess here, she could remove it, and no one would care. Usually, she just feels freer and lighter without it as if the burden of ruling over her country vanishes.
She thinks about it for a moment and then removes her tiara and necklace with her hoofs and finally levitates them onto the couch in the living room.
“Is gold this sparse here? In Equestria it’s a rather common metal, the same goes for gemstones. Anyways, my life is not as prosperous as it may seem from the outside. I rarely have any free time and barely any days off.”
Celestia sighs, clearly not enjoying her princess life as Michael thought so.
“My tasks range from various paperwork to day-court and to raising and lowering the sun for my little ponies. So being here is quite a welcome change to me. Here I don’t even have to raise it, it-”
She wanted to tell him more about how she actually could consider this stay on this planet a vacation, but the human interrupts her with him spluttering some cake from his mouth all over the table.
“Waha Whaat?” He wipes some cake from his lips and chin while laughing intensely.
“Your pony-citizens actually believe YOU move the freaking sun?!” He opens his mouth again and starts wheezing, like a kettle while giving the table a firm smack.
“Bloody Jeeeesus! That’s golden!” he chuckles and wheezes a few more times. Finally, he takes a few deeper breaths and a swig from the wine glass, still shaking his head in disbelief and amusement.
“Oh, Celestia that was a good one, you almost got me!”
He places the glass back onto the table after wiping the cake from the surface and then looks back towards her. She is clearly not amused. She is actually growling a bit. He wonders since when ponies can growl.
Flaring her nostrils and holding her head high, she huffs and narrows her eyes bit at him. For thousand years she has endured the burden of bringing the day to her ponies and here this ape creature insults her in such a way? She doesn’t even know what to say anymore.
“W-Wait you’re actually serious?”
She keeps glaring daggers towards him.
“You do know that the planets rotate around the sun, right?”
Celestia immediately shakes her head in protest.
“I-Impossible! Every filly knows that the sun orbits other planets and I just move the sun in the same way how my ancestors and precursors did. It’s a burden which I would gladly shove onto somepony else!”
Michael just stares at her in disbelief for a while. Clearly, she must be bullshitting him, right?
-R-Right?-
“Okay, okay, let's say you do move the sun. Which is actually impossible but let’s say you hypothetically do. How big is your planet? And how far away and big is your sun?
Celestia sighs and shakes her head. “Our planets diameter is 3575 kilometres. The sun, my sun, is about 200 kilometres away and a good 30 kilometres in diameter.”
“What? That’s crazy tiny! How is such a sun even possible?!” He almost shouts in disbelief.
“And who raises the sun here?”
“F-Freaking no one does! It moves on its own just like everything in the universe!”
Celestia blinks at him in disbelief, wondering how this could be possible. She obviously knows of the existence of other worlds and universes, but the workings of this universe seem rather ridiculous. Having a sun that raises and lowers itself seems like a pipe dream to her.
“I don’t know if I can believe you, Michael.” She says in protest.
Nevertheless, she clearly is intrigued and wants to know more.
“What about your sun then? I assume it’s bigger?”
Y-Yes!” Stutters Michael still in disbelief. He tries to come up with some words which could describe how big the sun actually is, but he then has a different idea.
“Wait here. I have something that can show you how big it is.”
Michael quickly gets up and comes back with a tablet device. Celestia’s curiosity instantly spikes up as the human taps a few times on the thin device. Suddenly various icons and pictures appear on the display. She studies his claw-like appendages moving swiftly and with great dexterity over the glass surface of the device.
Celestia grins in excitement. “It’s just like your moving magicless theatre!”
Michael simply nods while quickly opening up YouTube and searching for a video that compares the size difference between all objects in the known universe, including Earth and its star the sun.
Star Size Comparison 2 - YouTube
The video starts playing with a gentle tune accompanying it. Earth’s natural satellite could be seen with a description of its size. Celestia quickly realizes that this planet’s moon is almost as big as her entire home planet.
Her eyes seem to be glued to the screen as she sucks the information from the video in like a sponge. Inching closer and closer to the piece of to her, alien technology. The video progresses further and quickly shows the difference between the planets Mars and Jupiter.
Celestia gasps from its immense size.
“Is this information true?”
She glances towards Michael, and he simply nods. Looking back towards the video she finally sees the Earth’s sun. To her it's massive and even her entire home planet would be merely a tiny speck compared to it. But what baffles her even more are the various other suns which seem to exist in this universe. She feels her wings tensing up as she shudders, the video still continuing showing bigger and bigger objects.
More stars could be seen, each one star topping the size of the previous one by several magnitudes. Celestia grips her glass of wine with a hoof tightly, almost clinging onto it. Her so usually happy soft smile on her muzzle fades as she stares and stares, clearly trying to take in this new information.
She, Princess Celestia, the bringer of the sun and all light, suddenly feels so tiny and unremarkable. She has lived for over two thousand years but right now everything she knows is nothing but insignificant compared to this huge universe here.
Michael just looks at her, not saying anything for the moment. As the video fades out, Celestia just stares at the now black screen of the device, the gentle chirping of the crickets could be heard while she gulps. She seems to be in thought and conflict for a while but then looks with her big eyes towards Michael.
He gives her a melancholic smile. “I had the same expression on my face when I first watched this video.”
She then stares at her empty glass of wine, not blinking for quite a long time.
“Do you want some more wine?.”
She merely nods and finally blinks again.
“Yes please.”
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Welcome to Astronomy, Tia.
As always, keep up the good work, mellonin
Nothing like a good astronomy video to break your brain and make you feel utterly irrelevant. Have another:
THAT'S!, something sobering, definitely
To be fair that would be considerably more traumatizing to someone who actually does move their celestial bodies.
Not enough wine in the house.
Had the same reaction, sort of. When you realise just how big the universe is, you start to think and believe that nothing you do in life is going to have a huge impact.
10945494
Instead of focusing on how small i am when watching these kinds of videos i instead focus on how beautiful and amazing the stars are and so ive never really felt that small
Which makes you wonder if gravity on Equus is supplemented by magic due to the much smaller size.
10945883
That has always been my head canon, since it has been confirmed how small the ponies are.
luna would have a fit with the size of the moon XD
Some simple calculations can be done based on canon:
An alicorn with 4xCelestia's power got punched through a mountain and barely felt it. That was roughly equivalent to a normal workout for Goku or Superman.
So, you've got to figure that Celestia's at least counted as "being close to up there" alongside many of top level beings in most comic-book genres. She might not be able to match or beat Superman by herself, but she should be able to hold her own for a few hours at least.
In regards to the car, it might have knocked her off her feet from simply being surprised, but more likely she hardly felt it (even Superman's been knocked about some when he wasn't expecting it).
Honestly, as much as you want.
You could say that her alicorn constitution makes her practically immune. Or you could go the opposite and say that earth-made alcohol beverages are just stronger than Equestrian-made and she could get tipsy after a few sips. Or anywhere in-between.
It's really up to you. Just make sure that alicorns can handle more than "regular" ponies and everyone will be happy.
I'm enjoying the story.
ACASC looming in the background is making me nervous. Why can't Michael quit his job?
I like that you made Equestria's sun so small. That actually makes more sense that Celestia moves it around her planet.
10945121
I would have gone for something a bit more silly...
But if it was twilight?
But you can't forget the original movie. I remember watching this at the Washington Museum of Technology as a kid in the early 80's. It blew my mind...
It's been confirmed that Equestria's Sun is the same size as ours.