Chapter 12 : Twilight's Shadow
Monday October 11th
A few things had happened for Twilight over the last few days, albeit nothing worth much note.
Alice came and went whenever she could, arriving with gifts and things she would give to Twilight Sparkle. After the fourth day of that, Twilight felt she had to politely request that Alice stop. Amongst simple guilt, she also just couldn’t think of a good reason to wear a t-shirt that said ‘my milkshake bring all the boys to the yard’. The once-unicorn couldn’t figure out what that meant to begin with.
Others were a little more acceptable to her, such as one shirt with somepony named 'Spiderman' adorning the front, or another that depicted her friends from Ponyville holding signs saying various, silly things. Twilight had, admittedly, nearly knocked over Alice in a hug upon receiving the latter gift.
Still, she mostly preferred the plain shirts and simple attire that Jo had bought for her. Their one shopping day together at the nearby human mall a couple days prior, fully showing her human culture first hand, had been fascinating. It had mostly been for clothes, but Twilight had been able to convince Jo to make a small visit to a few other shops, including a hardware store with all sorts of fascinating technology ranging from computers to actual robotics within it. Sadly, their trip had been brief, though still very interesting. Perhaps getting to speak to a few other humans and being surrounded by so many all at once had been the most captivating, and jarring part.
That day had been fun. It had been simple, too, but a good time overall for Twilight. They had also purchased many of the very odd undergarments that humans seemed to use, which Jo had insisted upon. Twilight had been puzzled as to why everyone would wear even more clothes beneath the outer ones, at least until she had tried on one of the articles called a ‘bra’. That one at least made sense after donning it.
There had been a couple of strange encounters at the shopping stores as well, including a few peculiar people noticing the vibrant color of her hair and several comments, one person who even recognized the hair pattern from her depictions in the human television show about her and her friends, and finally an encounter with some human stallions. Jo had threatened to hurt the men were they to keep talking to Twilight. She really hadn't understood the explanation from Jo over why she had acted that way toward them. Even now, she couldn't even think of a reason why Jo had been so offensive, either. They seemed very friendly to talk to, after all. In the end, she had to brush it off as humans being humans.
The last encounter Twilight had at the mall, and it involved one of many machines wandering the mall, was perhaps the oddest. The dialogue she'd had made her very curious to learn more about that specific branch of human knowledge.
All in all, the last few days had been an assortment of trying strange new foods, encountering strange new hobbies and lifestyles, and reading about fascinating sciences which the humans had taken far beyond anything Twilight had ever before encountered. Her mind couldn’t help but become rife with new ideas and improvements to every aspect of them; she needed more.
Twilight may have been stranded across the fabric of reality from home, but at least she had friends and a peaceful environment to enjoy in the meantime, not to mention all of the study material.
Annoyingly enough, Jo, for some reason, acted hesitant to let Twilight use the ‘internet’, that fascinating thing she had been shown on her first day in the house as the ‘Real Twilight Sparkle’ as Jo had put it. She desperately wanted to look at the so-called invention that contained near unlimited knowledge. A million, nay, a quintillion libraries in one.
Every time it came up, though, Jo changed the subject.
Out of respect, Twilight didn’t press the issue. But she knew there was more to the situation, and she did want to find out what.... It seemed to her that it might have something to do with the meat thing, but couldn’t think of a polite way to ask. Humans would have different taboos than ponies, she concluded, and perhaps that was one of them.
For now, Twilight Sparkle entertained herself idly around the house with the wonderful gifts of literary fascination that Jo and Alice had brought her. There were books on physics, which worked a little different on Earth, Mathematics, which remained the same for which she was glad, and many others. She had spent an entire afternoon on the second day reading about the human’s study of geology and tectonics. Or, ‘rock science’ as Jo had called it, earning rolled eyes from the former pony. The best part of it all was that the literature wasn't even just a welcome distraction from her current and awful situation... There might also be something she could use to be found.
It was day ten for Twilight, over a week since she had last seen Equestria, or been a unicorn; or used magic.
Time moved, but slowly.
Twilight heaved a sigh, and set down her book on electronics and circuitry for beginners. She had picked it up just after breakfast. It was the afternoon now, and her joints were uncharacteristically stiff from her latest marathon of study. Ouchouchouch, she winced as several joints popped. Uggh, maybe I should go for a walk and stop with the reading. I can’t believe I’m thinking that, but... Her eyes scanned the ceiling, slowly drifting down to more shelves, and other genres of books. So far, she had only read what Jo had given her. Hmm, actually, maybe a little bit of lighter reading would help.
Twilight had not yet explored very far into the vast, uncharted wilderness of human fiction. From what could be seen on the shelves, Jo owned a collection that spanned many genres indeed. After some looking, however, the majority seemed to cover either “science fiction” or “fantasy.”
While Twilight was still a bit put off by reading something that wasn’t cold hard fact, a look into human entertainment could provide valuable insight into their psychological profile. That alone got her interested. As an added bonus, fiction could be read at leisure, allowing her to relax her posture so she wouldn’t be so stiff. And of course, to a pony such as herself, science fiction sounded like the best kind.
Twilight browsed the titles on the wall, feeling somewhat frustrated that they were difficult to fathom. What could a fictional book titled Nineteen Eighty-Four be about? Or Dune? Perhaps most confusing to her, was The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. She balled her hand into a fist and stuck out the thumb, mimicking the cover of the book. What could this gesture possibly mean? Is this how humans hitchhike?
Another, older novel caught her eye.
“Hmm, Starship Troopers.” Twilight considered it. “I suppose that title seems fairly straightforward.”
Twilight had seen depictions of spacecraft earlier in her indefinite stay on Earth, and it was a subject she had been meaning to investigate further. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to combine that with her foray into human fiction. It would be sciency after all, she considered, wouldn’t it? The book found its way from the shelf and into her grasp where she turned it over in her hands. The cover was pliable, like thick paper. She handled it carefully while reading the large amount of text printed on the glossy front and back covers.
An enduring classic...
A book that continues to be influential to this day, one whose popularity and content haven't been dimmed despite decades of imitations...
One of the greatest works on the moral and philosophical aspects of suffrage, civic virtue, juvenile delinquency, capital punishment, and war...
That sounded like just the kind of light reading Twilight was hoping for. She eagerly opened the book.
“Hey Twi.”
Twilight shrieked and the book fell out of her clumsy human-handed grasp, slapping onto the floor. “Ah, ah, oh dear.” She gulped and turned around.
“Whoa, are you alright?” Jo bent down to pick up the book her Equestrian friend had dropped.
“Oh yes,” Twilight answered, grinning embarrassedly. “You just startled me is all Jo, phew.”
Jo smirked, “Sorry about that, I just wanted to let you know I’m heading over to Alice’s. It's nothing important I think. Will you be alright on your own for a while?”
Twilight retrieved her book from Jo and held it to her chest, still trying to calm her breathing and state of surprise. “Oh, yes of course, is there anything wrong?”
“No,” Jo rolled her eyes and picked up her car keys from a hook on the far wall. “I don’t know what she wants, but she won’t tell me. You can be sure she’ll probably try and follow me home tonight though, so you can ask her yourself. She’s obsessed with hanging around you. I won’t be back for a little while but it shouldn’t be long, salad’s in the fridge, don’t burn the house down!”
Twilight smiled at her friend’s jests—at least she assumed that’s what they were—and called after Jo as she left. “Alright, uhm, drive safe!” She allowed herself a congratulatory smile, happy to have remembered the human farewell. Her brow furrowed a moment later, still distracted from the book held against her chest. Horseapples, that was my chance to ask about this book, she glanced down at it, then sighed and sat back in the chair she used to read. Oh well, I’ll be able to ask when Jo gets back.
A few hours passed. Twilight sat rigidly at attention, eyes wide, fingers clutching the paperback novel. Reading it was like watching a haycart crash in the town square; she didn’t want to see, but couldn’t look away. Such power, such deep emotion inspired by a piece of fiction. All throughout reading it, her mind kept returning to one, disbelieving thought; one crippling conclusion.
Is this really how some humans think?
Twilight came to the last page and put the book down, afraid of its contents, but also reverent of them. It was hard for her to believe that a paper-bound narrative could cause her to think so hard as that one had. Worse, or perhaps better from a research point of view, she now had so many more things to look up about humans.
Twilight stood up and walked back to the bookcase, intent on finding another kind of book, something that could teach and introduce her to humans as a whole. A series of dusty, old encyclopedias leaped out at her from the back-most bookcase of the lot. She knelt down and began tearing them off the shelves, stacking them beside herself.
The mentions of China in the novel led her first to an article about a country. From there, Twilight delved deeper into the study of Communism. She began to realize the parallels between the bugs’ hive mind in the novel and what the author thought of foreign governments.
From Communism, she moved to an occurrence in human history called the Cold War; a figurative great divide across the planet fought through foreign policy and proxy conflicts. Once again, Twilight ran across a word she had focused on while reading the dictionary: Atomic.
She put aside that for a moment, instead trying to figure out how such a worldwide standoff had occurred. Just how or what in human nature had caused such a hate driven act of... she didn’t even know what. Conveniently, Jo had such a history book on her shelf that might explain, and Twilight picked it up.
“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”
The quote struck a chord with Twilight. Surely simple liberty can’t come at such a high price? she thought. As Twilight continued to read, her optimism slowly dimmed. There were documented instances of spying, trespassing, weapons shipments, sabotage, puppet governments, missiles, atomic and otherwise. All of these things were taboo to her world, yes, but more than that, she could never have so much as thought of these events as common, let alone just easily accept them as a reality on Earth.
Twilight put down the history book and reached for another volume of the encyclopedia. She searched and found the page detailing the meaning of the word that had come up so often: atomic.
It was about weapons.
Hundreds of thousands of people died in a place called Japan where they had been used. Many also perished from the aftereffects of poisoning. And that was the result of detonating two comparatively crude bombs. Thousands of even more powerful weapons had been produced and were waiting to be deployed.
Questions in her head formed, seeking explanations. What could have possibly touched off a—Twilight checked the dictionary—arms race? What had Japan done? She found her answer, then pulled another book off the wall, one titled World War Two.
Her eyes moved across the pages, taking in the massive scale of the battles and the incredible effort that people had put into killing one another. However, a particular section of this war of Earth caught her eye. It was labeled Holocaust.
The book slapped shut.
Twilight stared at the hard-covered record of human history for several seconds, trying to decide what to do. Hands shaking, she hesitantly opened the encyclopedia again to do more research.
Jo pointedly ignored the girl chattering to her as they walked up the stairs to her home’s back door.
“Oh my gosh, could you imagine the look on Twilight’s face if we took her to-” Alice cut off, still grinning as Jo whirled around and came face to face with her.
“Alice, let me ask you something, if you were a little purple unicorn from a kid’s show, trapped on a strange world and surrounded by carnivorous aliens, would you rather be trying to get home, or goofing off?” Jo deepened her dark look the longer Alice waited to form a response; the other girl just stared back flatly.
“...So does this mean we’re not going to Disney World then? Because it’s less crowded in February, we could go in February? Oh come on Jo!” Alice threw up her hands as the grumpy woman face-palmed, turned around and went inside without another word. “That’s months from now, and can you blame me for wanting to give her a good time and some fun? How could we go wrong with Disney World!? At the very least we should try something other than just letting her read all day.”
“Aliiice,” Jo moaned despairingly, “would you work with me here? She’s perfectly fine, besides, I don’t have the sort of money to waste on that kind of vacation anyway.” She hung her coat up on the coat rack, eager to be inside out of the autumn wind. It was already unseasonably cold for October.
“You’re the one refusing to work with anypony here...” Alice mumbled back, following the self-declared boss of Twilight Sparkle.
“That’s another thing, enough with the pony-isms, that’s getting on my nerves, even Twilight doesn’t do them all the time-” Jo stepped into the dining room and spotted just the pony they had been talking about. The two women had only been gone a few hours, but it seemed Twilight had reorganized her ‘reading pile’ entirely in that small allotment of time. Not only that, but the laptop was on, and open.
“Hey Twilight, what’s up?” Jo called, already moving around the table, she glanced back at Alice.
The purple-haired house-guest was hunched over the glowing screen of the computer, her fingers gripping the mouse tightly. Twilight was so intent on the web page in front of her that Jo had to clear her throat loudly before she was noticed.
Twilight blinked, then looked up, her eyes still slightly unfocused from staring at the screen and what it had held. “Oh. Hello.”
Glancing at the computer screen, Jo spotted what her friend was looking at. “How did you get to this page?”
Alice hummed as she stepped closer, leaning over to peek at the screen. “Ooooh,” she rolled her eyes up past Twilight and to Jo. Rather than wear the ‘I told you so face”, she put some distance between herself and the other two girls.
Twilight took a moment to process the question. “It’s a long story. I started off reading a book called Starship Troopers. Then I investigated the parameters and some explanations of the book’s events with nonfiction. I just couldn’t believe things could be that bad. Oh Celestia, I couldn’t even believe that fiction could be so horrible.” She stared off into space, then pressed a hand to her swimming head before continuing. “Uggh, anyway, the text just wasn’t conveying the point. The encyclopedias were a start, but I remembered what you told me about the internet and thought that maybe I could find more up to date information.”
Jo could feel a nervous sweat building in the relative warmth of the house, heated for the coming winter. Her winter attire wasn’t helping. “I see...” She looked over at the pile of encyclopedias, desperately wanting to know what Twilight could have looked up in them. If she started with Starship Troopers though, she thought, I can’t imagine where she ended up.
Twilight went on. “Your computer was logged into some website called Netflix. I watched a little bit of... the Starship Troopers movie and was confused, it was nothing like the book. I just now realized that it took my attention away from everything else I was trying to research.” She wore a sick look for a moment, before shaking her head as if trying to rid herself of bad memories.
Twilight sighed and turned back to the computer, clicking through the numerous tabs open in the browser. Surprised that Twilight had learned to use the program so quickly, Jo leaned forward, trying to see what the humanized pony had been up to.
It wasn’t something that she was prepared to see.
The topics of Twilight’s studying ranged from “violence in movies” and progressed all the way to “weapons of mass destruction.” Mixed amongst the various pages were pictures, graphic and detailed. They went far beyond what she had told Jo about.
Along the way, it seemed that Twilight had been reading about other gut-wrenching topics such as environmental ruin due to pollution, AIDS, worldwide poverty, and genocide.
Jo was almost speechless, at a loss for what to say. “Twilight...” she breathed.
The former Equestrian interrupted silence left by the human
"...Your books in the house Jo, most of them are fantasies about war and strife. They're horrible, well, not so horrible because they're just stories, I guess..." Twilight exhaled a heavy breath.
"Really?" Jo asked earnestly, "I guess I wouldn't know, I think I've read two of those things at most." Why did I think she wouldn't read those... "They were my mom's you-"
"What!?" Twilight exclaimed, widened eyes locked unto Jo's surprised form. "You have all these wonderful, glorious, terrifying books and you don't read them at all!?"
Jo stood still, staring back silently at Twilight's shocked expression. She was torn between giving her an incredulous look and laughing out loud, settling on neither. Wow, I tried to hide the horror of man, but not reading my wealth of literature is what sets her off.
"Never mind that though." Twilight shook her head. “What I want to know, is how could you?” she turned away from the computer to fix Jo with a pleading stare. “How is it possible that you can be so self destructive?"
Jo tilted her head the barest centimeter sideways.
Twilight spoke on. "Humans, I mean. You are all the same species even! What could possibly lead to killing each other like this!?” She had read the explanations from the books, but they didn’t make any sense. “Everything I’ve found... What is... At the rate that-”
Jo shook her head and spoke up. “I didn’t want you to find out about this on your own Twilight, or at all if Celestia and your friends came to get you first.” She couldn’t take the look Twilight was giving her and faced Alice instead. The other girl looked as at a loss for words as she felt. “I...I at least didn’t want you to learn about it from a science fiction book,” was all she managed to add.
Twilight’s voice shuddered out her response. “I know the story wasn’t real, Jo. But I’ve also found out just what exactly is. It’s worse.”
“Twilight,” Alice stepped forward, her hands held out to her sides to get the attention on her. “You have to understand, a lot of that stuff is just people being misguided or being mislead into doing what they thought they had to. Violence is the exception, not the rule. People are good-”
Twilight groaned and put her hands over her face. “But shouldn’t they have known better!? While making something like a ‘machine gun’ didn’t the inventors think or consider the millions that would die from its use? I just- There’s too much to consider, I can’t...”
“Is Equestria really perfectly free of this kind of thing? There’s absolutely nothing like any of this, at all?” Jo didn’t want things to go like this. Violence, war, the motives behind it, it’s all so complicated it can’t be talked about so easily. How has Equestria escaped to the point it’s as weird as magic is to us? She chewed her lip, waiting for, and dreading Twilight’s response.
Twilight’s desperate look turned into a frown, and then a weak scowl. “Of course bad things happen, I fight it myself. But not like this, not so much... Millions Jo, millions, that’s more than anypony could ever hope to meet in a lifetime, and you...” She looked back at the laptop, then laid a hand over the screen and closed it. “It’s odd, but in a way, I feel I almost understand the differences between us after looking so deeply.”
The second sentence caught the other two girls off guard, and they looked at one another, then back to Twilight.
“...You do?” Jo took a step back as the taller woman stood up and looked at her. Twilight’s face was weary.
“Yes, I looked into human history, and that led me to discover...things.” Twilight walked around Jo towards the other side of the table, finding and lifting one of the encyclopedias. “Earth, your planet, isn’t bound at all by harmony; it’s all one big fluke, er, no offense... But that much makes perfect sense to me now. Everything from your evolution to your solar system, it's dictated by different laws.” She stared at the pages of the book she had opened, then closed it again with another sighed breath. “From what I can tell, instinct drives you to go on. Sometimes, no matter what. This seems to go for every living thing on Earth, from plants to...to single cell organisms; those things are weird by the way. I got side-tracked at one point after reading about them and tried to determine if there might be a way to confirm that my world's organisms are made up of them as well, but considering my transformation such an experiment on my would be-”
Jo and Alice traded looks while Twilight was distracted, but neither did anything but give the other looks of helplessness. Alice mouthed ‘I told you so’, though.
Twilight shook her head and got back on track. “My point is, stuff is different here, but you all still feel things like we do, as far as I can tell.” Twilight glanced down at her own hands, before shutting her eyes and looking elsewhere. “It’s not completely different. I just-” She looked up at them, speaking more and more quickly. “It seems like everything in your world strives to fight against itself just to survive, rather than innately work together. From the forces that govern your planet, down to the creatures themselves. In the absence of magic, and harmony, you live by other rules. For living creatures at least, I read that it’s called ‘survival of the fittest’.”
Twilight took a step back and smiled. It was an unstable smile and she ran her hands up through her hair while looking at the ceiling. Her voice began to shake and quaver, then weaken. “So, it’s not your fault. It isn’t, you just don’t help one another naturally. You don’t work together like we do, if anything you should be praised for how far you’ve-”
Twilight collapsed into Jo’s arms, already beside her before she fell onto her knees.
Jo felt the other girl shake in her embrace. “Twi’, come on, that stuff’s way bigger than us, don’t worry about humanity-”
“How can you say that? With others suffering out there it’s... I guess we are different.” Twilight tightened her grip on Jo, before changing the subject. “In Equestria, the creatures that seek to destroy or kill wantonly are locked away.” She leaned back, staring into Jo’s equally sad eyes. “They’re kept in Tartarus, because they can’t be helped, no matter what was done.”
The room was quiet while the two different beings held each other’s gaze.
Alice sat with a thump beside them on the hardwood floor, coughed, then spoke. “Whelp, I don’t really want to get locked away in Pony Hell for saying this, but if it came down to killing something to defend my family, or doing nothing and watching them die...I'd kill something."”
Twilight looked over at her, mouth agape.
“I would look for an alternative, but, okay, my point here is that morality is complicated. Surely you and plenty of others have thought about more complicated scenarios than just the best ones possible?” Alice shrugged, she was trying to reach out to Twilight’s deductive side, in hopes of making the conversation more analytical, and less emotional.
Jo looked away for a moment. “Well, Starship Troopers made something clear. ‘Violence has settled more issues in history than has any other factor.’”
“Jeez, that’s cold,” Alice commented, throwing Jo a look. “And since when can you just remember quotes like that off the top of your head?”
“College book report for philosophy,” Jo replied, shrugging weakly. “I talked about how nearsighted and wishful people can be. If there's something mildly favorable to us, we latch onto and are have a tendency to be biased towards its success."
Twilight squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and took a deep breath. "Right." She slowly half stood up again and slid back into her chair. “I’ve done the research, myself, and seen the numbers and statistics. For a long time, human sacrifice for beliefs has decreased a great deal, comparatively. Slavery has been outlawed in most of the world. Public executions are becoming less common...”
Jo watched the other girl’s explanations unfold, and wasn’t sure what to feel on the matter. Sure, thinking about things outside the safety of her home was never welcome, it was easier to not think about them. All she managed to say, and perhaps it wasn’t such a bad question, was, “So what do you think about us Twi’, besides the cold hard facts?”
Alice stood up during the quiet in the room and shrank away, folding her arms in front of herself. She started to speak, then closed her mouth again, unable to decide on what to say.
The pony thought through quiet, before finally speaking again. “What I think, is that your planet needs help, Jo. I’ve already thought of countless things that could be done, with the right organization and scheduling, we-”
Jo shook her head. “Twilight, come on, listen to what you’re saying. We couldn’t possibly hope to help-”
Twilight interrupted her, leaning forward in her chair with a serious expression. “Jo, maybe I couldn’t do it now without abandoning my goal to get home, but...I can’t just ignore this. I’m not sure how you could, or any of you!... Once I get home, I’m speaking to the princess about it, I want to figure something out, I have to. I wouldn’t be a pony if I let this sort of suffering go...left alone.”
“Oh,” Jo’s brain began catching up, and moving past the fears she had felt about Twilight learning these things about humanity. She hadn’t quite expected the pony to react like this, like a caring mother rather than a terrified alien creature. “Well, that’s...probably going to be complicated, but sure. Still, I’m sorry you had to see any of that stuff Twi’, would you like to take a break and-”
Twilight interrupted her again, a hard-thinking expression pointed at the ground this time. “It will be complicated, a flawless plan needs to come together, and from what I’ve read, people need to be convinced of that. Everything I’ve read suggests that humans cannot stand being told what to do by one another, to the point they’re deathly paranoid of others. We couldn’t just come over and start fixing things like the pollution, even just that might offend certain nations. We’ll need to make overly complicated trade agreements, negotiations. Many of your planet’s countries won’t mind, and I think that Celestia will be able to handle it, not to speak on her behalf. So-”
“Uh, Earth to Twilight.” Jo waved a hand in front the purple-haired girl’s eyes.
“Come on Twilight, don’t think too hard on it,” Alice added in. They both gave Twilight a disheartened look in an attempt to snap her out of it.
“I...maybe you’re right, I’m sorry. It’s just, I’ve never encountered something like this, it seems insurmountable, impossible to me. A pony could work the rest of their lives and not put a dent in this.” Twilight leaned forward until she was holding her head in hands, staring at the floor. “You didn’t answer me earlier, Jo, how can humans be like this? Why would free thinking beings choose to hurt so much?” Her hands interwove with her hair, a sensation that subtly reminded her of her own humanity.
Jo stood awkwardly, feeling put on the spot. It was not often that one person had to answer for the whole human race. “I think that’s your answer there, Twi’. We’re more free thinking maybe, if not, we’re just inclined to fight more.” She nervously ran a hand through her own hair. “I guess we’re doing our best, overall.”
Twilight quietly muttered a response. “Doing your best?” She mouthed the words a second time to herself.
Alice took a step closer to the Equestrian. “Twilight, I understand that things aren’t nearly as peaceful or perfect here as they are in Equestria, but I do speak for everyone on the planet when I say thank you for giving us a chance.” The room was quiet for a minute while they awaited the former pony’s response.
Twilight kneaded her hands against one another, until abruptly she stood up. Her legs carried her swiftly across the floor, past Jo and Alice. “Jo, is it alright if I use your computer room? It has a door, and I can be alone there.” The room she spoke of was just beside her bedroom, and it would give her the solitude she felt was needed right then. She stopped at the doorway and looked back.
Jo furrowed her brow and held Twilight’s gaze for a moment before answering. “Yeah, sure Twilight. Take all the time you need. We’re here if you need us.”
Twilight nodded, looking at both of her friends before turning to go. “Is it okay if I use the laptop in there too?”
“It’s a desktop, but yeah Twilight, go ahead.” Jo put a hand over her mouth, admitting defeat to herself over the entire conversation, and not saying anything more.
“...I’m sorry girls, I—” Twilight bit her lip, then pressed on after she found the right words to say. “I’m not upset, I don’t even understand these things. I only see them from my perspective. I need more of that I think, perspective.” She poked her fingers together idly, opened her mouth to say that it was all alright.... Then she spun around instead, and walked into the next room, leaving the humans behind herself.
Twilight clicked the door to the room she had taken sanctuary in shut, exhaling her breath and taking a few final, weary steps towards the nearby chair. She plonked into its confines unceremoniously, still fetlock deep in her own thoughts.
Well, now what. The ‘nails’ on her fingers, as they were called, clicked noisily on the room’s desk. Twilight held them up to her face and inspected them carefully. Huh, these look so strange from up close. Moving them away again, she found they looked quite different, smoother when at arm’s length away. They're like claws, but not really. She sighed, unable to think of a good allegory for humans, their nails and comparing them to their morality.
Twilight blinked her eyes rapidly, deciding to peruse the internet again, but this time for positive things. The computer warmed up while she thought over what exactly could give her a better look at the beings that had taken her in and given her a warm place to live.
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Awesome chapter!
Link to the canon porn story is passworded.
Twilight found the darker parts of human history she just needs to find more or less the good of human history.
She shall soon learn that humanity is capable of great things both good and evil.
Twilight wants to look for "positive" things, eh? I can already see her typing in something like "love" and wind up with entirely unexpected results.
Now, may I ask you a question about the future of the story? Since Twilight mentioned that she wants to help humanity, are Jo and Alice going to bash her skull in with a sledgehammer because "OMG Twilights wants to enslave humanity!" or can I hope things will go the more logical way? I'm only asking because I read a fanfic here some time ago that also had Twilight winding up on earth, learning about the difficulties of humanity, and wanting to fix it. Her hosts then did the first thing everybody would think of in order to avoid an "alien invasion!": smash her skull in with a sledgehammer, slit her throat and dump her body in the ocean. Because everyone would do the same thing. What's that? Talking to her first? Nah, that's not what sane, rational human beings do. Skull-smashing is the totally obvious first choice.
If it looks like I'm still not over it, well, it's because I'm still not over it!
What a load of bulltrout. 
Please have Jo and Alice do us all proud and show humanity's rational side. I'll be ever so grateful.
Dr. Richard Gatling wrote that he created it to reduce the size of armies and so reduce the number of deaths by combat and disease, and to show how futile war is. Naive, perhaps, but he meant well.
2917432
I'll take logical for 500.
To me, what you described sounds like lazy, amateurish writing.
In the end, it's all about not having enough. Not enough land, not enough food, not enough chapters of this fic, etc. Those are the reasons we fight each other. Save us from the fighting , Merlos.
2917546
I'll work on it, it's hard be everypony's last enduring hope.
2917476
You probably already knew this, but he was making a reference to another story where the humans Twilight meets do exactly that after she starts rambling on about how she and the rest of ponykind would be able to "help" humanity (it ended up sounding pretty damn ominous to the humans involved, though their reaction was still stupid).
Your Twilight seems more sensible in how she would try to help, I have to say.
2917562
Twilight's a smart cookie, more importantly than he characterization I don't want people to get the impression that I'm structuring the fic around that, or even her success on anything at all. I want to maintain that sense of conflict and the risk of failure more than anything. Hopefully I can keep on delivering these emotions.
There are a lot of plots in this story (hyuck) a lot like some of my favorite fantasy novels, keeping them all in order and balanced is a challenge.
2917476
The story about the lighthouse keepers? (I can't remember the name, darn it.) It's not lazy or amateurish; it's well-written. To start with a counter-intuitive premise and then make it seem plausible and give it emotional impact requires skill.
She's definitely wrong about that. Humans are social animals, and very good at working together in groups to achieve their goals. It's just that those goals often involve taking something from another group.
2917432 I had severe issues with that fic myself. Especially how the main human character after spending a couple of days talking to Twilight, playing chess with her and discussing humanity suddenly decided based on a couple of statements that she's the forerunner of an invasion and decided to go ahead with that.
2917647
I know the name but I rather not advertise. Starts with "Bib", though.
It was kind of interesting. What happens if you put two lighthouse keepers that have a tad too much faith in their religious books and are not really into any kind of sf or fantasy, together with Princess Twilight Sparkle, the Overzealous Corrector. I mean, really? Say that you will help 'tame' the entire planet and that those 'helped' will not oppose because "we can make tornadoes" or something to that effect? Not smart... specifically saying it to not really emotionally normal beings(months in isolation will do that to you). Then again, she did have biased information source aka a book...
Derp, what are we doing here? We're about to start active flame about it...
Hmm... Oh!
I liked this chapter!
ANOTHER!
2917647>>2917659
Sorry I haven't read it myself, I merely mean to say that based on the payoff he shared with me that it seems like an awful lot of effort to go to to say you would kill a pony before letting them come in and tell you how to run your life.
It probably is well written though overall, it sounds very emotion driven. It's just a shame when something like that will do a 180, either to stay surprising or because the author was using it as a conduit to convey and opinion, rather than trying to tell a story to entertain. (Edit:Not to say this author did that btw, I havne't read that story, lol.
oh Twilight Celestia couldn't do anything to help us and I would rather be a violent human the a peaceful pony cause its way more fun
but that is just my dark mind talking also humans might be more violent because we do not have a pony dictator who is immortal although she is nice dictator ,but she is a dictator non the less .
2917731
Amen brother, YEEEEE-HAW, 'MERICA!
>>>Violence, war, the motives behind it, it’s all so complicated it can’t be talked about so easily. How has Equestria escaped to the point it’s as weird as magic is to us? >>>
I think that should be self-apparent with a tiny thought experiment.
Think of how much damage a single terrorist could do with the ability to teleport himself and objects.
Weaponized magic is horrific almost beyond comprehension.
2917724 Nah, it's not poorly written, but it pretty much made me stop reading fics for a while. And I got pretty angry at it just because of the way things ended up, and because, well even with the situation as presented it seemed as a huge stretch.
2917801
What disturbed me the most, personally, is that a lot of readers said they'd probably do the same thing if they'd been in that situation. People freely admitted their first attempted solution would be murder! I don't... I mean... WHAT?!
2917835
Yikes. I doubt even a tenth of them would go through with it, but still, yikes.
2917843
I know, right? I mean, look at this:
derpicdn.net/media/W1siZiIsIjIwMTMvMDIvMTcvMjNfMzlfMTBfMzQ1XzI0NzExMF9fVU5PUFRfX3NhZmVfdHdpbGlnaHRfc3BhcmtsZV9hbmltYXRlZF9zb2xvXzUwZmNkZmY1YTRjNzJkM2MzMzAwMDFhNV9mbG93ZXJzX2FydGlzdF9wb255c2hvdF81MTE5OTEwZjdmMTIzYjhmMWQwMDA0ODdfcHJpbmNlc3NfdHdpbGlnaHQuZ2lmLmdpZiJdXQ/247110__safe_twilight-sparkle_animated_solo_princess-twilight_spoiler-s03e13_50fcdff5a4c72d3c330001a5_flowers_artist-ponyshot_5119910f7f123b8f1d000487.gif
How could the thought of harming such a cute cuddly thing even cross people's minds, even if she said some possible omnious-sounding things? If I had such a thing showing up on my doorstep telling me she wanted to help humanity, I wouldn't be grabbing for a sledgehammer, I'd be grabbing my heart!
Help us? Twilight, you ponies wouldn't have the slightest bloody clue what to do, including Celestia.
You're from a universe where harmony and peace are literally laws of nature. You were handed everything on a silver platter, how would you possibly know how to go about 'fixing' us when none of you ever had to work at obtaining what you want to bring to us?
This universe runs on causality. The cold, hard imperatives of survival are what made us. We may cause ourselves a lot of grief, but it has also allowed us to become the dominant species on a planet that made the Everfree Forest look like a vacation resort. Look up some of the megafauna of a few million years ago if you don't believe me.
2917873
Something about those wings is making the idea tempting...
2917875
Oooh, strong with the force, this one is.
2917835 Ugh yeah. I can't understand that. Even forget ponies, knowing Twilight, and any of that. You're dealing with a first contact scenario of a visitor from another world, clearly possessing some power and indicating that her people will find her. Her saying a couple of things that make you uncomfortable would lead me to trying to talk it out, either tactfully or directly. Murder is so beyond the pale, which is honestly what I hated the most about the story.
The main character was set up as "normal" and spent several days getting to know Twilight, have conversations, discuss things, share knowledge, games of chess, everything. For him to just jump from that to "we ought to kill her" is well not very sane of a reaction. Even playing it up with how Twilight is saying things, it's not a normal progression.
And added even if you think she's posing this horrible threat to Earth, which I don't really see as having been established, her people are looking for her! How is that supposed to de-escalate the thing you're fearing?
2917909
Yeah, and then there's also the fact that Celestia shows up and forgives them for murdering her student! When I read that I slammed my head so hard against my desk my desk snapped in two! She should be taking them back with her and put them on trial for murder! Not just go: "Oh, well, I understand why you did it, so it's alright, I'll forgive you." Ugh, it still upsets me thinking about it. Can't believe that story made it on EqD, too.
2917908
Heresy! No, sacriledge! Burn the heretic! 
Merlos, how could you!
2917835>>2917843
I only read two chapters of that fic and then lost interest, so all I know about it is what I read in these comments. But it sounds to me like she told them somehting along the lines of: "We'll remake this world into something better. Don't worry, it's for your own good. And we have godlike powers, so it's a done deal.".
I don't know about you, but I don't want an invasion of aliens bent on 'fixing' us. That's what makes, among other things, the Conversion Bureau so repugnant to me.
2917744 not American but whatever suits you.
You know, it's weird. This is the second update I've read in as many days for a story in which Twilight appears in the human world as a human and the update was about Twilight discovering World War II, the Holocaust, and all of humanity's dirtiest secrets. If it happens again tomorrow, I'm going to freak out. (Especially since I'm pretty sure I'm not tracking a third story of that nature.)
2917940
Ah, hehe fair enough. Still, it's an interchangeable term as far as I'm concerned. Basically it's synonymous with acting like an idiot, knowing it, not caring, then going out to have fun somewhere that might get you in trouble.
2917935
Indeed, same. Maybe as a little disclaimer I should say that isn't what I'm hinting towards, I have far more interesting and not yet done plotlines in mind.
2917949>>2917949 Ya your right looking back at my comment I do sound very Idiotic
2917967
I didn't see that at all myself. If nothing else then we are together.
2917935
But would the first thing that comes to your mind in order to prevent that from happening be to grab a sledgehammer and smash her skull in? Or would you at least try to talk or reason with the alien visitor first and try to explain why it's not a good idea? That's the issue here, not whether or not people accept or don't accept Twilight's offer. In fact, if anything, by having the human characters immediatly resort to murder to fix the problem, the author ironically proved Twilight was right in humanity needing help. But again, it's not the issue of needing help or not, the issue is that a lot of people apparently won't even try to talk or use reason, but immediatly opt for murder, as if that's normally what first comes to mind. That's what I had (and still have) such a problem with.
2917979 Well anyway continue the good work
2917908
Ummm, thanks... I think? Is that good or bad? Am I going to Pony Hell now?
2918000
Hah, nooo, I was just saying you are very astute and make a good point. I hope to work stuff like that into the story in spurts myself, hopefully I can pull it off.
2917981
Well, since we apparently did start that whole debate...
While I agree with you about so many people resorting to murder... it's... not funny, really. I choose to believe it was a poor attempt at joke... please, let me have that...
As for those two humans... well, I do not consider them sane. They were lighthouse keepers. Secluded, only having one another to really talk to, apparently completely not into fantasy or any kind of science fiction, suddenly presented with a being of supposedly genocidal intentions... it's not like those people who started wars on Earth were monsters that you could identify on the spot. They did managed to make people follow them relatively peacefully... so she could be one like that. Then that dumb threat surfaced and they panicked...
I am not defending them. I just say that I am capable of understanding their completely irrational and panicked behaviour.
It did left a vile taste in my mouth, though. Yet the story itself got me thinking and that is something I cannot glance over...
2917875 This comment, in a strange way, makes me proud to call Earth home. Sure the place can suck, but dang it, we're survivors.
2917432
The lighthouse keeper dudes? I loved that story, because it was so plausible. Isolated zealots rarely make wise descisions.
2917934
Celestia's forgiveness is the ultimate proof that Twilight was right and humanity needed to be fixed.
It is meant to be a cautionary tale exploring the historical human reaction to the strange, the different, the new.
In the 1600s slavery was mainstream and people burned baskets full of kittens for fun. Society changes, and the people within change at different rates. There will always be reactionaries, conservatives that try and slow change; just as there will always be those how seek to upset the status quo. Both are motivated by fear: one of changing and one of not.
Ah yes, humanity as a whole. On average reasonably intelligent and rather pleasant, if a bit crude, but with enough variance to keep things "interesting."
I hope Twilight doesn't end up meeting a real crazy
Merlos, please tell me you will also have Twilight see the better part of humanity, like the thousands that gave their lives trying to stop the Holocaust.
2918453
I liked the idea of using Celestia to help with our diplomatic problems. She is a neutral party who one of their most important value is harmony. The way I see it would be a little like the way The Federation of Planets offered to help in the same way in Startrek.
2917949
Didn't think you were. It was really more along the lines of a 'reply' to Twilight. She seems to have been getting an inkling of the reality of our world, but not thought through the implications. Like, say, if she does manage to make us all harmonious and shit. We'd still be living in a Darwinian universe, and sooner or later either the planet we live on of the rest of the universe, once it gets around to noticing us, would eat us alive.
Speaking of which, there's something I noticed. According to Twilight there's no single-celled organisms in Equestria. I'm becoming more and more convinced that place (probably the whole universe) was artificially created.
2918009
Also, holy crap, that's some response time there!
2917981
Playing Devil's Advocate, if I truly believed that was the only way to prevent it from happening, I might be able to bring myself to do it. If I thought that my species' one and only chance was to get rid of her now without warning and pray the other monsters never find this place. And honestly, most people wouldn't be able to reason it out why it is bad in a way that she would accept. Pretty much anyone would however be intensely resentful (in a "better dead than red" sort of way) of someone trying to forcibly make them 'better'. Sounds to me like they panicked.
2918066
Yeah. "Though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I shall fear no evil, for I am the baddest motherfucker in the valley." That's us. To the point where already hundreds of thousands of years ago, the only thing that could seriously threaten a human tribe, was other humans.
In fact, war may have been a factor in us evolving intelligence. A big brain takes an enormous amount of energy to run (for us, it takes up 1.5% of our body mass and consumes a whopping 20% of all calories) so it's usually not worth it for a species to get smarter beyond a certain point. But if you've got a bunch of apes running around, constantly trying to outdo each other, giving a direct evolutionary advantage to being smarter...
2918504
Hrrg -.O
Message me if you just want to know that bit, I can't think of anymore ways to spell it out.
2918472
Doesn't the Federation stay the hell out of other, less developed, planets' business because every time they got involved it turned into a disaster?
2917875
I sometimes wonder if a human in Equestria would just go insane rather than grin and frolic with the happy happy ponies. So much peace and harmony would, at the very least, grate on a chaotic human's nerves. And the random musical numbers would NOT help. Dan vs Ponies is far too accurate a portrayal of a typical human having lived in Ponyville for too long.
Too bad George Carlin wasn't still around. I bet he could set Twilight straight.
2918518
My, that's some vein popping up on your forehead there, that can't be healthy.
Will it be in the story eventually? I mean, you sound like I missed something really obvious, but at this point I can think of several options for the nature of the Equestrian cosmos.
2918678
Oh hell yes. George Carlin's grand tour of Equestria, leaving massive increases in pony suicide in it's wake.
Oh yeah, it's Pony Hell for me. I regret nothing!