A person appears in Equestria and the choice of rescueing it or destoying it lies in his hands
This story is about Martin, a 17 year old teenager that ends up in Equestria. The one responsible for all of this is Discord. There will be hardships to overcome and unknown plots by Discord to disrupt, but it will all boil down to one choice, The Choice.
Mesa gots prereader: Tsaukpaetra Will add tags and ponies as they come up in the story.
He opened his eyes slowly, forgetting for just a second where he was, then it came to him; it was the last day of school, finally the last day, the one day he has been looking forward to. He just had to cycle to the damn place at 6 in the morning because of the distance and he’ll be done. He just has to listen to some boring speech about how good the year’s been going and then freedom. And after that he still has to turn in his books afterwards though. ‘Why do I have to carry all my books there in one haul. Just make it 2 or 3 days, much lighter.’
He got out of his bed and got dressed. He walked downstairs and ate some cereal before he grabbed his backpack and stuffed it with books, ‘ugh it’s like 10 kilos or something, way too heavy to be legal’. He manned up and grabbed it, grabbing a bottle of water as he went out to his bike. ‘On I go, once more to the boring school’. And I rode away on my cycle.
Discord sensed something, a large magical burst. It appeared that Princess Celestia teleported away, and a long way too. Delightful, he thought, perfect for my plans. ‘now I must act quickly ’, he thought, his mind drifting along, as his body was still encased in stone.
There still was a large amount of magical residue left for his plans, as the Princess performed quite the advanced spell and didn’t bother to clean up nicely, ‘tsk, tsk, tsk’, he thought, ‘way to sloppy of her’. He sculpted the teleportation spell to be more like a door , or rift, in space, and to have another place to go to, or rather another dimension.
He cycled along the road, past some houses as he entered the densely wooded part of the journey, the backpack cutting into his shoulder, regretting the decision not to buy that crate for the front rack. He saw something shimmer ahead, but discarded it as a shimmer or an illusion. He cycled on, not knowing what the shimmer actually was. He closed his eyes and hummed a melody from minecraft, a game he liked to play, a he felt a strange sensation fall over him.
He looked up and saw that the scenery has changed, he was cycling along neatly trimmed and ordered rows of apple trees, a fence around them. He never saw it before, ‘strange, I never saw these trees before, and they sure didn’t appear overnight. It must be a stupid trick of my mind.’ He thought as he discarded the strange difference in scenery.
He cycled along of the seemingly endless rows of trees, looking at his watch from time to time to check the time. After an hour he saw a large red house, a road leading to the road he was cycling on and a large sign at the entrance that read: Sweet Apple Acres. That name reminded him of something, but he couldn’t figure out what.
He thought that he was lost, and looked on the gps on his phone, but I didn’t have any signal. ‘strange, almost everywhere here you have coverage, maybe there’s a problem somewhere.’ He thought about going to the orchard, but decided not to as he could see that the road kept on going, and he wasn’t too fond of going to complete strangers and ask them something.
He cycled for about 15 minutes before he saw a town rise up in his sight, ‘finally, a town. I can look at a map or go to the tourist’s office.’ He cycled into town, he all of the sudden saw that the houses consisted of a large array of colors and some were built at seemingly impossible angles. He decided to cycle on, although a bit puzzled about how the houses looked.
Then he saw a large tree coming up, ‘Ah, I can park my bike here and look for something or someone to give me directions.’ He locked his bike in front of the tree as he noticed that is had doors and windows. He looked inside and saw rows and rows of books stacked in bookcases lining the wall. ‘there must be a map inside here somewhere.’ He thought as he tried the door and found it surprisingly open.
He went inside and looked around, no one to be seen around. He checked the library out, ‘hmm, everything is so small and broad, probably build for a midget.’ He saw a map on the wall and looked at it. He thought: this is a weird map, I doesn’t look like earth at all, I says Equestria on top. Well, at least they speak English hear. Maybe they have some books around here.’
He looked at the shell named maps, but only saw the same map, albeit some were more detailed and he saw names as: Ponyville, Appeloosa, Fillydelphia and Manehattan. ‘this place is some cruel joke, isn’t it. Was it you Thomas!’ he jelled, thinking his friends pranked him, again.
A certain mare who was sleeping upstairs waked at the noise, “hmm, five more minutes, Spike, then I’ll come.” A yell came from downstairs: “Whoever is doing this to me, they can stop now.” She was shocked awake, ‘ maybe there’s a burglar downstairs, should I wait or confront him’, after a few seconds of thinking she decided to go downstairs, but not without a heavy tome to smack any possible thieves.
She slowly descended the staircase, tome ready to strike in the grip of her magic. She crawled around the corner to see a human swinging a map book around for no good reason, to protect her book she smacked him hard against the temple with het tome and he fell down, he just saw a purple pony fill his already darkening vision and he muttered just before passing out: “what the fuck are you?”
A/N: this is my first fic and I would like some feedback in the comments, not about the story, just about the grammar and such(English isn’t my native languish, so). Also, should I continue to write this story or just stop and begin fresh.
(A/N: the story takes place before the opening episodes of season 2)
Martin woke up and noticed that he was on the couch, before he opened his eyes he recalled what happened earlier. He went into the strange looking town, into the library, found some weird maps of Equestria, whatever that maybe, and then he was struck on the back of his head with something which was wielded by a strange looking thing, ‘it kinda looks like a pony’, he thought.
He opened his eyes and looked around. He noticed that he still was in the library which he had walked in to earlier.
He looked around to see the creature which had attacked him earlier standing by a desk and appeared to be writing something.
Twilight was writing a letter to princess Celestia about the strange bipedal creature that had entered her home this morning.
He looked very strange with the clothes he was wearing. Because he had reacted with “what the fuck are you”, she thought that the bipedal creature must be new to Ponyville, or even to Equestria.
Dear Princess Celestia,
This morning a strange creature entered my house, because it was swinging a book around I may have knocked him out with another book.
At the moment he lies unconscious on the couch, I ask you to come and question this creature or take him to Canterlot to gain knowledge or simply contain any possible treats.
Your faithful student Twilight Sparkle
When she finished her letter she wrapped it and went upstairs to wake Spike up to have him send the letter.
However when she turned around she found the creature nowhere to be seen.
Martin ran out of the door, toward his bike, which he had parked there. He jumped on it an began pumping the pedals as past as he could.
‘I don’t know what that was, but I’m going somewhere else. Maybe at that orchard I cycled past, I could ask for directions out of crazy town.’ He thought.
He kept going down the road, even though he heard shouts and saw flashes of light zoom past him.
When he reached the orchard, ‘Sweet apples acres, wasn’t it. Dumb name.’ He continued until he was at the barn. He stopped and jumped off his bike, heart pumping. He ran toward the door and knocked. No response at all.
He figured that they must be in the orchard, because it was a farm they were up early.
He walked into the first row of trees, he jelled “Is anyone out here who can give me directions.”
“Sure I can, stranger.” A voice said.
He looked around to see an orange pony look at him as if he was an alien. ‘This is weird.’ He thought ‘who in their right mind would dress up a pony with a hat and dye the mane blond, some weird people live here.’
“Well, what can I help ya’ll with?” the pony asked.
He jumped a couple feet in the air. “You can talk.”
“Well, of course I can, why wouldn’t I speak?”
“Because horses aren’t supposed to talk.”
“And who made you think I’m a horse?”
“Well, you kinda look like one.”
“I don’t even know what in tarnation yure talking ‘bout, and now you get off ma orchard before I buck you off.”
“Buck isn’t even a real word, stupid pony.”
“Now I suggest that you stop insultin’ me before I’m gonna go get Bigmac.”
“Why should I, I don’t take orders from a pony, and why are you going to get a hamburger.” He asked, angry and puzzled at the mention of fast-food.
“Get off ma orchard, right now.” She asked angrily.
“No, I’m not going until I get what I want, and I sure aren’t getting it from a stupid pony.”
“That’s it.” She turned around and bucked him strait in the face, knocking him out cold.
When he has fled the scene she immediately started pursuing the creature. Not wanting to lose a new and strange project, she wanted to learn from it. So she ran, shouting at it and shooting sleeping spells, wondering how he could go so fast on that metal construction of his.
If she lost him and made the Princess come for nothing, she would surely stop being her mentor and that would be very bad.
When she saw him got to Sweet apples acres, she thought it was very weird. ‘Why would he go to Applejack, does she know him and didn’t tell me. Of course not, it’s totally not Applejack to hide something from her.’
She approached the scene, walking past the strange metal contraption, noticing that there was some sort of bag strapped to the front. She would ask the creature what was in it later.
She then saw Applejack buck him to the ground.
She approached Applejack and asked “What did you do that for?”
“He was insultin’ me and ma wits.”
“Ok, I see. Maybe we should get him to my library, I already sent a letter to the Princess. ”
“Alright suga’cube. You do that and I’ll continue bucking thes’ apples”
“Ok, I’ll see you later then.”
“Goodbye.”
Twilight then picked the strange creature up with her magic and teleported them both to her library. Where she placed some safety spells on him so that he won’t cause any commotion.
Martin woke up only to see that he couldn’t move his body, just his head, he shouted “Hey, is anybody there, besides these stupid ponies.”
“Nope, just one stupid pony and a dragon” a voice said sarcastically.
Twilight and Spike then walked into the chamber.
Martin thought for just a moment, then started to laugh. “It’s just a baby, he looks like he couldn’t hurt a fly, literally.”
“Hey, that’s not true.” Spike said, clearly offended.
“Stop it you guys, no need to fight.” Twilight intervened.
“Ok, I’ll stop.” Martin answered.
“Good, since your new to Ponyville and Equestria I shall teach you how to behave properly and not make a fool out of yourself.”
“Wait a minute, did you just said Equestria?”
“Yes, why? I’m sure you know Equestria, you’re in it.”
“No, I’m from Earth and was on my way to school when I somehow ended up in this place.”
“That’s weird, how would you get here without knowing it?”
“I dunno, figure it out miss Smarty-pants.”
“Hey, don’t go calling Twilight names.” Spike interrupted.
“I call whoever I want whatever I want, lil-baby.” Martin said back.
Spike got angry at the mention of him getting called a baby, he didn’t care if this was a project for Twilight. He then jumped at Martin swinging his claws at him. Making small cuts along his arms.
“Ow, that hurts.” Martin said, clutching his hand at the cuts.
“I don’t care, you should have stopped calling me names.”
“I’m sorry, did I hurt your little feelings.”
Spike threw a punch at him, hitting him right between the eyes.
Martin woke once more on the couch unable to move his body, but this time an large white pony stood over him.
He looked up to see an pony with wings, a horn and a crown. ‘Must be the ruler or something, I maybe should keep the insults to a minimum around here.’
“What are you and how did you get here, creature, and why are you insulting my subjects?” The Princess asked.
“Why should I say anything, I won’t say anything until I am released!” Martin said aggravated.
“I can agree with those terms, creature” She said, lifting the spell. “Now will you tell us who and what you are and where you came from?”
“My name is Martin, I’m 17 years old and come from England. I am a human. That enough info.”
“What is a human and where is England?” Twilight asked.
“Human, home sapiens, the only sentient race on Earth. And England is a county off of the coast of Europe.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re at the moment in Equestria, in Ponyville to be precise. I’ve never heard of a human and this Earth.” Twilight responded.
“I don’t think I’m on Earth anymore.” Martin said.
“But how did you ended up here then?”
“I dunno, I just got on my cycle and went to school when I ended in Ponyville.”
“What is this cycle you speak of?” Celestia asked.
“The large metal thingy outside, ring any bells.” Martin responded.
“Ok, but why did you ran when you were in here earlier?” Twilight asked the human.
“Because there was an, for me, alien creature sitting at a desk, so I thought that it was an illusion, so I ran to the orchard I saw on my way here to ask for directions.” He responded.
“Maybe you can send him back, Princess.” Twilight suggested.
“If that’s is alright with Martin then I’ll try it.”
“I’m fine with it, send me back to where I came from!” He shouted.
Celestia charged her horn as it began to glow bright, then a bolt shot outwards to Martin, hitting him right in the chest. Then her magic sputtered and faded, then just stopped altogether. Martin then fell to the ground with a thud.
“I’m afraid something is keeping him here, or maybe the spell doesn’t work with humans?” Celestia said.
Martin stood up, hair slightly sizzling, and said “maybe you should stop with the magic for a second. I don’t want to get fried.” Martin said to Celestia.
Twilight then yelled “Hey, I got a spell here that might work.” She then shot a bolt towards Martin, not paying attention to what he said before, and with the same results as before, only this time he didn’t have any eyebrows left. “Fuck me.” He said before falling forward knocking him out again.
Twilight said nervous “maybe we shouldn’t try any spells on him right now and just let him sleep.”
Celestia answered “I think that that is the best for now too, just let him sleep and let me know if anything special happens to him, is that alright with you?”
“That’s just fine, but wait, does this means that he has to stay here?” Twilight asked.
“Yes, I presume that you can handle it and ask some help from the others bearers if it becomes unbearable.” Celestia answered slightly chuckling.
With those words she left the house and teleported back to Canterlot.
Twilight thought: ‘What have I got myself into this time?’
When Martin woke up he had a headache. He had quite the weird dream, he dreamt about technicolor things, ‘equines weren’t it.’ He discarded it as something he probably had seen on TV.
‘Ugh, I have to get up for school, why do I have to go, I’m going on vacation in two days.’ He decided not to get up immediately, he just wanted to lay down for another 5 minutes.
He then felt a nudge in his side, “Just five more minutes.” Another nudge. “Not now, Mom!” “I am not your mom, Martin.”
He shot up with a jolt. He turned his head towards the voice. When he looked up what he saw was a purple pony looking towards him with a large grin.
“Hello, Martin. You are staying here until the Princess finds a way to send you back to your home, until then you have to stay here and- ”
“Wait a minute, what did you just say? Is this all real. Why am I even talking to you, it is all a dream. In just a minute I’ll wake up and everything will be fine.” He then started whispering to himself: “It is just a dream, it is just a dream.”
“Of course it isn’t a dream, you silly!” A pink pony said, her head popping out of a basket that stood in the corner.”
“Pinkie, what are you doing here?” Twilight asked.
“I’m just visiting the new pony in town, you silly filly.” Pinkie answered.
“Hey, I’m not a pony, I’m human.” Martin interrupted.
“Okey dokey lokey, mister Hyoo-man.” Pinkie said, “And now I’m off planning the party for the new pony.” She said, disappearing back into the basket.
“I’m not a pony, you know what, never mind. I’m going back to sleep and when I wake up I am lying in my bed. Away from the crazy pink ponies.” Martin said. He then laid back on the couch, closing his eyes trying to sleep.
“No, you’re not. You’re waking up so I can study you. I have to look after you for the Princess.” Twilight answered, slightly annoyed with the human.
The memories from last night came back to Martin, the large white winged unicorn, the orange apple pony and the purple one who knocked him outwit her magic.
“So it all was real.” Martin questioned himself.
“Of course it all is real, what did you think, that it all was a dream.” Twilight said.
“So I am stuck here until you find a way to send me back to my world or dimension or whatever.” Martin said annoyed. ‘I just have to accept that I can’t escape this place, I hope that I can keep my head cool, I’ve lost my temper before. Now I can’t get the money Thomas owns me from him. You get away this time, but I’ll be back.’
“Yes, in 10 minutes my friends are coming here to meet you. You already met Applejack yesterday and Pinkie just yet.” Twilight explained.
“You sure have some crazy friends I must say. Now for breakfast, do you have any bacon?” Martin asked.
“What is bacon?”
“It’s the meat of a pig.”
“Wait, you eat meat. That’s disgusting, why would you eat meat?”
“Because humans are omnivores, although we can get the protein from other sources, like nuts.”
“We have those here, but don’t the animals complain that you kill them?”
“No, they can’t talk, they aren’t sentient.”
“Are humans the only sentient race on your planet?”
“Yes.”
“Ehm, do you also eat ponies?” Twilight asked carefully.
“Some people do, but I don’t.” Martin answered.
“So you won’t go around eating ponies.”
“Probably not.” Martin said with a laugh.
“My friends should be here any minute, do you want to eat something before, maybe a daisy sandwich.” Twilight said, quickly changing the subject.
“We can’t eat daisies, we can’t eat any flower or grass, do you maybe have some fruits or vegetables?”
“Sure, do you want an apple.”
“That’ll have to do.”
They ate there breakfast, Twilight a hay and daisy sandwich and Martin some apples. After they cleaned the plates and washed them. They went back to the main chamber off the library, then they heard a knock on the door.
“Hello Twilight, where is this human-thing you wanted to show me.” A voice said a it entered the house. Martin turned his head and saw a white pony with 3 diamonds on her flank. ‘Have to ask what those tattoos mean, weird thing to have tattoos on your butt.’
“My name is Martin, not human-thing. And what is your name?” He answered annoyed.
“I am lady Rarity, and beg my pardon, but why are you wearing clothes? This isn’t a special occasion of some sorts.” She asked, totally neglecting his remark. “O, I must simply let me make more clothes for you. I’ve never designed for a bipedal creature before.” She then proceeded to strip him naked very quickly, but when she came to the underpants she wondered, ‘Why would he have a second layer of clothes here, and foremost on this position. Probably just a measurement for accidents.’ She still decided to take it off and shrieked. She jumped to a corner. “Why in Celestia’s name do you have that out, I’m flattered but this is not the right moment nor the right place for this.” Martin just stood there, baffled the whole time.
“WHY DID YOU DO THAT!?” He quickly yelled, startled by how fast she had undressed him. He grabbed his underpants from the floor where Rarity had dropped them. “You could at least ask.” He said while putting his clothes back on. “And it’s out because it can’t go in and no, I’m not aroused.” ‘Stupid ponies, no regard for personal space whatsoever.’
“I’m sorry for this misunderstanding, but can you at least come by some day to let me make some measurements?” She asked while he dressed himself.
“Sure, I’ll come by some day.” He said, slightly sarcastic.
Twilight was, during the while escapade, gloating in delight of a new subject. ‘Why was walking around exposed a social taboo? What was the bone structure of the human? Why couldn’t he put his thing away? I’ll ask these questions as soon as we are done here. Ooooh, maybe he’ll let me dissect him. How would his skull look if polished nicely?’ Twilight shook her head as the weird thought left her head.
Rarity said: “Alright then, I will be off then. I’ll see you sometime around. Ta, ta.” ‘Next time I must be more careful around the human, maybe he was lying about his thing. I don’t say that it was unpleasant. I’ll just have to wait till I see him next time.’ She thought while she was walking out off the door.
“Well, that was one crazy encounter.” Martin said.
“Wait till you meet the rest, there will be enough crazy for a while.” She stated.
“How long does it take for the next one to come?”
“Probably 10-15 minutes until Rainbow Dash arrives, why don’t you go reading some book while you’re waiting.” Twilight proposed.
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll do it.” Martin said picking a book from a nearby case, it was a study about the way the ‘magic’ in Pegasi worked. He looked rather calm about being thrown into a new world all of the sudden, but that was just a façade. At the moment his mind was raging with thoughts, ‘Why am I here? Did I hit a tree and ended up in a coma? Why does everything feel so strange, but not in a frightening way? What do these ponies want from me, to just become their friends in an instant. It is all going way to fast. In 15 minutes another pony comes over, will this one try to pull my guts out though my nose. I just want to go home, I hope that that Princess pony finds a solution.’ He sat down on the sofa and pulled a boot out of the bookcase next to him, it was an book on teleportation theory. ‘Hmm, could be interesting.’ After about 20 minutes of reading he put the book down, ‘How is she able to read this, so much math, much more than should be allowed in a book.’ He then noticed the clock, ‘I has been way more than 15 minutes, where is that pony?’
As if being mocked by the lords of time a pony with a rainbow mane came flying through the door and landed right on top of Martin.
“Twilight, run away while I kick this monster is flank!”
“Rainbow, don’t be ridiculous, he isn’t a monster, he’s the human I wrote you a letter about that I have to study.”
Rainbow slowly got off of the human while having a stupid grin plastered over her face. “Uhm.. heh heh, sorry?”
“So you must be Rainbow Dash?”
“Yep, the fastest flyer in Equestria and the only pony ever to do a sonic rainboom.”
“What is a sonic rainboom?” He asked.
“Duh, a sonic rainboom is when I break the sound barrier.”
“Hahaha, no living creature is capable of reaching Mach 1 without help, it is scientifically not possible.” He answered.
“If it is scientifically not possible how come that I have do it twice already.” Rainbow grabbed Martin and dragged him outside. “Not sit here and watch.” She then quickly took off and began her ascend to the height that she required to reach before she could perform the feat.
“Wow, she is fast.” Martin said amazed.
Twilight yelled: “Rainbow come down here, I need to introduce you now or else my whole time-scheme will have to be remade.”
But her yelling wasn’t heard by the rainbow maned pegasus as she was already on her way down. She was to determined to show the human that she in fact could do a sonic rainboom that she wasn’t able to pay attention to the height she was at. There was an cone of air building up in front of her and it was thickening quick. There was an loud bang as Rainbow Dash broke the sound barrier and performed an sonic rainboom. She pulled up just before she hit the ground and flew away from the rainboom as it expanded.
But the rainboom was so close to the ground and the village that it broke several windows. The blast also pushed Twilight and Martin to the ground.
Twilight was the first to stand up. She walked over to the human who was still on the ground.
She nudged him in the side with her muzzle. “Come on, get up, we have so much to do and so little time.” She then noticed a small red stream that appeared to be coming out of his ears. It was blood, his eardrums be perforated by the blast and he had taken the full blow because she was standing behind him. She lifted him up with her magic and galloped towards the small hospital that Ponyville had on the outskirts of the town.
Meanwhile Rainbow had gotten back to the library. “Hey, where is everypony?” She looked around. “Must have been blown away by the awesomeness of my rainboom.” She turned around and flew back towards her cloud house, which was on the outskirts of Ponyville, not far from the hospital.
She was on her way back to her house when she saw Twilight and Martin walking towards the hospital. Rainbow flew down towards them. "Hey, what are you two do.." Then she saw that Twilight as carrying Martin in her magic while there was blood streaming alongside his ears.
"Rainbow, because you were so urgent to do a sonic rainboom you didn't consider that you were so close to the ground that you burst his ears, I think. I need to get him to the hospital quickly or else he might lose his hearing indefinitely."
Suddenly blood also started coming from his nose. "No, no, no, we need to get him to the hospital and fast. Rainbow grab him and head to the hospital since you are quicker than me, I’ll come as fast as I can."
Rainbow grabbed him and put him on her back and quickly flew to the hospital wondering how such an awesome thing like the rainboom could inflict this on ponies.
She ran into the hospital yelling at some nurses to go get a doctor, then she walked into the nearest room, which was filled with sleeping ponies.
She walked up to an empty bed near the end of the room and dropped him op it. He lay on it with his legs dangling over the end. She cursed, then she walked to the empty bed next to it and shoved it against the bed he already was laying on. She gave him a shove in his shoulder to turn him 90 degrees, smearing the blood dripping out of his ears onto the bed all over the bed.
Twilight then walked into the room alongside a unicorn doctor. The doctor walked up to Martin and grabbed his otoscope and looked into his ear.
“It appears that his eardrums have snapped. Miss Dash, do you know what has happened?”
“Uhm…, no I don’t know what could have happened, heh.. heh.” She answered slightly nervous.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Alright then. Miss Sparkle, do you know what has happened?” The doctor asked looking at Twilight.
“Yes. Rainbow here did an sonic rainboom way to closely to Ponyville and his eardrums snapped because of the pressure of the blast.” Twilight answered feeling a bit guilty of betraying her friend.
“Ah yes, well ,I don’t know how our medicine will react to his body so I’ll cast a healing spell. He is capable of leaving in hmm… 2 weeks, he should wake up in 15 minutes.” He began charging his horn with a healing spell. He casted it onto Martin and then walked towards the door. “And try to keep your voice down while he is healing.” He said to the two ponies standing beside the bed.
Twilight and Rainbow sat down on some chairs that a nurse placed down for them.
“Sooo I’m going home. I take it that you’ll take care of him. Bye.” Rainbow said before trying to fly away trough a nearby window.
Twilight reacted quickly by shutting the window right as she was in front of it so she didn’t managed to stop quick enough. She flew against the window hard enough to make her droop down slowly with a cartoony sound.
“You aren’t going anywhere Rainbow. You caused this so you’re going to stay here with me.” Twilight said angry.
“Okay, okay, I’ll stay here, humpf.” Rainbow said while walking back to her chair.
“Come on, we’ll just talk to him for a few minutes and then we let him sleep.” Twilight said.
“Alright, but as soon as I can I’m out of here. I got to train or else I’ll never join the Wonderbolts.” Rainbow said.
Discord’s disembodied mind was watching the scene.
‘Hmm, the human shouldn’t be in the hospital that long or it’ll foil my plan. Maybe I should give him a little boost.’ He casted a spell that sped up the healing progress so that he was fully healed within 5 days.
‘So, that should help him along the way.’
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Twilight was waiting in the hospital for Martin to wake up when suddenly Spike came running through the door with a letter clenched in his claws.
He breathed heavily for a few moments before calming down. “Twilight this is a letter from Princess Celestia, she’s saying that she is coming to check up on the human. She even saw the rainboom from the castle and is concered that the fragile body of his might be harmed.”
Twilight grew pale. “Oh no, if she sees that he is hurt than she will think that if I can’t take care of a human that I can take care of a library an she will send me back to Canterlot to my parents and I will have to find a job.” Twilight said while running around the room.
Then there was a flash and a very regal voice that belonged to a certain white alicorn said: “Why is the human lying on a bed in a hospital with blood coming out of his head? Care to explain Twilight.”
Martin woke up in a Hospital bed. He saw Twilight and Rainbow sitting in the corner asleep. ‘What the hell happened? Why am I in a Hospital bed?’
“Hey.” He yelled. “Wake up you two, What happened to me?” He shouted to them
“Mhh, lemme sleep.” Rainbow grunted.
“WAKE UP!” Martin shouted.
“Waah.” Rainbow shot up to the ceiling and. “What’d you do that for?” She asked while flying down to the floor.
“Because you wouldn’t wake up, Rainbow” Martin noted.
“Alright, alright. I'm awake now, what do you want?”
“I want to know what happened?” He asked.
Meanwhile Twilight was still sleeping right through the noise, sometimes mumbling something inaudible.
“I did a sonic Rainboom a teeny tiny bit too close to the village and ruptured your eardrums.” She said.
“You did what ?!” He yelled at her. ”You knew that it would hurt me bur you still did it, then why did you still did it?.” He calmed down a bit but anger still showed in his eyes. He looked at her and it showed that he demanded an answer from her.
“I.. I.. I don’t know.” She stammered. “I just wanted to prove you wrong, because you were lying.” She said accusing.
“Why didn’t you just showed me it out of town or some other time. Why would you do it immediately?” He thought for a while and just as she was about to say something he said: “You really are concerned about your pride and that people say that you can’t do something, why?” He asked eager to get an explanation for her doing.
“Why do you want to know.” She threw at him.
“Because I would like to know how to help you so that you don’t pull this stunt again.”
“I won’t, I promise. I Pinkie-promise.” She then said the rhyme and did the movements. During this Martin looked at her with interest.
“Why did you just put a hoof in your eye?”
“It’s the Pinkie-promise, if you break one you in for big trouble.”
Suddenly Pinkie’s head appeared from behind the curtain of the next bed. She said: “Big trouble.” She repeated after Rainbow while slowly disappearing behind the curtain.
“Well, she sure is a weird one.” He said still a bit baffled how she could even do that.
“Pinkie is just being Pinkie.” She said shrugging. “But just drop it about the crash, OK?”
“Sure, but I won’t forget it.”
“Fine.” She sighed and slumped back in her seat.
Martin looked at Twilight. “What happened to her?”
“She was concerned about you and what the princess would do when she found out what happened to you. When the princess came into the room and spoke, well, she fainted.”
He chuckled. “Why would she be afraid that the princess would do anything, she didn’t even do anything. I was the one who encouraged you.”
“She’s always like that. Always afraid that the princess would send her back to magic kindergarten because she’s tardy.”
“Alright, she really needs to lighten up. Well, I'm going to catch some z’s. seeya.” He closed his eyes and let himself fall back onto the pillow and fall asleep.
“Well, I’m going too then, bye.” she opened the window, flared her wings and flew out of the building toward her cloudhome.
He slept for a few hours before a nurse woke him up somewhere around 12:30.
“Hmm.” He looked to the thing that dared to wake him.
“Hun, I’m here with your lunch.” The nurse said.
He looked up groggily. “Whosta?”
“I’m the nurse and you need you eat something.” She put the tray on one off the beds.
“Ok, thanks.” He picked up the tray and put it on his lap as he sat up. “What’s your name?” He asked her while he poked at one of his carrots with a fork.
“It’s Tenderheart, dear. Be sure to eat it all and rest. Now I’m going, I have other patients to attend to.” She walked out of the room and left him with Twilight, who was still asleep in the corner. ‘She’s still asleep. How? Me and Rainbow argued and even the shutting of the door didn’t wake her.’ He thought about it for a while, playing with the thought of waking her and decided that she really should wake up at this hour of the day. He ate his food and put the tray beside him on the nightstand
He put his feet on the ground and tried to stand, he immediately felt lightheaded and fell back on the bed. He tried again, slower this time. He started to feel dizzy again, but it dissipated as quickly as it appeared. He walked to Twilight.
He shook her a little. “Wake up, come on, wake up.” He cooed to her.
“Spike stop, go away.” She mumbled in her sleep.
‘She thinks that I’m her dragon pet.’ He thought before giving a light poke in her ribs.
“Quit it, Spike.” She grumbled. He continued to poke her, harder as he went on. her horn glowed and an aura appeared around him. He felt an unseen force push him back slightly. He gave one last hard poke. She suddenly woke up and pushed him to the ground with her magic. “What’s your problem, why’d you poke me like that.” She bellowed at him, floating in the air with her horn glowing.
“I.. I.. I just tried to wake you up, it’s already 12:30.” He quickly stammered while trying to stand up but falling to the ground halfway. She enveloped him in her aura once again, but this time she helped him to his feet again.
“Wait, how late was it again?” She asked with a concerned face.
“The nurse just came in and gave me lunch, so I think that it’s around 12:30.” He said.
“I always organize the library on Tuesday. If I’m not there soon everything won’t organized, and then I’m *gulp* tardy.” She started to pace around the room. ‘Can I just leave him here. He looks old enough, so it should just be fine. Alright, I’ll just tell him that I’m leaving, yes, yes, that’ll be good.’ She thought while pacing around the room.
“Martin, I’m leaving. If you want to find me, I’m in the library. Just come and visit me.”
“Alright. How long does it take to heal my ruptured eardrums?” He asked.
“The princess casted a spell that should speed up the healing process. You’re lucky that it were just your eardrums, they are practically identical to ours. If they were different to ours than you should have to heal them naturally and that could take weeks. So it should take around 4 of 5 days.” She spoke to him, while he only was listening with a half-ear.
“So how can I hear exactly? With ruptured eardrums I shouldn’t be able to hear.” He asked wondering how he would heal if was done by magic.
“I cast an spell that forms a bridge to your brains so that you can hear without an ear. It’s use full for deaf ponies. I’m going now, see you in the library.” She walked out of the library and waved at him.
“Ooh, OK. I get it. Thanks for that. Goodbye.” He waved at her while she walked out of the room.
He walked over to the bed and laid back on it. He tried to sleep, but sleep wouldn’t catch him. He just kept thinking about the situation he was in. Would he be capable to return to earth, will he see his family ever again, and why is everyone here so crazy. It’s like they want to force their friendship into him, except the big red one, he just kicked him to last week when he met him. He called for a nurse and asked her when he could leave. She looked at the chart at the end of him bed and said that he could leave tomorrow morning. He thanked her and tried to sleep once more and after an long hour he finally fell asleep.
That evening the door opened while Martin was still asleep in his bed. An white pony walked into the room and walked up to him. She nudged him on his cheek with her hoof to wake him. He mumbled something about slender. She didn’t understand a word from what he said. She nudged him again.
“NO.” He screamed. He shot up and threw Rarity to the side in the process. She rushed to his side. She quickly got up and rushed to his side. “What’s wrong?”
“Whaa.. What.. Rarity, what are you doing here?” He asked her, still a bit dazed by the rude awakening.
“I just came to check on you when I heard you were in the hospital.” She said leaning on the edge of the bed.
“Oh, well, thanks for coming by. I’ll come and see if I can help you with some clothes, if you can keep your hooves with you this time.” He chuckled a bit and laid back on the bed. He sighed. Rarity didn’t noticed.
“I think I can handle myself the next time, dear. Now, what did exactly happened to you? I only just heard that you were in the hospital.” She asked with a concerned face.
“I, dumbly, doubted that Rainbow Dash could do a sonic rainboom, so she did one too close to the village and burst my eardrums and probably some other things too. Somehow even the princess noticed and she came and checked up on me. She casted a healing spell on me and apparently Twilight fainted in the progress. I slept some and then you walked through the door.” He finished talking and looked over to Rarity who sat with an angry face.
“Oooh, that ruffian Rainbow, couldn’t let her ego be harmed again, could she. I’ll have a talk to her after this, but dear, how long will you be in the hospital?” She asked calming down a bit.
“Somewhere around four till five days, and then I’ll be fine and thanks to some kind of magic Twilight used on me I can still hear and not be deaf. She and Rainbow left her tonight and left around 11 o’clock.”
“I’ll let you get some more rest and I’ll hold you to that promise. Now I’m going back to the Boutique and I see to it that Fluttershy and Applejack come to see you too.” She said as she walked to the door.
“Sure, thanks Rar, bye.” He said.
“Bye, Martin.” She closed the door and walked out, leaving Martin to himself. ‘I still can’t understand how they can be so friendly with and strange and new alien like me, but they accept me like one off their own. I still hope that the princess finds a way to get me home, back to earth.’ He laid down and sleep soon caught up with him.
Martin walked down a lonely road, stores on either side. The windows were smashed in and all of the lights were out. It was quiet, too quiet. He looked into one off the stores through the window. There were several broken shelves, a lot of cans on the unbroken ones and some on the floor, scattered everywhere. He stepped through the window and looked around. He jumped back. In the corner there was an skeleton covered in some kind of gleaming slimy black stuff and several opened cans, like the other ones, besides it. He shuddered at the sight of it and quickly made his way out of the store, not noticing that some off the cans somehow had moved, moving toward the window, towards him. He stepped on the street and continued his walk along the street. He came to an intersection.
He looked to the right. There was nothing there except some cans and more stores with broke windows.
He looked to the left. There were more skeletons, still some flesh clinging to the bones and the same black stuff he has seen before. There were more cans besides them, most of them opened. On the building on the side there was more of the black stuff on the sides.
He looked straight ahead. There was literally nothing, the street was cut off 2 meters from the corners. It was as if an black veil was spread across his face, you could see small specks off light through the veil. He walked closer to the veil, as he came closer he saw that it was the same black stuff the saw before. It had dug through the road and the buildings and continued for as long as he could see.
He turned around, there was a long man, clad in black. He had more long arms coming out off his back reaching several meters to either side off the street. He turned his head to the skeletons on the left, to see if anything had changed. Nothing had moved an centimetre. He looked back to the man in black. It was closer this time even though it looked as it hadn’t moved any of his limbs. He could now see his face, or rather, that he didn’t have one. It was one gleaming white skull, even his ears were stumps. Even though he didn’t had an mouth he still made an static noise that Martin hadn’t heard before.
He walked backwards, to the edge, but away from the thing that was coming towards him. he didn’t think about it, but soon he was standing on the edge of the street. He turned around and looked to the balk veil. The only thing between him and the black veil was a drop. A 2 meter gap had appeared in the street, stretching from the sides and down as far as he could see. He looked back at thing that was behind him. It was closer this time, Martin was almost in reach off the Thing’s arms. He made a split second decision. He turned around and jumped into the gap, trying to grab onto the black veil. The veil ripped under his grip, under it was more black, he tried to grab onto another part of the veil but he failed. He started falling with his face down. He looked at his hands, the black stuff started to spread to his palms. He tried to pull it off, but the black stuck to his hands and glued them together and he was in able to separate them. It started to spread to the rest of his arms.
The fall felt like it was endless. He decided to try and turn around. As soon as he did it the static noise started again. He didn’t see anything, just black on every side. He turned around to see if anything had changed.
He saw one thing. All that he could see was one large white face just in front of him. He felt a hand touching him (get your mind out of the gutter), more and more appearing by the second. He tried to scream, but no sound would come out of mouth. He felt some arms closing around his head and a growing pain in the back of his head. He screamed and he closed his eyes. Only the memory of the pain and the blank emotionless face sticking out like a sore thumb.
He woke up, drenched in cold sweat and attached to several machined. He tried to more his hands, but he discovered that he couldn’t move them, he couldn’t even feel them. He looked at his body. He had leather straps around his wrists, ankles and waist pinning him to the bed. He tried to move his body, but he could only move his fingers and his head. He yelled. “Hey, Hey, is someone out there? He tugged at his straps again, feeling returning to his arms. He yelled again. “Is anybody there?” He could feel his whole body again.
‘They must think I’m crazy, strapping me down like this. What did they want to do to me? Keep me locked up like an animal? I’m getting out of here!’
He easily ripped open the straps, they were made for ponies after all. He undid the straps around his waist and ankles and stepped of the bed, pulling several tubes out of his body and plopped some sensors off his temples. He sprinted to the door and slammed it open.
As soon as he opened the door he smacked a doctor onto his nose, pushing him to the ground. There were twin streams of blood coming out of his nose. “What are you doing, get back in there.” The doctor said to him as he dabbed his nose with a piece of his coat.
“No, I’m not going back in there! Bye.” He ran down the corridor ignoring the shouts of the doctor. The doctor punched a button on his wrist, immediately alarms began sounding everywhere and red lights began flashing. Some bulky ponies appeared out of a room down the corridor. He quickly ran past them before they could react. He ran around the corner, hearing his pursuers nearing. The corridor he had ran into was a dead end.
In one of the room down the corridor. In which 2 nurses and a doctor were present and a couple of patients in a bed with a failing hart.
“Doctor, his hart is failing!”
“I’ll start CPR. You,” He looked to the other nurse in the room. “Get the crash cart. I’ll clear the area.”
“Doctor, here’s the crash cart.” The nurse ran into the room with the cart and put it next to the bed for use.
“”Good, start charging it up.” He said to the nurse holding the cart, who put her horn to the device and started charging it up. Soon the device was crackling with energy. “Doctor, it’s ready.”
“Alright, hoof it to me, quick.” The nurse quickly gave him the paddles and just before he pressed the peddles to the pony’s chest. “He’s breathing again. We don’t need the defibrillator anymore.”
The doctor turned to the other nurse. “Good, turn it off and put it in the corner.” The nurse he said it to was only half listening, her mind thinking of somepony else. She put the cart in the corner near the door, but forgot to put it off. The nurse walked back to the other nurse and the doctor on the other side of the room and started treating other patients.
Martin looked around the end of the hallway. He saw a door on either side of the corridor, he heard nothing from both of them so he chose one at random. He ran into the left one, opened the door and ran in. He looked around for something he could use to stop his pursuers. He saw some braces and other medical stuff and ‘Ooh, a crash cart. I can do something with that, it’s even charged.’ He grabbed the cart and pulled the paddles of it. He dragged the cart by the peddles onto the corridor.
His pursuers almost reached him at his end of the hallway. As soon as the first pony was in reach of his arms he lunged forward and while pressing the large red buttons pressed the peddles onto the forehead of the nearest pony. A large magical charge discharged right in his face. The pony slumped to the ground, large black marks on his forehead, covering his entire face. The other one stopped dead in his tracks, anger raging in his eyes.
Martin muttered one word. “Shit.” Before the other stallion ran towards him and bucked Martin in the face, probably leaving an indent. The other stallion walked back to his fallen comrade and checked on him.
Martin woke up with pounding headache. He looked around him. He was in a padded room and his hands were cuffed. There was one window in the room. The small window was barred and the outline off a door was visible around it.
He tried to stand up, but he stumbled back to the floor. His hand and feet were cuffed together with a tick chain in a x shape. He tried again and slowly crawled to the door and knocked on it.
He yelled. “Hey, Hey, is someone there?!”
A gruff voice answered from the other side. “Keep yer trap shut, ya ain’t going anywhere until the Princess is here. When she heard of yer action she ordered to lock you up in a crazy room until she arrived. So shut up, ya filthy monkey.” The voice went quiet.
Martin slumped back to the back wall of the room, trying to remember the previous day. It all was a blur in a mind. He thought asking the pony outside the door, but because the way he talked to him he left the idea for what it was, an idea.
He just sat there, waiting for anything to happen. At what he thought was the evening a plate of food was shoved through a small hole in the bottom of the door. It contained some sort of ground up stuff that smelled awful and probably also tasted that way, but it was all he had so he clamped his nose shut and slowly ate the bitter tasting food. If he complained he didn’t think it would be listened to.
After a lot of boring hours, in which he was only allowed outside for sanitary necessity’s and a small walk, he heard a click on the outside of the door. It slowly swung open and a very angry looking pony.
“What were you thinking when you killed my subject, why would you do that?!” The pony that walked into the room was no other that Princess Celestia and she immediately began shouting at him before she regained her composure.
“Sorry for that, but would you like to answer my question now.” She asked, looking at the frightened human in front of her.
The human stammered something quickly and scrambled to the corner. “I.. I don’t know. I don’t even remember what happened?”
“You don’t know!?” She repeated in a very angry tone. “You were strapped down because you were acting dangerous to yourself in your sleep. You escaped, ran from the doctors and the guards. When you were down a corridor you grabbed an active defibrillator and pressed it against a pony and fried his head. This a crime I can’t not understand, and is usually followed by banishment or execution, but you. We were treating you for your injuries and this is you how you repay us, by killing somepony. Now, I would like to hear your side of the story.” She stood up, expecting an answer from the human.
The human slowly stood up and thought for a moment for something to say.
“I.. I thought that they were keeping me strapped down like an animal. I got angry when they followed me I just put my common sense to zero and ran. When I got to the end of the corridor I panicked. I ran into the closest room and grabbed the nearest thing that I could defend me with. And the nearest thing was a crash cart. I pressed the peddles to the pony’s face and just killed him. I.. o god.. I just killed him.” His expression went blank and he sat down again and thought about his actions.
“I didn’t want to kill you kill him. I just wanted to get away. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” He said to her, trying to apologise, but clearly failing.
“That you’re sorry is not going to do anything. You have committed a crime and you will be convicted for it, but you are a special case. You will get a trial in the Royal Courthouse in Canterlot. I myself will be present at the court as a secondary judge. You will be expected at court in one week, until then you will reside in a cell in Canterlot Castle. Your wounds are healed and you do not need to be in the hospital anymore. This evening you will be moved to your cell in Canterlot.” She turned around and trotted out of the padded room and closed the door behind her with her magic. She left Martin all to himself.
After some hours of thinking when there was a knock on the door. “Stand up and turn your back to the door with your front feet visible on the sides.” A voice said.
Martin thought a while about what the pony said. “Uhm, ok.” He stood with his back to the door and his arms outstretched.
The door clicked a couple of times and it opened, several ponies stepped in. One was a pegasus and the other a grey unicorn. The unicorn put magical cuffs around his wrists. He tried to move his arms away from his body, but as soon as he moved his arms more than 75 cm away he got a short chock that fried the hairs on his arms.
“Move it, monkey, and quick.” The unicorn gave him a push and escorted him out of the cell.
They walked down the corridor. Every time they passed a window the ponies behind it looked at him in horror, fear of anger, some even ducking under desks or beds.
When he came to the lobby he saw Twilight sitting there, looking at him with large sad eyes. As soon as she saw him she stood up and walked out of the lobby, through the door and outside.
He was escorted outside and he saw many ponies grab their foals and pulled them inside. He even heard someone say: “ The foals.. The foals.. someone think of the foals!!”
The street was deserted save for the guards and Martin.
They led him to the armoured carriage that was in the middle of the road. The unicorn undid Martin’s cuffs.
“Huh?” Was the only thing he could say before the pegasus opened the door and practically threw him inside. He heard several loud clicks outside and there he was locked up like the an animal. He only had a small window through which he could only see the empty road and Twilight slowly walking away.
He felt a tug from the front of the carriage, as he looked out of the window he saw Ponyville get smaller and smaller until it was but a mere speck on the horizon.
As they flew of he tried to sleep, but the rocking of the carriage kept him awake. His mind also wouldn’t give him a moment of peace as he kept thinking about what he did and the word the Princess said to him. Eventually he fell asleep, about halfway of the day long trip.
‘Hmm, maybe I shouldn’t have him delivered into the hooves of Celestia, maybe I can execute my plans a bit earlier. I couldn’t have imagined what kind of things reside inside the mind of this human, it’s so wonderful, so much chaos. He even killed a pony when I played a bit with his mind, the nightmares I could make with this knowledge. Now back to scheming.’ The disembodied mind of Discord though as he flew aside the carriage.
Discord rummaged a bit in Martin’s mind, plucking some ideas from them. He then flew of and left Martin and the Pegasus for themselves
He woke up with a hard bonk as he fell off the bench he was sleeping on.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Martin yelled while pulling himself onto the bench again.
“We’re in Canterlot, monkey. Now stand with you back to the door and hold your arms to the side.” The guard growled back to him as he opened the door.
As soon as he turned his back to the guard, he put metal shackles on his arms. “These are anti-magic shackles. You won’t be able to make even a scratch on these, also any magic you might possess is blocked and your energy is kept at a low. You have the right to remain silent. Everything you say can and will be used against you. You have the right for one visit of anypony. You shall stay shackled until you are moved into your cell. You cell is in Canterlot Castle per request of the Princess. Understood?” The guard said to Martin while he escorted him from the platform they were on into the tower that it was attached to.
“Yes sir, understood.” He said and he followed him through the large double door of the tower.
“I don’t meant to kill somebody, but I still did. I hope that the princess or Twilight will get me out of this mess. Please, god, please get me out of here and bring me back to Earth.” Martin thought as he followed the guard through the long hallways.
He passed a window and he stopped when he looked at the night sky. He simply stopped and admired the view. He felt a slight tug at the shackles, but he just kept standing were he stood.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” A soft voice behind him said. He turned his head and saw Princess Celestia standing there.
“My sister does do a better job than me at making the night sky look good, but that’s something else. I ordered for you to be brought here, in the castle, instead of the prison, where the guards are a bit too rough. Follow me, I’ll bring you to your ‘cell’.” She turned around and started to walk to another hallway, leaving the guard flabbergasted. Celestia turned to the guard. “And you’re dismissed for the evening, goodnight.”
“Whoa, you’re letting me stay here instead of a cell?” He asked her, as he, still surprised, started to follow her.
“Yes, I don’t think that you’ll do anything against anypony. I can see that in your eyes. Besides I’ll still be able to keep an eye on you, because you’re sleeping in the room next to mine.”
“Thanks, at least I don’t have to be in that padded room anymore.”
She chuckled. “The hospital decided to put you in there. Most of the staff wanted to do some surgical experiments on you, but Twilight stopped them from doing so and convinced them to take you to the psychiatric ward and lock you up there.”
“I’ll thank her when I see her again, she saved my life. But what if the court decides to kill me.”
“That won’t happen. I am the only one who can give that order and I won’t kill a newly arrived species. Besides I have gotten you of the best ponies around for a lawyer. His name is Right Rights and he’s a very good lawyer, so you’ll be fine” She said.
“Well, thanks for doing that for, I didn’t think someone would represent me.”
“Twilight did offered to defend you, but I turned her offer down. As smart as she is, she doesn’t know all the dirty little tricks of the lawyers. As for any motive you may have, Twilight will go through the event with you and take a visit to your mind.”
As they talked they arrived at 2 large double doors. “This is my room, yours is next door. It has a bed that is fitted to your size and some other things have been enlarged. Goodnight.” She opened the large doors with her magic and walked through the doors and closed them behind her.
He sighed and looked around. He saw the door to his room next to Celestia’s one. The door was a lot smaller, as the large double doors dwarfed his door. He walked up to it and tried to open it. He tried to twist the knob that was attached to the plain wooden door, but it wouldn’t turn.
After a couple seconds of struggling like an idiot he decided to look at the knob. It had a simple button on the top. When he pressed the button the door casually swung open..
He stepped in, located the bed, paid no attention to the interior and just let himself fall down on the bed and fell asleep almost immediately after a couple of long days.
When the morning came he felt a nudge in his side. He didn’t really wanted to get up. He finally slept comfortable for the first time in a few days.
He felt another nudge. This time he shot up and shouted. “What?!”
The white alicorn that was standing next to him shot backwards and almost hit the wall, startled by the human’s shout.
“Oh, sorry Princess. Shouldn’t have shouted at you like that. I’m kinda grumpy in the morning and I was sleeping quite good for a change.” He sat on the side of the bed, still dressed. He looked around him.
He was in a small half round room. The flat side was toward the side that Celestia’s room was. Besides his bed was a small table. The room had 1 table with a large chair and a drawer. I was kinda empty.
“It doesn’t matter, but I had to wake you. Your lawyer is here. We need to speak to you, so get ready and do what you need to do. When you’re ready knock on my door.” She turned around and started to walk towards the door.
“Uh, Princess, I’m already done, soooooo.”
“Oh, curious. I see why Twilight was so interested in you. Alright follow me.” She walked towards the door.
“Sure, I’m coming.” He followed her through the door and the long hallways to the room where they would be having a meeting with his lawyer and discuss his near future.
An update. I think that's quite rare. Anyway, this chapter was completely written on paper, around 18 small pages and around 3 pens (I broke 2). Sooooo.. sometimes in this chapter I switch Martin out for Marty, just ignore it, or complain. What ever floats your boat. This chapter is a bit short, but I'll make more. Maybe another week until the next one.
Chapter 6: Better call Saul
As he walked into the room where his lawyer would be he noticed something curious. There were guards almost everywhere. There was one in every corner of the room and there were 2 standing near each door.
At the round table in the middle sat a brown earth pony with an blindfolded pony for a cutie mark. He looked very confident and didn’t show any change in composure as Martin walked into the room.
Just before Martin walked too far into the room the Princess left him and assured him that she’ll be there when he was done and that it’ll all be fine. “I’ve even got you guards, see.” She said, a tad too happy.
He just shrugged and sat down on the opposite side of the stallion an as soon as he sat down in the chair it was as if an switch has turned the pony on.
“Hi, my name’s Right Rights, but my friends call me Saul. It’s better that you don’t ask. I’m your lawyer and I’m going to get you out of this mess. Just think of it as you’ve done nothing wrong. Now we are going for ‘all charges dropped’. At the most you’ll do community service for breaking their equipment. Just give me your ‘innocent’ statement and we’ll get to work.” He said while still having a confident grin plastered on his face.
“It’s that easy? Where I am from it would have gone a lot harder.” He asked Rights
“And that, kid, is the juristic paradise that is Equestria. I’ll have you free in no time.” He told Martin
“Good, good. Anyway, on with the statement.” Martin said, kind of annoyed that he’ll have to tell it again. He sighed, but he began retelling the story anyway.
During his story Rights was quiet, but his expression got more exited and he got more eager to talk. When Martin was finished he arched towards him. “So, what’s the verdict?” Martin asked.
The grin on Right’s face almost split it. “We’ve got a case cut out for us. This’ll be a cake walk. You we’re just held ‘captive’ They didn’t know how to properly treat you. This is a case of forsaking. The doctor didn’t treat you the right way and you reacted to that. They’ll pay some fine and you’ll do some community service and we’re done.”
Martin looked at him with surprise and disbelieve. “Are you sure, murder cases on my planet never go like that. You get at least some prison time.”
“Well kid. In Equestria there aren’t a lot of cases like this. An alien comes and kills somepony. So I think that they’ll go easy on you. If this was the Griffon court you’d be laid on the block faster that you can blink. You don’t want to be a lawyer there.” He laid back on his bench and began scribbling away.
“So it’s done then. I can go?” Martin asked.
Rights looked up. “Huh? Yea, you can go. I’ll make a statement and some other paperwork and I’ll see you before court. Also recommend me to any of your friends, just tell them to look for Saul.” He continued with his writing after he was done.
“Alright. Thanks.” Martin said, surprised with how quick and easy it went. He walked out of the door and saw a dark alicorn sitting there, who was slightly smaller that Celestia. She was reading a magazine about astronomy.
He walked up to her and said. “Uhm.. hi. I’m Martin. Wasn’t Celestia supposed to pick me up?”
The dark alicorn looked up and said to him. “Yes. She was supposed to, but she’s busy at the moment with your case and your citizenship. That’s a lot of paperwork. Anyway I’m Luna.”
“Wait, what, my citizenship?, but I don’t want to stay here. I want to go back to Earth. She didn’t even talk to me about it.” He said to her, worrying about his future.
“She told me nothing about that, only that for you to get any help with your case, regardless of the outcome, you would need to be an Equestrian citizen. And for an alien, that’s difficult.” She said with a deadpan look.
“So I can still go back? Well, that’s a relief.” He had tensed up during the time that Luna spoke, but his doubts were still there and he asked “So, what now?”
“We should wait for Tia to finish. Until then we can do whatever we want. But first, I want to know all about your world. How does it work? Do you also have a moon? What do you know about astronomy?” She asked in less time that should be possible.
Martin wanted to answer to her, but she was asking so quickly that he couldn’t get a word in between. And when he told her that they have a moon she began asking even more questions, something thought impossible before (around 120 QPM(questions per minute)). She asked who raised it, did that pony/person looked like her, how big was it, was there a sun.
“Slow down, yeesh.” He said, trying to slow her down. It kinda worked. She stopped asking questions, but she still kept staring straight at him, waiting for answers.
“I don’t think anyone raises the moon on my planet. Certainly no pony, And the size? It’s about an quarter of the diameter of earth.” As he said it Luna became ready for another question-salvo. As soon as he ended his answer she started again. If questions were bullets there wouldn’t be any left of him.
“But how is it raised then? By a another princess? *3 min later and 358 questions later* Please answer me.”
“It’s raised by no one , it isn’t raised, the earth turns to face it. *A lot of answers later* So that was that, any more. ” When he finished Luna looked at him with a face that didn’t show any understanding, mostly because a lot of the answer included things like the Internet, cats and TV.
“But how does the sun get raised on your planet then?” She asked with more curiosity, more that questions before.
“It’s the same, From our perspective the Earth turns to face the sun. The Earth orbits around the Sun and the Moon orbits around the Earth.” He said as they walked through the corridor towards Celestia’s office.
“Wow, that’s a lot different that from here. Do you control your weather with flying humans or with magic?”
He looked at her with a confused look for once. “Flying magic humans? I don’t think they exist. We don’t even control the weather and we don’t have any magic. We can just look at it that’s about it.”
AN: This is where I ran out of paper.
“Ah, interesting. Anyway we’ve arrived at Tia’s study”
Martin and Luna stood before two great golden doors. A small amount of sound came out of it.
Luna opened the doors with her magic. Inside they saw Celestia sitting to them with her back turned to them. She turned to them and what she was doing shocked Luna.
She saw Celestia’s face covered with crumbs and cream and a large platter stood in front of her, just a small slice of cake left on it. “Tia! You said you would stop with snacking. So this was your ‘study’ time. Maybe I should talk to the kitchen staff again. This is going into your food journal.”
All the while Martin was just gazing into the room and the cake-covered alicorn in the middle. “Why is she covered in cake? It even looks like there is a piece of cake stuck in her mane. How’s that even possible?” He said, still looking at Celestia.
All the while Celestia was trying to sneak the plate out of sight and under the bed and the crumbs from her coat, mane and face. The piece of cake that was in her mane was pushed further in, hiding it from sight.
“I was just getting an snack, just one slice.” Celestia said while sporting a fake grin.
“Sure, Tia, just a snack. Anyway are you done with the paperwork for Martin’s citizenship? He has already spoken with Saul.” Luna said while collection the plate from under the bed.
Tia said, while regaining her composure “I have, it’s over there in the table, next to the whipped cream.” She said while clasping her hooves over her mouth when she said the cream part.
Luna sighed and walked over to the table , ignoring the large bowl of whipped cream with a spoon. “Ah, here they are. The alien citizenship application form v2. hmm, what was version one.” She handed the forms to Martin. “”You might want to check the form for any mistakes my sister probably has made.”
“Sure.” Martin took the forms from Luna’s magic and started to thumb through them. He got through the general section and a couple of parts part caught his eye: the gender option and the age option. “Uhm Celestia, how old do you think I am and what gender I am. You put unspecified in the age and androgynous in gender.”
“That’s something I didn’t know for sure and I didn’t want to guess.” Celestia said while drinking from a magically appeared cup of tea.
“I think I look quite male and for my age. I’m seventeen. Can you give me something to write with.” He said, annoyed a bit.
“I’m sorry, It’s quite hard to tell the gender of foreign or alien species. There is an ape in the Tall Tail Mountains that have different looks, but it’s random which gender it is. So I just put that in, would you like to be treated like a mare?” She said back. “Just correct it.” She said while floating a quill and some ink to Martin.
“Fine, fine, I’ll do it.” He sat down on a pillow nearby and began correcting incorrect parts of the form. In the last name box Celestia filled in: Human. In the address she filled in her own. This made him think where he was going to stay when this was all over. ‘If I’m getting out of this what am I going to do then. It’s not like I can go to school here. I do have some of my books at Twi’s library. I don’t have money, a home or a job and just a bit of almost useless education. Maybe the princess can help me out with this. I should ask her after the trial. Maybe someone can still find a way home’
When he was done with the forms he handed them back to Celestia, who took them in her magic and checked them. “Here they are, everything is corrected,” He said to her.
“Thank you, I’m sure everything will be fine.” She responded. “What will you be doing until the trail? Maybe Luna can help you.”
“Maybe I can. I still need to do some work Martin can help me with.” Luna said smiling a bit.
“Sure, why not. Not like have anything better to do.” Martin said while following Luna out of the room.
When Martin and Luna were out of the room Celestia grabbed some law books and started digging through the ‘Aliens’ portions. She remembered how ridiculous it was writing this, like there ever were going come any aliens to Equestria. O boy, was she wrong.
As Martin and Luna were walking through the corridor’s once again he asked her what they were going to do. She said that he should just wait.
They arrived at Luna’s room. It had large ornate black doors and an engraved moon and stars. It looked quite nice. Luna opened the doors and they stepped in.
As soon as they stepped in he asked: “So what do I have to do for you?”
“You have to help me out with something. Something that I just can’t do without your help.” Luna answered while grabbing a box from under her bed. “We’ll need this.” She opened the box and showed the content's to Martin. It quite surprised him. “That quite surprised me. So let’s go help you out.”
He grabbed whatever was in the box and started using it for what is was supposed to be used for.
“Ooh, you’re doing it quite well. You should do this more often.”
(Get your collective minds out of the gutter.)
But unfortunately a gust of wind blew through the open window and toppled the card house Martin was building. “Damnit, I was going good. I’ll try again.” He said while collection all the fallen peaces.
“Sure. I’ll close the window and then we’ll try to build more houses. I couldn’t have done it without your fingers. Magic just isn’t as precise as hands. Thanks for helping me.” She shut the window and started to help Martin with the card houses.
They continued building houses, playing tic-tac-toe on important contacts, watching Celestia do some more work and eating some of the left cake. (It wasn’t much.) Just having fun.
When they were called out to eat Luna packed up the plates and the pack of cards.
“Thanks for spending time with me, Luna. I don’t what I would’ve done without you. This place is a bit boring.” Martin said as they walked to the dining room.
“Hmm, I understand what you mean. This palace is indeed a bit boring, t’was that even in the olden days. I haven’t had much company, aside from the occasional visits from Twilight Sparkle no one visits me. The nobles still think I’m Nightmare Moon and don’t trust me, my night court is almost never visited and everypony avoids me like the plague. ” Luna said, looking a bit said as they walked into the room.
“Don’t worry Luna. I won’t avoid you.” He said trying to cheer her up.
“Thank you Martin. Now let’s eat with my sister!” Luna almost shouted as she sat down on a pillow on the long table.
“So what did you do today. I’m sure that you had a great time today. Now let’s eat some lovely salad my cook has prepared.” Celestia said while serving 3 portions of salad which was mostly composed of slaw, dandelions, tomatoes and other various green stuff.
While Luna and Celestia starting eating with gusto and grace, Martin choked on the first bite. “Damn, this is sour. Is there anything sour in here?”
“No, I don’t think so. There’s just some slaw, dandelions, cucumbers and some other green stuff. Aren’t you liking it.”
“Human’s aren’t supposed to eat flowers.” He said while coughing up some of flowers.
“Interesting, so you lack the organs to properly digest the stuff and the taste buds on your tongue see the taste as sour because of that. ” Luna said while sounding quite smart.
“Well… yes. How did you know that?” Martin asked.
“Oh, I studied foreign species in my free time. You have quite the similarity to a monkey, so I went with its body.” Luna explained.
“Interesting. Can you make me anything else, Luna?” He asked while shoving his plate away from him.
“Nah, I’ll just remove the flowers from the salad.” She said while magically removing all the flowers from Martin’s salad.
“Thanks.” Martin said sarcastically. They continued eating the salad and the non-existing cake for dessert. During the meal they made small talk, mostly about earth.
After the meal they all went to bed. Martin and Luna saying their goodbye to each other before parting for the night.
When they were all sleeping safe and sound a certain discordant creature was watching them, planning more of his evil plans with the human involed.
As the sun rose 5 minutes late (Celestia fired the rooster) Martin was woken by a overenthusiastic Luna. “Come on, wake up. We must have more fun.” Luna yelled at Martin while jumping up and down on his small bed. Shaking Martin out of his bed and on the ground.
“Stop Luna, please leave my bed in one piece. I awoke just a second ago. Just five more minutes.” He slipped back into bed and went back to sleep.
“No, come on. Let’s go play some more. I don’t need to do anything important, I work for the government. Let’s play, come on.” She started jumping more, waking Martin once more.
“Fine, fine. Just let me have some coffee, then we’ll play.” He said while getting out of bed.
“Wow, you’re completely hairless. How do you keep yourself warm?” She asked Martin while poking him with a stick. She grabbed Martin’s clothes with her magic and started checking them out, coiling one around her horn. “For what do you use these?”
“Can I get my clothes back please? I need them. Please.” He asked while grabbing for his clothes in the air, but Luna kept them out of his reach while she was giggling.
“Come on, gimme, gimme!” While he was grabbing for the clothes he lost his gripped and slipped of the bed, right on his face. *BONK* “Ow, that hurt.”
Luna apologized multiple times before helping Martin to his feet. When she helped Martin up he got dressed and they walked out of the room towards the dining room.
“So what’s for breakfast?” Martin asked when they almost reached the dining room.
“Some oatmeal and grape juice.” Luna said as they walked into the room.
“Yay, more horse food. That ought to be tasty.” He said while picking the oatmeal placed in front of him by a servant.
“Don’t pick it, just eat it with a bit of syrup. It’ll taste better that way.” Celestia walked, saying that, in while floating a bottle of syrup to Martin.
“Ooh, syrup. That always improves things.” Martin said while covering his oatmeal with a 10 cm thick layer of syrup. (It was a wonder that the bowl didn’t over float.)
“Tia, don’t turn others into a sweet tooth like you. Martin take some off your oatmeal, you’ll get holes in your teeth.” Luna said while grabbing an oversized spoon and taking about 5 cm of syrup.
“Aww, that was my syrup. Come on Luna, give it back.” He said while comically grabbing for the large spoon. The aura containing the spoon changes from dark blue to white. The spoon floated over to Celestia while her mouth grew large enough to envelop the spoon, which it did.
“Hey, that was my syrup, now my oatmeal won’t be as sweat as a mountain of sugar concentrated into one sugar cube.” He said while moping over his oatmeal covered with gooey sugar.
“Just sit down and eat your oatmeal like a good human.” Celestia said while sitting down next to Luna.
Martin grumbled a couple of times, but still decided to eat his oatmeal like the good human he was.
After they had eaten breakfast Celestia had to go back to work and finish more work. Luna didn’t have to do that because Luna was the night princess who only has to do things at night.
So she asked Martin to play some more and he agreed without thinking about it (otherwise he had to do some work and that is quite boring).
Luna and Martin walked through on of the many corridors the castle contained to a room filled with toys and other similar things to the brim.
They played together, ate together and did other things together for which I’m too lazy to write down.
When they sat down again for dinner Celestia talked to Martin about the trail they would have tomorrow.
“So you should just say nothing tomorrow. I looked at the statement Rights made and it is quite good. As much as I disagree with what you did you can’t be fully blamed for your actions. Rights isn’t a very honest lawyer, but he does his research. You’ll be in good hands.” Celestia said while eating the pasta with sauce (finally something Martin actually didn’t have to pretend to like).
As Celestia and Martin discussed the details of the trial Luna quickly became bored and left to go to sleep, but not before giving Martin a nuzzle in his neck. This left him puzzled and Celestia quite humored.
“Why did she do that?” He asked, looking at Luna as she left the room.
“It is a sigh of friendship and affection, only given between close friends. She doesn’t have many friends so I’m glad that she made another one.” Celestia said happily. “We should go to bed and be fresh for the lawsuit tomorrow.”
After the talked some more they said their goodbyes and went to their respective rooms.
Martin thought some more about his future while in bed, but fell asleep soon enough, dreaming about pastel colored ponies.
Martin woke up and walked out of the room towards the dining room. When he arrived there he saw tree ponies sitting there: Celestia, Right Rights and Twilight.
“Hi Twilight.” Martin said as he sat down on a chair on the opposite side of where the others sat.
“Hi Martin, long time no see. I hope you had a good time with Celestia and Luna.” She said, with a sad undertone.
“Celestia and Luna were great company, especially Luna. And I talked about the trial with Saul here. I hope it is going to go well today.” Martin said while grabbing some more oatmeal and a jumbo bottle of syrup.
“That’s wonderful.” Twilight said, with the same undertone as before.
“Hey Martin, I’ve got the perfect statement for you, prepared by me and the princess. With this we’ll surely keep you out of the prison. Just don’t say anything about the ‘help from a princess’ thing. That would make the whole lawsuit void and I would have to start all over again. ” Rights said while scribbling something on a piece of paper.
“Thanks for making one for me.” Rights handed the stamen over to him. “Just let me read it.” He leaned back and ate his oatmeal and read the statement like the good human he was.
“So we’ve discussed everything princess.” Rights asked the princess.
“I’m sure we’ve covered everything, mister Rights. I will see after the lawsuit.” Celestia responded.
“Until then, wish me luck.” Rights said while walking out of the room toward where ever he was going and Celestia followed short after finishing her own breakfast.
Martin looked up from the statement and said to Twilight: “So why are you here? I thought you were going to stay in Ponyville when I saw you walking away.” Martin said, quite sad about what happened earlier.
“I couldn’t stay mad at you. But yes, I was very sad in the days after. I thought some about what happened and talked to some of my friends. I got over it and hope to get a good explanation from you in the next few days.” Twilight said while using a spoon to eat some of Martin’s oatmeal.
“I’m sorry that you were sad over me and I’m sure that you will get a satisfactory explanation from me. Maybe we can talk it over after the lawsuit. I hope this will get better afterwards.” Martin said while covering his oatmeal from the invading spoon.
“Oh, I’m sure I will hear a good explanation from you in court as I am the public prosecutor that will be the one sitting on the bench opposite to you. I was appointed the special public prosecutor by Celestia. That happened when I helped run a lawsuit against a griffon who used a unicorn to mug a large amount of ponies in Canterlot. She was impressed with how I helped and made me a public prosecutor. I helped in just a few lawsuits after that, but she thought that I should be in this trial especially.” Twilight said while grabbing a bowl of oatmeal of her own.
“Wait what, you’re going to be my accuser. Did you know that all along? Are you seriously going to attack me, I’ll lose against you. That’s not fair.” He said while giving a pleading look at Twilight.
“I am going to give you a fair trial, as Celestia ordered me to do. And maybe you now know why I was so sad when you were moved to Canterlot. I knew that I had to be the prosecutor that would be against you. I’m sorry that I have to do what I’m going to have to do, but that’s the way it is. But I am going to give you a fair chance.” She said to him with a large smug grin on her face.
“Just give me a fair chance. That’s the only thing I ask of you, besides letting me win.” He said, just the last part a little softer.
“Can’t do that, just be a good human and say the statement Rights has made for you and all will be fine. We shouldn’t even be talking now, if the judges knew they would declare the trial invalid and you would go to jail immediately and I wouldn’t be capable of continuing my research and you would be looked at by others. That would be horrible.” Twilight said while getting a bit of a crazy look on her face.
“Just calm down. I think that even in prison you can research me, don’t you worry. If you are as good as I think you are, you can look at me all you want through some iron bars.” He said while wiggling his eyebrows.
“Hmf, If Rights is as good as he says he is. You’ll be fine.” Twilight said while throwing a spoonful of oatmeal at Martin.
“Great, I’m putting all my faith in a pony I don’t even know AND I’m going against a very smart pony. I’m do-o-omed.” He said while fake fainting.
“Oh stop being such a sissy and do whatever you need to do. I need to speak with some of the eyewitnesses and go to the courthouse. So I will see you in court. Good luck until then.” Twilight said after finishing her oatmeal. While she was walking out of the room she greeted Luna who was walking into the dining room at the moment.
“Good morning Martin. Care for some more oatmeal.” Luna said while having a bowl of oatmeal and a spoon shaped like a catapult in her magic.
The thought that shot through his mind was: ‘What is the obsession with oatmeal here?’
A pony and human shaped blob walked out of the room, strangely smelling of oatmeal. “Maybe we should go clean each other off, I don’t think I can go sit in court like this.” Martin said while scraping the oatmeal of his face.
“Or if the judge likes oatmeal as much as me, she’ll let you go. And no, I like how you look with a lot of food on you.” She giggled a bit and licked a large part of his leg completely clean. Her mood dropped a bit. “I’m sure you’ll do fine in court. I’ll support you all the way. You’re my little hairless monkey. And if you lose I’ll make you my personal pet.” Luna said to him while trying to get the oatmeal out of her wings.
“I hope I don’t lose. And I think Rights is supposed to be a good lawyer, so I think I’ll be fine. I hope.” Martin said while trying to get oatmeal out of his hair. It didn’t work.
“I have some other princessy business to attend to. Until next time.” Luna said to him while walking off into one of the many corridors of the castle and quickly left Martin’s sight.
‘Then there isn’t for me to do other than wait for anything to happen before the lawsuit. And that’ll get boring very quickly.’ He walked up to one of the many doors in his eyesight, there were a lot. The door he opened was, to his surprise, a library in which he didn’t, to his surprise, found Twilight reading. So he settled for just trying to read one of the many slightly understandable books about magic. They were quite interesting, for what he understood. The only thing he got from the book he was thumbing through was that using magic was channeling the energy from the surroundings through the horn and using for themselves. And that alicorn can use that energy to a larger extent and use it for self-regeneration, or in other words, immortality.
He picked up another book, this one was about all of the different species that were in Equestria. A lot of animals appeared in Earth’s mythology so he tried to compare them to the mythology he knew from his education. He stopped after for the umpteenth an animal appeared that was composed of multiple ones, like the manticore, a draquenuus or the cockatrice.
He laid the book down on the nearest bookstand, that one was quite the low one. After he put it down he walked up to the door and walked through it and into the nearest door, trying to find something new to do.
Unfortunately the door that he opened led to a bathroom. The bathroom wasn’t meant for any stallions. So after one hell of a lot of screams and more than one brush was thrown to him he finally escaped the not so merciful clutches of the residing mares.
After spending a large amount of time trying to find the exit to the gardens he walked through two large ornate doors and walked through them. As soon as he walked through them he scared off at least 3 ponies, one screaming that he didn’t wanted to get monster filth on his gorgeous mane.
He just took for a normal stroll through the gardens, as normal as it could get in Equestria. He walked past the various statues which had so many meanings, the platters on them had so much information on them. Stuff like what it represented and the pony it was modeled after and their complete biography. It is a wonder how it got crammed on such a small platter.
After what would’ve been a calming walk he was struck by a snowball. A snowball in mid-summer. Take tree guess on which pony threw that. I don’t think you even need one.
As the night-blue mare stepped behind from the bushes carrying a lot of snowballs in her magic. “Do you wanna have a snowball fight?” She asked while bouncing one snowball up and down in her hoof.
“Luna! Why?! In the middle of the summer! No, I was just having a small stroll through the park and then I feel a snowball in the back of my neck. Fuck! Now I got it all over me. Damnit” Martin yelled at her while digging the snow out of his neck. He got a bit too angry about it and lost his cool very quick.
“S-s-sorry.” Luna said at him while her eyes were watering up and her lip started quivering. Then she ran away.
“What, Luna, no. Don’t run away, please. I just hate getting snow thrown at me.” He yelled after Luna, trying to get her back. But to no prevail, she kept running away, wet grass behind her.
“Damn, more problems on my platter. That is going to take a while to fix.” Martin said to himself while kicking a pluck of grass. He growled some more and walked back to the castle.
He walked into the castle, somehow managed to find the library again, laid down on a large white pillow and just closed his eyes, thinking about what had happened and what was going to happen.
Then, after about an hour a very angry looking white alicorn came walking into the library. “What did you do to my sister?” A princess said very un-princess-like. “She came crying to me saying that you yelled at her.” Celestia yelled once more at Martin, who, at this point, came stood up from his comfy pillow. It was clear that her feathers were rustled.
“She threw a snowball at me!” He yelled back at her, trying to stand up against her. And trust me, standing up against an immortal alicorn princess is almost impossible. And Martin failed quite at this game.
“But that is no reason to just go and yell at her. You need to learn to take something and not go yell at everypony immediately. You need to control yourselves.” She said, trying to regain her composure again.
“It’s that I just hate getting snow thrown at me. So I overreacted a bit. I’m sorry, just sorry. Sorry for making her sad and stuff.” Martin said to her, trying to make this better.
“You can say that to her after the lawsuit. She’s very upset about it, so you better think of something good to tell her.” Celestia said to him, finally looking a bit normal again. “We leave now to go to the court.”
“Fine, just let me grab… uhm… nothing. No, wait, the book I was reading.” Martin said. Then he grabbed the book next to him and stood up.
“Good, you’re involving yourself in Equestrian history. It’s nice to see that you’re taking interest in the place we you’re staying. Now let’s go. We’ve got somewhere important to be.” Celestia said while walking out of the door and to the exit of the castle, Martin on her tail.
As they walked to the courthouse they didn’t say much to each other. As they walked through the streets of Canterlot Martin looked at all the interesting things, there just weren’t a lot of things to see. The residents of Canterlot on the other hand (hoof?) looked at nothing else. The rumors of a large walking ape spread quickly through all of Canterlot. Every street they walked into was deserted. Every pony was behind glass of a stall scared of him. He understood that, it was quite funny to look at.
At the end they were at the large ornate wooden doors that led to the courthouse. Celestia turned to him. “In the next few hours your future will be determined, so please don’t say anything stupid. ” As soon as she finished speaking she teleported into the courthouse taking Martin with her.
And the ponies on the street finally could go back to selling their stuff. “Stupid apes.” Many ponies growled.
He opened his eyes and he stood in a room with Princess Celestia. It was brightly lit and also completely empty.
The princess turned to him. “This is the room in which the accused will arrive. Will need to be shackled before you enter, just for appearances.” She smiled and floated a pair of metal shackles besides her.
She put them on him and guided him out of the door. As they were walking through the corridors to his demise. “Don’t worry and articulate clearly. Just read the statement from Rights and all will be fine. And no word that I helped you.” She smiled again and pushed me through a door, into the courtroom.
He was shoved into the room where a lot of ponies were watching the first conviction of a human, they hoped. He looked around and saw Rights sitting at one bench and Twilight sitting at the other. And so he walked to Rights and sat down next to him.
“Hey kid. Good to see you all shackled up. Heh, heh.” Rights said to him, trying to reassure him. It didn’t work. “Just read this when I and all will be fine.” Rights settled into his chair/pillow and waited for it to start.
The judge stood up. “All stand before the judge and jury.!” Every single pony in the room stood up, there wasn’t a lot of difference in height. Martin stood up too, feeling a bit uncomfortable being the most visible.
As everyone was sitting down Martin got a tug on his sleeve from Rights who told him to sit down. “Just calm down. Miss Sparkle will open with her charge and then you read this to the judge.” Rights gave him a pat on his back and shoved some papers in front of him. “I’ll also call upon some witnesses to aid you.” Rights pointed at some ponies sitting one row behind them.
“Sure, sure. I’ll just listen to you.” Martin said to him, his nerves wrecking him.
Then Twilight stood up and started talking, but her voice had a small vibration in it. “Equestria hereby accuses you of murdering mister White Suits with medical equipment on purpose after escaping from your bonds which were put on you after you acted dangerously in your sleep. How do you plead?” She sat down and exhaled, trying to calm down and get the idea of making her friend go to jail out of her head.
Martin just kind of sat there, getting looked at by ponies. Rights leaned over to him and whispered, “Read the text, and do it quick.” Martin grabbed the piece of paper and looked it over. He scraped his throat and started speaking.
“Judge and jury. As you see I’m am not from this world. I arrived mere days before this tragic accident. I was kindly received by the residents of Ponyville. After one of the residents wanted to show an aerial trick I got injured in his ears. After this I was entered into the hospital where I was treated for my ruptured eardrums. This hospital gave me good care, but when I needed it the most they failed. As I later heard I was at unease in my sleep and to prevent injuries they bound me. But, members of the jury, they didn’t know that a human, as myself, should never be bound liked that. Even worse they gave me medications which have never been tested on humans. That was one of the worst mistakes. These medications have been thoroughly tested on ponies, but not on humans. The side-effects weren’t known nor were they held in account while I was being bound. They couldn’t have known how I would react in such a situation.” There was more on it, but Rights stopped me and started talking himself.
“As you can see my client had no influence on his actions. This accident happened because of the neglect of the doctors to consider that a human isn’t anatomically identical to a pony. Because of this seemingly small thing one pony died and lives were destroyed. And it also was the case that the sedatives used on my client were only adjusted on weight and, just as before, not tested before on humans. Because of this I plead that my client only needs to do community service, to help repay what he didn’t do. See it as charity. But for the doctor on the other hoof. He was the only cause of Mister White’s death and should be punished as such.” Rights settled down again. Martin was angry, he knew it wasn’t all his fault, but he doesn’t want to ruin any more lives by sending an doctor to jail. He knew that what Rights and himself said wasn’t untrue, but it sounded so harsh. He just hoped that as little people would be hurt by this. And he had no problem with doing as much community service as he needed to.
Martin leaned over to Rights and whispered in his ear that he shouldn’t go so hard on the doctors. Rights replied with a no can do, otherwise Martin would need to find another scapegoat and that would be too hard.
Twilight stood up again and called for the first witness, one of the nurses that was tending to me when he broke my bonds. She asked her a lot of questions, like what he said that morning and how he acted. She said that a lot of things were blurred, but she remembered that Martin was, as he was bound, very wild from the moment he was awake. She also remember that the doctor paid no attention to the fact that he was a human and just used the doses that were used for ponies.
Rights said to him that this was only helping them and their arguments. He just felt himself getting sicker and sicker by the moment.
Rights stood up and asked for Martin’s doctor as eyewitness. Rights asked him if he checked the doses. He didn’t. Rights asked him if he knew how Martin would react to being bound. He didn’t. He asked him if he had any explanation for his action. He did.
He started a whole story about how had gone drinking with some friends the night before and that he had a hangover that morning and that he didn’t feel good that morning and didn’t pay much attention. Then the doctor though about what he just said and silently cursed to himself.
Rights sensed this and dived onto this story like a dog to a bone. “So you’re saying that you drank the night before and felt a bit sick afterwards.” The answer from the doctor was positive. “And you still went to work.” Rights continued.
“Yes, but I felt fine on the moment that the human escaped. The choice to kill Mr. Suits was completely his own. I had nothing to do with it.” The doctor said, knowing he was done for.
“Being unsuitable for work, but still going has cost lives. That is why the blame lies with you.” Rights said while trying to hold back a large grin. “I rest my case.” And he said back down on his pillow.
The doctor walked back to his seat and sulked there. What most of the ponies there didn’t know was that he has a drinking problem and that things like this almost happened before.
The judge looked over her notes ones more and then asked if anypony wanted so say anything anymore. No answer came from the room. “Then we will continue this session tomorrow and give the verdict then. Fillies and gentlecolts, I will see you tomorrow.” She stood up and trotted out of the room.
“So Saul, how did it go?” Martin asked him.
He looked at his papers and grinned at Martin. “This is a cat in the bag. We are in the clear. You’ll get some small punishment and the doctor and associates will get the full load. Tomorrow will be a good day. Get some sleep and I will pick you up before court begins.” Rights said to him before finally walking to some door at the side of the room.
Twilight walked over to Martin. “Well that didn’t went as planned for me. That drunk doctor messed things up quite a bit. I just hope that things work out well.” Twi said while semi-guiding Martin out of the room and towards the large wooden doors. As they left the large wooden doors they started walking down the large road towards the castle.
“Do you want to get some coffee? I know a good place and it is close by.” Twi asked Martin. “I used to visit this place a lot while I studied under the princess in the short moments that I wasn’t studying.” She smiled.
“Sure, some coffee would be nice. Just to take my mind of all that has happened lately.” Martin said while trying to avoid walking against ponies.
“The place is called Donut Joe’s and is owned by Donut Joe. He makes the best doughnuts and coffee. And the place is calm enough to study or write an essay. I had some of my best ideas there. And Joe is one of the nicest shop owners I have ever known, he gave me free coffee on more than one occasion. And when I ruined the Grand Galloping Gala he let me warm up there, even though we got cake all over his shop.” Twi got a bit cheerier after seeing that her case was drilled into the ground, she didn’t even seem to notice.
They walked for a while without exchanging a word. When they arrived at the donut shop they entered silently and without a hustle. But then a couple of ponies noticed the large hairless ape that was suddenly standing in the shop. So naturally there was a lot of screaming and tables getting turned over. And in 2 minutes the whole place was deserted. The only thing Joe grumbled was that fortunately the customers already have paid before they left.
So they sat down and asked Joe for 2 glazed doughnuts and 2 cups of coffee. After they got the food and drink from Joe Joe grabbed a broom and started swiping the ground.
They talked about Martin’s life back on Earth and Twilight’s studies under Celestia. They discovered many similarities, like the city names, and Twilight at one moment grabbed a notebook and started scribbling stuff down while they were talking. After they ate their food and drank their drinks they left some bits on the counter and walked out of the door towards the castle. It was well into the evening.
Twilight shuddered ‘cause of the cold air outside. Martin noticed it and gave her his jacket. She thanked him and they walked on.
“What are you going to do after this? I mean if you don’t go to jail.” Twilight said to him while crossing the street.
“I honestly have no idea. Maybe I can find a job or something else. Travel around. I have no idea. And what can I do exactly. There aren’t a lot of jobs here for humans.” Martin sighs.
“Don’t be so down. I’m sure the princess has something in mind to help you. Everything will be fine.” Twi said, giving him a pat on the back.
“Thanks. And the princess always knows a way. A solution for every problem. Now, let’s set our mind to happier things. Like… uhm… your friends.” Martin said while pushing open the large wooden doors of the castle.
“I could go on and on about them. You could even ask the princess about all the friendship reports I wrote her. If I would start about them I would never end.” She giggled a bit as they walked up the stairs to their respective rooms.
“Maybe we can talk about them when they wheel me to the prison in a straightjacket.” Martin laughed.
“Ooh, don’t think that way.” Twilight said while giving him a playful shove. She yawned while they walked into the corridor on which Martin’s room was.
“This is my room.” Martin said while knocking on his own door. ”So then this is a goodnight. Till tomorrow and sleep well.” He said to her. He opened the door and stepped in, closing it behind him.
He simply walked up to the bed and flopped down. He fell asleep in minutes.
Martin woke up and got out of his bed, put on his clothes and walked towards the breakfast room. When he arrived there he saw that there was only one pony there, a sad one. It was Luna. He then realized that he still needs to properly apologize to her. So he sat down next to her.
“I’m sorry that I jelled at you. It just is that I hate getting snow thrown at me. I never meant for you to get hurt or anything. Snow in the summer is not something that I would expect. Will you forgive me?” He asked her, while grabbing a bowl and making some breakfast for himself.
Luna laid her head on his arm and said, “I forgive you. And I apologize too for throwing the snowball at you. I couldn’t have known that you would react to that.” Martin feels relieved that Luna forgives him.
“Do you want to get a cup of coffee after the lawsuit?” Martin asked her, trying to cheer her up more.
“Yes! I would really like that. Thank you,” Luna hugged him, “I have to do something.” She says and runs out of the room, leaving Martin to himself. ‘I have no idea what just happened. But hey, I’m going to get a drink with the moon princess. How bad could that be?’
Martin settled on his chair and grabbed some milk for his Celesti-O’s. Then the face on the box walked into the door, sat down, and grabbed some cereal from the aforementioned box. “I just saw a very happy Luna walking out of this room. Did you talk to her?” She said to Martin while floating the milk towards her.
“I did. I apologized, then she apologized and then I asked her if she would like to have a cup of coffee after the lawsuit. Then she thanked and hugged me. The rest you know.” Martin said through a mouthful of cereal.
Celestia looked at him as if he just asked her sister out, which in fact he did. “You do know that asking a pony out to drink coffee is like asking somepony for a date?”
“That is quite the twist.” Martin said while grabbing a cup of coffee
“You aren’t going to cancel this now are you?” Celestia asked him. “Because that would make me angry and her sad.” Celestia grabbed a cup of coffee too and started to sip it.
“No I won’t. Why would I? She’s a nice pony and I wouldn’t mind going out on a date with her.” Martin said, his cheeks red.
Martin sighed and shook his head. He continued to eat his food. “On Earth saying you want to grab a drink with someone usually means just that. If you say that you want to drink a cup of hot coffee with someone that usually means that you want to sleep with that person.” Martin said calmly.
Celestia spat out her (ironically) coffee and yelled, “What!? You wanted to sleep with my sister.”
“No, no, no. I’m just saying. Because asking someone to drink coffee with you has a different meaning here I just wanted to point out that it is the same on Earth. But you have to say the exact phrase otherwise it means just what you would be saying literally. So don’t worry. I have no intention to sleep with your sister nor you.” Martin said while wiping the coffee from his clothes.
“That is good to hear. Your planet is a weird one.”
“Yea, and pastel colored ponies are normal for me you mean?” Martin said with a smile.
“Oh, no. This all must have been very strange for you in the beginning.”
“The first time I saw one of you the thought that going through my mind the most was what a weird place this must be.”
“I’m glad that you feel at rest here instead of freaking out all the time. From what I heard form Twilight you did that quite a lot in the beginning.” Celestia giggled some more.
“Oh spare me the shame. I acted like an idiot back then. It’s not like things has gotten better since the hospital, but I feel a lot better since then. And I have met many good ponies too, like Luna and Twilight.” Martin said while pouring another cup.
“And why those ponies in particularly?” Celestia said, knowing that this would be hard to answer for the human.
“Uhm… uhm… ah, yes. Twilight because she is so interested in the humans and because she own a library, how awesome is that. Luna because she is fun to hang around and likes to play games. And there both a bit socially awkward, just like was back on earth. That, I think, are the reasons that I like them” Martin said, a little bit of red visible on his cheeks.
“Those are good arguments. And the fact that they are my student and my sister does help.” She smiled at Martin. “Don’t worry. Whatever happens today we will stay with you. And if you go to jail we will bring you your food every day and your cuffs will be fluffy, for whenever Luna comes by.” Celestia almost couldn’t hold her laugh in as she said the last part. Almost. She burst out in laughter and fell of her pillow. She regained herself and got back on her pillow. “Sorry. It is just that the first human in Equestria is hooking up with my sister. I have no problems it is just that this is about as unlikely as it is that you grow wings and fly into the moon. I have a feeling that after today things will be a lot better. And if they won’t, the cell are very comfy.” She calmed down and started sipping at her cup again.
“Thanks, I guess. Anyway how late do I have to come to the courthouse or are you going to pick me up again?” Martin asks her while finishing his meal.
“I will pick you up from where ever you are. And you aren’t so hard to find, but the second part of the lawsuit will begin in about 4 hours and the scales are in your favor. So you can already be glad about that.” Celestia said as she cleaned up her bowl and cup. “I have some other things I need to attend to, I will see you afterwards. Bye” She smiled at him and walked out of the room and towards her own study room.
‘And then there was one. I need to find something to do. I’m not taking a walk again. I think this idea would please Twi. TO THE LIBRARY’ He screamed out in his mind as he began walking towards the library.
In there he found many more books on magic and so many other things. He then came across a book which was supposed to help unicorns which can’t use magic at an age when they should be capable of that. It, like the other book, speaks of the almost infinite energy that is present in the nature and that unicorns can access through a special portion in their mind. It also said that earth ponies and pegasi also have this portion only that it is used more passively that actively. It is possible for other races that unicorns to actively use magic, but this is only a very small portion of the Equestrian population. Griffons also can have this portion, but this portion is so small that it is negligible. It basically comes down to that every living creature has this portion, but in almost every case, outside unicorns, it is too small to be used actively. Dragon’s use it to breathe fire and fly, pegasi for flight, earth ponies for crop growing and even chickens to help lay their eggs.
‘Maybe this applies to humans too. What a show it would be if I could use magic. I would like to see the look on Twi’s face when that happens. Maybe I should try if I have anything, Mathilda style, moving things with my eyes and such.’ So he sat down one of the large pillows and grabbed a pencil from a nearby stand. Then he realized that some pony had that in his mouth. So he simply grabbed a book and laid it in the perfect center of the small table.
He got comfortable again and concentrated on this book. And he tried and tried, he even did all the ridiculous gestures they do in the movies. He tried until he felt his eyes were going to pop out. But after a while he gave up, because nothing seemed to happen to the book. So he grabbed another one and started to read, this one about the eating habits of birds.
He read his way through books until he saw Celestia coming into the room. “Hi Martin. I hope you had a good read, but we have to go to the courthouse. You go and wait by the front door. I just have to put a book back.” She says while floating a large book next to her.
“Sure. I will see you there.” Martin walked past her out of the room and towards the front door.
Celestia walked to the bookstand and put her book back. She looked at one of the nearby tables. There laid a book on it. Celestia wasn’t one for perfection, but her books needed to be perfect. So she laid the book back onto the center.
Chapter 13. Judge, jury and executioner. (The lawsuit final.)
Martin waited for the princess to come before they walked towards the courthouse. The rout was the same and so was the nauseating entrance to the building. Teleporting for the second time still gave him a small stomachache. Everything went the same as before. He got cuffed and walked into the filled courtroom and sat down next to Rights.
“So kid, how is it hanging?” Rights asked laughing.
“Great. Today I’m hearing if I’m going to jail or not. So yea, I’m great.” Martin said while getting comfortable on his pillow.
“Don’t worry. The doctor will go to jail. I pulled a background check and he had been arrested for public intoxication multiple times. This guy has a problem from here till the Badlands. And we’ll throw some community service in for good measure. In an hour you’ll be sipping coffee and free.” Rights said while smiling at him. He sat down and shoved a piece of paper in front of Martin.
“I’ll be sipping coffee for sure.” Martin said while looking over the piece of paper.
“See, that’s the spirit. Just look over it and say no word.” Rights settled back onto his pillow and waiting for the lawsuit to continue. “By the way. I pulled everything that I could find on this guy, but also the whole documentations of that day. We’re in the clear”
One of the many doors on the side opened and the judge walked into the room. She sat down onto the heightened pillow and grabbed the hammer that laid in front of her. She slammed it a couple of times on the wooden desk. “Order. Everypony sit down.” She waited for everyone to settle down and when the room got quiet she continued. “We are here to continue the case of the Equestrian state versus the accused. The defense may start.”
Twilight stood up and looked one time at her papers, she sighed. “The accused has, in the hospital, said on multiple occasions that he had anger issues. This leads us to believe that this can be chalked up to Anger management issues, rather than wrongfully used medicines. So our adjusted proposed punishment is 1 year of prison and 5 of therapy for his problems.” She breathed in and sat back down.
Rights stood up. “And do you have any proof for this outrageous accusation?”
The pony next to Twilight stood up and held an recorder up and clicked the play button. What sounded through the room was a very bad impersonation of my voice. It said that he had a long history of anger management problems. But the thing was that it sounded nothing like Martin’s voice. It was distorted and he had to listen good to even distinguish any words.
Rights stood up. “I think that that certainly isn’t my client’s voice. The voice is to distorted to recognize who this is, so I can safely say that this pony or human isn’t my client. The doctor is, as of how I see it at the moment, the only suspect. I have looked into the files and the doctor was drunk on the job and that has cost a life. Even if this didn’t happened there still is a doctor out there that treats his patients while intoxicated. This stallion needs to be takes away from a hospital as soon as possible. We propose that the doctor will be imprisoned for 10 years and in prison treated for his addiction. That is my final statement.” And Rights sat down again, feeling quite satisfied.
“Do the accusers have anything to say for that?” The judge asked Twilight and the members of her party. There came no response. “Then the jury shall discuss the verdict and come back to you in half to one hour.” She trotted of the pedestal and followed the jury into one of the doors in the back.
“So Saul. How did it go?” Martin asked him after the ponies left the room.
“Everything went better than expected. That recording that they came up with was the worst thing that they could have brought in. We’re in the clear. And I aimed high with the sentence so that we can agree with going lower, make us look better.” He smiled a very wide smile and laid back comfortably, waiting for the conviction of the doctor.
“That is good.” Martin said while sitting down again. He still felt a little bad for the doctor, but he knew that I was a good thing that he was of the streets and wasn’t going back treating ponies. So he could feel a little better about that.
At Twilight side there was a bit of a separation. Twilight was thinking about getting the sentence for the doctor back to 5 years and the treatment, should he be found guilty. Her associate on the other hand wanted to hit back hard and get the, in his eyes, invading murdering alien into jail and out of Equestria. So they were having a pretty hefty discussion on what to do next. Twi wanted to keep her friend out of trouble, but her associate wanted nothing like that. He hated any creature that wasn’t a native Equestrian. Which is one of the reasons why he was used often, alongside Twilight, for cases involving griffons, dragons and any other alien that might happen to pop up anywhere in Equestria.
So after Martin had been drawing a blank for the last 3 quarters of an hour the judge and juries came out of the room. Martin tensed up.
“Now we’re going to here you’re home free.” Rights whispered in Martin’s ear.
The judge settled down onto the seat and scraped her throat. “The jury’s verdict is:” One of the mares in the jury stood up and read from a piece of paper: “We find the accused human… not guilty. And the accused mister Acula… guilty of neglect leading to the death of mister Suits.”
The jury took the word again as the mare sat down. “We have decided that mister Acula will be going to jail for 7 years and will receive treatment for his addiction. The human will go into therapy to find any problems in his mind and will undergo a full medical inspection to prevent any further medicinal wrong doings. This is our final verdict.” She sits down and walks out of the room.
The wave of relieve that washes over Martin cannot be equaled.
Martin was taken to a back room, together with Rights, Dr. Acula, Twilight and her associate. One of the bureaucrats shoved a large pile of paper in front of them. “Just sign here and here, here, here and here.” She said while pointing on several spots on the paper.
“Why do I need to sign this?” Martin asked her while looking at the thick pack of paper.
“This is an acceptance of your punishment. If you sign then you promise that you’ll follow the verdict of the judge, otherwise you will be thrown into jail and you will receive a double punishment.” She says while giving me a pen.
“I’ve got no problem with therapy, as long as they don’t try to put things into my head.” Martin says while signing his name on the designated spots.
The doctor grumbled some and reluctantly signed his name on the spots.
The judge walked up to the pile of paper and shoved it onto her back. “That would be all. Mares and gentlecolts, you may leave. ” She walked out of the room.
Then two police ponies came into the room and cuffed the doctor and escorted him out of the room. “You’ll regret this, you stupid ape!” he yelled from the hallway.
“You think he’ll do anything with that?” Martin asked Rights.
“I don’t think he can do anything, he’ll go to jail. It is not if he can do anything from his comfy cell. So just sit back and relay.” Rights patted Martin on his back. “I am done here. Just go to the therapy and keep your head down. But if you do get into trouble you know who to call.” He winked at Martin and walked out of the room.
“Good, good.” Martin said, a little sad, but also very happy that he got out free.
Everypony left, but Twilight. She looked around if anyone could see them. Nobody or pony could. She hugged him. “I’m so happy that you’re not in jail.”
“You’re not sad that you lost?” Martin asked as he hugs her back.
“Nah, we had it in for it anyway. The fact that the doctor had a drinking problem ended it. The princess will understand and now I can learn from you in a normal place, and not from within a cell.” She said while letting go of the human.
“Well. Everything turned out ok. But I still need to go to a shrink and I hope that that pony isn’t going to be annoying.” Martin said while walking along side Twilight to the exit.
“The shrink at Canterlot caste is a good one, so don’t worry about that. He will iron out your personality in no time.” Twilight said as they walked through the front door.
“Great, but my personality doesn’t need any ironing out. I’m already crazy enough and I like it that way.” Martin grins as they walked back towards the castle.
“Oh shut up. You’ll just talk to him and he’ll let you go.” Twilight said. “Maybe we can go and grab a cup of coffee. Get our minds off the trial.”
“Sure, why not? Couldn’t hurt.” Martin said as they entered a coffee shop. Martin sat down on a seat while Twilight got some coffee.
He looked around the shop and saw not too many ponies there.
“So you’re that new hairless ape that has been seen around Canterlot.” A sand colored mare asked him.
“Yes, I am that horrific monster that goes cantering around, eating foals.” Martin said while turning around to face her.
She giggled a bit. “So, what’s your name?”
“My name is Martin, what’s yours?” Martin asked, looking back at Twilight to see how far she is.
“My name is Sandy, Sandy Storms. I help control the weather above Canterlot. What do you do?” She asked as she sips her tea.
“I make sure that I don’t get thrown in jail. That is about it… oh, and I make sure that Twilight doesn’t dissect me.” Martin says while tapping at the table.
“That’s an interesting life. There isn’t much to my life except moving clouds or stopping the odd storm.” Sandy said while stirring a bit in her tea.
“At least that is a lot more interesting that my old life back on Earth. My life consisted of watching T.V. and my paper-round, nothing more.” Martin sighed. “But now that I am here a whole new set of opportunities has opened.”
“That is very nice for you, but what is Earth? Or do you mean a piece of dirt.” She asked, while downing the cup of tea.
“Earth is my home planet. I got here through some kind of magic.” Martin said. “Where does Twi stays?” Martin asked while looking where Twi was. She was still standing at the counter having a hefty discussion with the barista over the size of the coffee beans that are used.
“So you are from a different planet. Interesting, and that makes you an alien. If my sister could hear me I would never hear the end of it. We’ve been discussing the existence of aliens for a long time.” Sandy says. “You aren’t the kind of conquering alien?”
“Nah, I came here by accident. But I wouldn’t conquer Equestria. I probably wouldn’t get past the first 2 ponies, ‘cause magic is a bit too powerful for me.” Martin says, while trying to find Twilight in the mess of ponies we call a line.
“I hope you find your place in Equestria. And otherwise you can simply scrum the toilets.” Sandy said as Twilight approaches with two coffees secure in her magic.
“I sure do.” Martin said as Twilight floated a cup of coffee towards him and sat down next to him.
“So what are you talking about?” Twi asked as she sat down on the pillow. “This useless thing.” She said as she pointed to Martin.
“Thank you for that compliment, Twilight. I am useful for something, I think.” Martin said while sipping his coffee.
“Maybe you can make yourself useful while I conduct some experiments on you.” Twilight said.
“Dream on, Twilight.” Martin said while flicking Twilight’s ear.
“So, Martin, are you and Twilight together?” Sandy asked.
“What?!” Martin and Twilight yelled while spraying coffee all over the table.
Martin and Twilight were both looking at each other. “We aren’t together, just friends.” They said simultaneously.
Sandy wiped the coffee of her face. “Are you sure? You look like a good couple.” She said as she smiled and grabbed a napkin to wipe her coat with.
“We are just friends! Do I need to repeat that?” Martin asked.
“Nah, I am kidding.” Sandy said while grabbing another large pile of napkins. “It still nice to meet you, miss Sparkle.” She said while shaking the hoof of a still confused Twilight.
“Uhm.. it’s nice to meet you to, I guess. ” Twi said while sporting a forced smile.
“So, what were you doing today?” sandy asked while wiping her coat.
“Just avoid going to jail and unveiling that a doctor is a drunk.” Martin said.
Now it was Sandy’s turn to spray tea everywhere. “You did what?”
“He avoided going to jail and unveiled that a doctor is a drunk. And I was the prosecutor that sued him. And his lawyer luckily beat me.” Twilight said nonchalant.
Sandy just looked at them with a questioning look. She pointed at Martin. “So you are an alien that was going to jail, but escaped because of an drunken doctor, ” She pointed at Twi, “And you are a lawyer that wanted to lose a case. ”
Martin and Twilight said a resounding “Yep.”
“You are a strange bunch, you know that.” Sandy said while quickly working through the pile of napkins.
“I am an alien that is twice the size of a normal pony and she is a unicorn that is about as socially awkward as someone can get.” Martin said while giving Twilight a playful shove.
“Hey, I’m not that socially awkward anymore.” Twilight and while giving him a playful shove back.
“Let’s just say that you’re both a bit strange.” Sandy said while giggling a bit. “But you both look like nice enough ponies or, in this case, aliens.” Sandy looked at the clock. “Shoot, I forgot the time. I have to go. Sorry,” Sandy said while jumping up from her seat, “Bye. I’ll see you around.”
“Bye.” Martin and Twilight said as she walked out of the shop.
“So, who was that nice pony?” Twilight asked while wiggling her eyebrows.
“Her name is Sandy and I talked to her while you were staying in the line. She seems nice enough. I only know like 6 ponies, so meeting more is always good.” Martin said.
“I didn’t know that many ponies either before I came to Ponyville, but I made so many friends there. And I think you will too make many new friends.” Twilight said while sipping from the little remains of her coffee. “And you seem to be good friends with Luna already.”
“With Luna? That is going quite good. We’re even having a date later this afternoon.” As soon as Martin finished that sentence a fine rain of coffee rained upon him. “I assume that you didn’t know?”
“No! I didn’t. Why are you telling me this only now? And when did this happened?” Twilight said/yelled, close to making the table collapse.
“This morning.”
“Wow, that’s on a short notice.” Twilight said, regaining her calm. “I hope you have a nice time.” She said, a bit sarcastic, which went unnoticed by Martin.
“Thanks. It was a bit unexpected. I asked her for a cup of coffee and then we had a date. I don’t know exactly how it happened.” Martin said while trying to get the coffee out of his hair.
“You don’t. Why?” Twilight asked, a bit of hope in her voice.
“Some more weird pony customs or something like that.” Martin said.
“I think there is a book about that. Maybe you should read it.” Twilight said, loosening a bit more.
They both talked a bit more before leaving to the castle after an hour. They did stop on the way there to pick up some doughnuts for the castle. Twilight was planning for a hyper study session about humans since she missed some because of the lawsuit.
They arrived at the castle and Twilight excused herself and rushed towards the library to study, taking the jumbo box of doughnuts. She yelled a goodbye and was out of his sight.
Martin decided to leave the library as it was and tried to find Luna to tell her the good news. He walked towards the door of her room and knocked.
“Don’t come in. I’m not ready yet, wait until I come to fetch you, Martin.” He hears coming from within the room and he dares not to open it, for he might otherwise face the wrath of the moon princess.
“How did you know that it’s me?” Martin asked while putting his ear against the door.
“You knocked.” Luna said dry.
“I’ll come back later. Bye.” Martin said, walking back to the dining room to get some food since Twilight took the doughnuts.
“Bye!” Luna yelled from within the room.
Martin walked to the dining room, seeing if there was anything to do. There was nopony on his way to the dining room. So he walked into it and grabbed some bread and some nice spread.
He ate some bread until Celestia came in.
“So how did the lawsuit go?” Celestia asked while sitting down and grabbing something small to eat from the pantry. (A large pack of cookies.)
“I won and I think Twilight did too, seeing her mood.” Martin said while stuffing his face with bread.
“That is very good to hear. What is the outcome?” She asked.
“The doctor was sentenced to a couple of years of prison and some therapy. I just got the therapy for a month.” Martin said while making more sandwiches.
“Ooh, you got the therapy. That’s a good one. Where are you taking it?” Celestia asked while grabbing some more cookies from the box.
“Twilight said that the one at the castle is quite good. He helped Twilight get over her fears that she might be late for an exam. It took him some time but he did it.” Celestia said through a large amount of cookie crumbs. “I’m sure that he will help you just fine.”
“I hope so, but when is my date with Luna actually?” Martin asked while finishing his meal.
“I think it is in 5 minutes.” Celestia said, munching on some cookies.
“Martin, wake up. I was just joking.” Celestia said while throwing a glass of water over him.
Some water sprayed in Celestia’s face. She spat it out. “Very funny.”
“That you shouldn’t have joked on that.” Martin said dry. He stood up and wiped his head off with the tablecloth. “So when is the date then?”
“I think she said that it was around this afternoon. She said that she was going to a fancy restaurant, so maybe you should get a suit.” Celestia said while grabbing a tablecloth herself.
“You mean in a world occupied by ponies there is simply a suit to be found for humans.” Martin said while grabbing a glass of juice.
“Luna had one made for you. I think she had an idea that something would be happening. I don’t know. I’m sure that you will have a great time.” She said while doing the same as Martin. “What were you reading before I fetched you?”
“Something about how magic was in everything. It was pretty interesting, but it was a bit bland. I like reading about Equestria, there a so many thing that are different, and magic is a fascinating thing.” Martin said while downing the glass of juice.
“Magic is a very interesting topic many ponies have written about and studied. It is good to see that other species also divulge themselves in these topics. Come, I will show you your suite.” She said while walking towards the door.
“Sure. I would like to see a pony made suite for once. That reminds me, I’ve got to visit Rarity. She wants to make some clothes for me. I also got to visit some more ponies in Ponyville. Maybe I’ll do that the day after tomorrow.” Martin said while following Celestia through the hallways of Celestia.
“I will arrange for a chariot to take you home then.” She walked into a large closet/room. “This is our clothes room. Luna and I keep our clothes here.”
“There are a lot of tiaras and shoes here.” Martin said while looking through the large amount of tiaras and shoes and the occasional dress. His eye caught a small cabinet. He pressed a small button and it opened.
What he saw was a large collection of… *Bonk* The cabinet was shut quickly by a blushing Celestia. “That is a bit private. Heh, heh.” She blushed some more and continued walking through the cabinet.
“So what color of sock do you prefer? Dark blue or white lined with gold?” Martin said, almost laughing out loud.
The red returned on Celestia’s cheeks. “Maybe I’ll show you later?” She said with a very wrong smile.
Now it was Martin’s turn to be ashamed. His cheeks flushed red and he looked further. He finally saw a black suit hanging. “There it is!” He said as he pointed to it. Celestia grabbed it in her magic and floated it towards Martin.
“Here it is.” Martin grabbed it in his hands. “Try it on.” She said, quietly floating a large padlock to the secret cabinet.
“It looks quite nice. And it appears to be very high quality.” He felt the seams and tried to look smart by saying seemingly smart things.
“It is made by the Canterlot tailors. There are only a few better tailors in whole Equestria.” Celestia said while looking at some shoes.
Martin walked into one of the larger changing rooms and tried on the suit. It fitted quite good and was very comfortable.
He walked out of the room and showed himself to Celestia (Some minds need to be scraped out of the gutter).
“That looks very good. I’m sure Luna will love it.” Celestia said while Martin turned around in front of her.
“Thank you. I am looking forward to it.” Martin said to Celestia as he grabbed his clothes and they walked back towards the dining room.
“I have some other stuff to attend to. Luna will pick you up. Have fun!” She said while walking in a different direction.
“Sure, see you next time!” Martin yelled after her.
He didn’t have anything to do for the moment so he went to the library, what could he otherwise do.
‘Let’s see what my favorite human is up too.’ The disembodied voice of Discord thinks. ‘That was a good nice long nap. But now I need to check back on my favorite pet and make more evil plans.’
He switched from Human TV to Celestia TV.
‘She still needs to stop being such a tight flank. She needs to loosen up a bit.’
A small Discord shaped cloud formed above the castle with a small floating TV in front of it. It showed a large amount of different pictures. ‘I need to watch more Element TV. The Pinkie channel is the best one. I think I am going to give a Gummy shaped mustache.’
A Gummy shaped mustache appeared and he put this in a box with a bow on top. It disappeared.
‘Back to making my eyes square.’ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Martin walked towards the library, plucking at his suit on the way. His mind went blank, which wasn’t very hard for him. He arrived at the library to see, not to his surprise, Twilight still sitting and reading books. An humongous pile of books next to her.
“Why is there a very large pile of books next to you?” Martin said while grabbing another pillow and sitting down opposite of her.
“Oh, this is simply what I’m going to read this week. It’s just some light reading material.”
Martin thumbed through some advanced magic books and understood nothing of it. “Damn this is some advanced stuff. And you said that this is light material.” He said as he gave her a questioning look.
“It is. Maybe you can understand this.” She said while floating a book titled ‘Magic for dummies.’ She snickered. A lot.
“Well, thanks a lot.” Martin couldn’t keep his laugh contained. “I already read this. And I understood it. I understood most of it.” He threw the book back at her.
And then a book flew back, and another and another and another and another…
There is going to be alcohol in this chapter. I live in Europe so I am just going to use the rules that are used here, so Martin can have some experience with it. (You can drink alcohol when you’re sixteen in the Netherlands.)
Martin pulled at his suit to get the book shaped folds out of it. “That was fun, but I have to go see a dark blue mare now.” He said while noticing Luna’s head poking out of the door.
“I really hope that you have a good time and fun.” Twilight said a lot more genuine that before in the café. “Where are you going?” She said while cleaning up all the books that laid around.
Luna walked into the room. “We are going to the Elzar. I head it is a very good restaurant.” She looked at Martin. “”You do look good in suit, if I may say.” Luna cheeks went a bit red, not enough for anyone to be noticed through.
“Thanks. I head that you had it ordered to be made. Your tailors did a good job.” Martin said while picking up some books and putting them on a nearby table. “It is very high quality considering that they never made anything for a human.”
“I got some measurements from miss. Rarity and the rest they got from a picture of you.” She said while helping us with the books. After they finished Luna said. “We will need to leave soon.”
“Sure. Let’s go.” Martin said as they walked towards the door. He turned around. “See ya next time, Twi.”
“Bye, have fun!” Twilight shouted as they walked through the hallway. She walked back into the room and sat down with a good book, thinking about all sorts of stuff.
Martin and Luna walked together through the hallways. Martin looked at Luna, she was dressed in an light blue dress and she had, instead of her normal regalia, a decorated set. She looked very good.
“Aren’t the ponies in the restaurant going to be terrified of me when we come?” Martin asked as he held open a door for Luna.
“Normally they wouldn’t be open today, but when they heard that a princess would be dining there, they promptly offered to be open exclusive for me. That they are going to serve Equestria’s first human isn’t something they were concerned by.” She said while they walked towards the large double front doors and opening them with her magic.
“So at least there aren’t going to be a lot of looking faces and it will be calm.” Martin said as they walked through the streets.
“It will be just me and you.” Luna said.
They walked for a while in silence, Luna sporting a large smile all the while. After they walked for a while they arrived at the restaurant. Martin, as chivalrous as he is, held open the door for Luna. They walked into the deserted restaurant. It looked very chic and expensive, a restaurant for a princess. They sat down. The table had some candles on top of it along with plates, sliver ware and some glasses.
A waiter appeared almost immediately. He only looked the bit surprised that Martin was sitting there. He gave them two carts and placed a large pitcher of water on the table. “Do you want anything to drink?” He said, in a French (Prench?) accent, while floating a small notebook and pen in front of him.
“I’ll have some red wine, please.” Luna said about as regal as one can get.
Martin was still looking at the drinks portion of the chart. “I’ll have the same.” He said, not able to think of another thing. They probably didn’t have any sodas and drinking cola here would be to ordinary.
The waiter nodded and walked to the back of the restaurant. “I wonder if the wine here tastes the same on Earth.” Martin asked.
“The wines here are the finest that a pony can find. They are imported from Pranche from the best vineyards that there are. Usually they are very expensive, but the restaurant said that this dinner is a gift.”
“Prance? The best wines from Earth come from France. More similarities.” Martin said while pouring themselves a glass of water.
“Are there a lot of similarities between our worlds?” Luna asked while drinking some of the water.
“Yes, too many to count. The city names are a prime example. Fillydephia is Philadelphia, Cloudsdale is Clydesdale, Manehattan is Manhattan, Staliongrad is Stalingrad, Los Pegasus is Los Angeles and so much more.” Martin said.
Luna giggled a bit. Martin had a feeling that this would be going to be a great evening.
After the drinks came they chose their food. Luna chose for a light salad and for Martin chose the tomato soup, the only thing that didn’t have anything that he couldn’t eat. During the main course Martin told tales from his youth, explaining any strange terms to Luna. She didn’t tell him anything from her past, but tales of her pranks she pulled on Celestia were just as good. They laughed a lot and they has an genuinely good evening. The fact that they were completely alone helped a lot.
After they finished the main course they got the dessert chart. Luna chose the largest dessert there was, the banana split. Martin chose something a bit lighter, 2 balls of vanilla ice-cream and some chocolate sauce. “Damn girl, you hungry.” Martin said.
Luna just looked at him with a questioning look.
“It is something humans say sometimes. I was saying that a banana split is a very large dessert and that after an whole meal. That’s impressive.” He said while taking a bite of the ice cold ice-cream.
“Says the human who just ate a liter of tomato soup.” She said while starting to eat the massive pile of bananas and ice-cream.
“At least it was some good soup.” Martin said while trying to eat one whole ball of ice-cream. It was good ice-cream. The brain hurt came within a couple seconds, but he stood strong and he let the whole ball melt before the headache kicked in at full force.
“Ate your ice-cream to fast?” She said while giggling at his misfortune.
“No, I like to chew on ice cubes for relief.” He said trying to look serious. He failed.
Luna took her chance and buried her face in her pile of creamy goodness. When she came up her whole face was covered in ice-cream and an banana was pierced on her horn.
Martin was able to keep his face straight for about 0.1 second and then burst out into laughter. “You have a banana on your horn.” He was able to push out between fits of laughter.
She looked up, crossing her eyes and looking generally cute. (A/N Someone needs to draw this). She floated the banana of her horn and ate it in one bite. Her tongue came out and licked her whole face clean, leaving her face gleaming in the light.
He stared for a while before blushing a bit and continuing his dessert. Their desserts were quickly finished and soon the waiter came picking up our plates. “Have you enjoyed your meal.” The voice, laced with Prench, went.
“It was very nice.” Luna said while dabbing at her mouth with a floating napkin.
“I enjoyed it very much.” Martin said while handing his bowl over.
“That is very nice, sir.” The waiter said, while putting the complementary mints on the table. “Have a good night, princess, and you too, sir.” He walked out to the back and left them to themselves.
“Shall we go back to the castle?” Luna asked.
Martin nodded. Luna teleported them in front of her room in the castle.
“Did you had a good time?” Luna asked, trying to hide her face a bit.
“It was lovely. It couldn’t have gone better.” Martin said while recovering from the aftermath of the teleportation.
“Thank you.” She said, stuttering you.
A silence fell over the two and it appeared as if Luna was thinking something over.
After a couple of minutes of this something happened. Luna quickly pressed her lips against those of Martin. Within second she teleported back into her own chambers and left Martin to himself.
“Apparently it can get better.” He said with a smile.
Martin opened his eyes, thinking of what happened the night before. He didn’t have any problem with it, but it had gone a bit quick in his eyes. He has been here for less than a month and he would already be getting an girlfriend. And she would be a pony too, that was just plain weird for him, having an interspecies relationship. Granted, he liked them platonically and he really liked Luna and the time they spent together, but he wanted to wait until after his therapy.
It still was a bit early, so he went to the only place he could think of: The library. Martin shuffled his way over the cold floor. As he reached the library he silently thanked the architects of the castle for making the doors as large as they are. ‘Probably for Luna and Celestia.’ He thought while sitting down on one of the pillows and grabbing some of the books from the overly large pile of books Twilight left there after Luna and Martin went to the restaurant.
It contained mostly books about magic, but also some books that wrote about aliens and being from other dimensions. It was very thick, but didn’t appear to say anything humans, but it did have some typical examples of other aliens: Lunar men, green globs and a thing with one heck of a lot of horns. That one was named: Cornus multus.
He read for a bit in various books until he came across one of the books that he had been reading earlier. Specifically the one that said that everything had some magic in it.
The book sparked his interest once more and he re-read it. And so, after he was finished, he tried if he had magic himself again. He did everything the same as before. Book in the middle of the table and then he started focusing on it.
After a couple of minutes he finally started to feel something, but that disappeared completely as a purple colored backside slammed into the door of the library. His concentration was broken and he fell backwards and just laid there, waiting for Twilight to enter the library completely.
Immediately following the mare was a large pile of books, contained in her magic. She stumbled in and let the books fall to the ground with a thump. “That was too simple. I need something more difficult.” She muttered to herself, not noticing the human on the pillow.
“Good morning, Twilight.” Martin said while walking over to help her with the books.
She jumped at the sudden presence of the human, yelling all the while. When she stopped hyperventilating she threw a rather large book at Martin’s head. “Why did you scare me like that?”
“Because you are too easy to scare.” Martin said while laughing a bit. “And your reaction is priceless.”
Twilight sighed and separated her books into neat piles, all with her magic. “Hoe did your date with Luna go?” Twilight asked, a tad bit of jealousy in her voice.
“It went really well. The restaurant was very nice and the food was good. Me and Luna mostly talked. I really liked that evening.” Martin said with a content sigh.
Martin thought about that question for a small amount of time, but eventually decided to lie about that. “Nothing happened. Luna teleported us into the castle and we went to our respective rooms.” He said, the lie barely noticeable on his voice.
“That is very nice to hear.” Twilight said, satisfied with the answer. “What were you reading?” She asked while looking at the title of the book on the table.
“I wasn’t reading that one, but this one.” He said while looking for the book he had been reading. He quickly found it under the pillow he was sitting on. He handed it over to Twilight who looked at the book with a skeptical book.
“You don’t believe this, do you?” She asked, a bit worried, and sat down next to Martin. “When this book came out it was seen as very controversial. It says that everything has magic. As a result of that a lot of non-unicorns got angry over the fact that they couldn’t access their inner magic. A lot of ponies took advantage of that and sold fake medallions and other useless stuff many ponies bought.” She said while looking through it. “Eventually some scientist researched it and discovered that every creature did have some magic, but that it already was being used by their own bodies and couldn’t be used actively. Just a few rare cases could do that.”
She then remembered that she saw Martin focusing on the book in the middle. “Were you looking to see if you have any magic yourself?”
“Yes, but nothing happened so far.” Martin said while looking at the book on the table.
“There is a way to check if you have any magic, just ask the doctors. We’ll go visit them after breakfast.” She said while tossing the book away.
One of two stomach rumbled at that word. “Maybe we should go get some.” Martin said while patting his stomach.
Twilight agreed and they stood up and walked through the hallways towards the hallway.
Their journey was fairly silent, the only sounds came from their stomachs and the occasional grunt from behind a door.
Twilight though a bit and then said. “I have to return to Ponyville this afternoon. I was wondering if you wanted to come with me?” She asked hoping for the obvious.
“I would love to, but I do have the therapy that I have to do for one month.” He said, hiding another reason.
“I’m sure we could work something out. Let me think.” She said before lapsing into deep thought, thinking about a method.
Her eyes lit up. “You can come with me and whenever you have the therapy you can be teleported over to the castle.” She said, lighting up with the idea.
“If that would be possible that would be great.” He said, glad that the idea had him spending more time in Canterlot, but he also wanted to meet the rest of Twilight’s friends and the rest of the residents of Ponyville.
The rest of the way they walked in happiness, hoping that their plan could be completed.
They arrived at the empty dining room with a table filled with food. And as a special treat : Towers of pancakes.
A small pile of drool formed on the floor at the sight of the beauty of it all.
While Martin and Twilight were eating he asked her if she knew anything about the kind of therapy that he will receive. She didn’t know much, just that the therapist was a nice stallion and that he shouldn’t worry.
When the mountain of pancakes had completely disappeared they cleaned up their mess and started to walk towards the large double doors. Just as they were about to open them they swung open and hit Twilight in the nose, sending her to the floor. She rubbed her nose and wanted to say a few not so nice words to the pony who did it. The pony in question was Luna, who stood there with a large blush on her face as she was apologizing. She helped Twilight up, apologized some more, and noticed Martin standing there and the red multiplied multiple times.
“Uhm… Hi Luna. Good to see you again.” He said while grinning stupidly. A bit of read appeared on his cheeks too.
The two stood opposite of each other for a while before Twilight couldn’t hold herself anymore. “What happened last night?!” She yelled out of frustration, her mane reddening a bit.
This only caused Martin and Luna’s face to become redder as they recalled what happened before. “Nothing.” They answered almost immediately.
Twilight was getting a bit sick of being left in the dark and just walked off, pulling Martin behind her. “See ya, Luna.” Twilight grunted as they walked towards the infirmary located in the belly of the castle. Martin yelled the same, albeit a lot more happy, as he was pulled out of her sight.
“Why did you do that?” Martin asked as soon as Twilight released him from her magical grip.
“Because you won’t tell me what happened, and neither will Luna.” Twilight grumbled.
“I’ll tell you in due time or when I feel like it, but I have to ask Luna too. She is involved after all.” He said as they walked through some more doors.
“What did you two did? Rob a bank.” She said.
“No, nothing as serious as that. We… I just don’t want to tell right now.” Martin sighed, knowing that Twilight wouldn’t stop with it.
They decided mutually that they would keep silent while they walked through the empty hallways.
Twilight opened the door and the stone hallways gave way for clean white floors and the typical hospital hallways. Several ponies in white were walking around, clipboards floating in front of them.
Twilight’s mood got a bit better as she walked towards the office of the hospital’s manager. Martin shivered a bit, thinking about his bad experiences with hospitals.
They entered and walked up to the beige pony sitting there. “Hello, Miss. Sparkle. It is good to see you again.” He said cheery, then he noticed Martin standing next to her. He ducked behind his desk and looked generally scared.
“Don’t be scared of me. I don’t hurt anything.” Martin said, trying to look not as scary as he did.
The doctor was too scared to say anything, so he whimpered some more. “Please don’t hurt me.” He asks quietly.
Twilight calmed him down by ensuring him that Martin didn’t eat ponies or use them as his furniture. The doctor regained his composure and sat down back on his seat. “So for what did you came here?” He asked while looking at some papers.
“Martin is wondering if he has any magic in him. He was reading a book and he got curious. So can we do that doc?” Twilight asked.
“He wants to know if he has magic, sure. Why not?” The doctor said while grabbing an form from one of his drawer. “We can do the test right now and have the result done in a few minutes. Follow me.” He said while grabbing the forms in his magic and walking out of the door, Martin and Twilight following him.
“Will this test hurt?” Martin asked Twilight as they walked
“I don’t know. I have never done this test before. I did some other tests, but they were for unicorns.” She responded.
“Then let’s hope it doesn’t.” He said while shivering a bit, thinking about the stuff that could be done to him.
They followed the doctor into a room with walls that were lined with cabinets, chest and other things that Martin couldn’t fully grasp.
He was told to sit down on a small bed while the doctor went to go get some stuff. Twilight sat down next to him and leaned on him. She smiled a bit.
Martin thought that it was a little strange, but paid no attention to it. He was wondering what it would be like to have magic. Would he be capable of flinging lighting from his hands or throw a swarm of angry bees from his palms. He would be happy with some simple levitation.
His thought were interrupted when the doctor came walking in, pulling an table and machine behind him. He saw no large needles of other stuff that he should be scared of, so he didn’t worry too much.
“We just have to attach some clamps to your arms, they do have small needles in them, but they shouldn’t draw blood.” He said while putting said clamps on Martin arms. They did sting a bit, but nothing too serious. “I need to attach this band to your head too.” He said while putting an tight band around Martin’s head and pulling it even tighter.
He attached a lot of wires to the machine, which had been bleeping softly in the corner. He flipped a switch and the clamps and band started to get warm and Martin got a fuzzy feeling inside his head.
The machine stopped bleeping and started to churn out large amount of data. After it stopped spewing out paper the doctor grabbed them all. “I will analyze these and give you the results in a few minutes.” He said while walking out of the door with the paper.
“So how did it feel?” Twilight asked, feeling the small marking that the clamps left on Martin’s arms.
“It didn’t hurt. So I should be happy about that, but I felt very warm and fuzzy on the inside.” Martin said while rubbing his head.
“I’m happy to hear that. And now to wait for the results.” She said as she got back to laying her head on Martin’s arm.
They sat like that for a few minutes before the doctor came in again. “I have good news and I have bad news. Which should I say first?”
“The bad news is that you have an condition that only occurs is creatures with magic.” The doctor said as he looked at some of the readings on the chart.
“But that means that I have magic.” Martin said, thinking about what the doctor just said to him.
“In a certain way you do, but there are some issues with that.” He sat down as if he was going to tell something horrible.
During this Twilight’s mind was going over how this was possible. Her mouth was hanging open too, but that was because of the sudden change.
“Your magic is corrupted. There is almost no normal magic present in your body. This will cause difficulties, like uncontrollable levitation when you’re angry or random jolts of magic escaping your body as it releases energy. You have very little to no control over it and it will rise when you’re in a negative mood.” He said, a lot less dramatically than was expected.
Martin looked very disappointed. “Is there a cure or something to help me?”
“I’m sorry. There are no ways to safely drain somepony’s magic. It will have to come out of your body on its own accord.”
“And how long can this take?” Martin asked hoping for a good answer for once.
“Weeks or years. The reserve you have is quite large and won’t drain quickly, so we will have to wait.” He said. “But if you’re angry, don’t come near other ponies. They will be hurt by the release of the corrupted magic and so serious damage. Do you understand?” The doctor asked seriously.
“Yes, I do.” Martin answered meekly. He didn’t know too much about magic and even less about corrupted magic but he said it anyway to console the doctor.
“You do understand that I have to inform the princesses about this?” he said as he scribbled something on a piece of paper.
“I do.” Martin said.
And as he was saying that Twilight’s brain rebooted and she shouted, “What!”, very loud.
The doctor jumped back, but remained calm. “Martin has corrupted magic in him.”
“But how?” Twilight asked while giving Martin as questioning look.
“I don’t exactly know, but I guess that one of the causes is that there is no magic in your world, am I correct?” The doctor asked Martin.
“Yes, you are. We don’t have any magic, but there are many stories about it though.” He said while prodding himself to see if anything would happen.
Twilight sat there, thinking what kind of effects this could have on her life. “Can I do some tests on you?” Twilight asked, thinking about all the things that she could test.
“Sure, I hope that something useful will come out of that.” Martin said.
“You can use some equipment in the hospital if you would like.” The doctor proposes.
“Thank you for the offer. I see what I will need.” She turns back to Martin “Should we go tell the princess?”
“I think that it would be a good idea.” He said while standing up. They started walking towards the exit.
“Could you send your finding through to me? This is a mostly untouched subject and I would like a bit of information about it.” He asked trotting after them.
“I will do that, doctor, and thank you for all your help.” Twilight said as she pulled the door shut behind them.
Martin and Twilight walked through the clean hallways and through a door into the damp hallways of the castle. They started walking towards the chambers of Princess Celestia.
“So I guess that I do have magic, but that if I am going to want to do anything with it I have to have a teacher.” When Martin said that Twilight’s face brightened up immediately. “And I think that I already made my choice.”
“So who is it?” Twilight asked, hoping for an answer that contained herself.
“You of course. Who else? I don’t think that the princesses have enough time and no unicorn is as talented as you are. So you are perfect.” He said, knowing that Twilight would be delighted.
Twilight was beaming and happily accepted.
“You do know that it will take a while before I will have any control over my magic and even have normal magic in me. I can only harm ponies until then and training that wouldn’t be so nice.”
“I do, bet then there is enough time for me to make schedules and checklists and get the correct books and so many other things that I need to do. I need to make a checklist of that.”
She said while zoning out and they completed the walk in silence.
As they arrived Celestia was sipping some tea and she invited Martin and Twilight in. They sat down on one of the many large pillows in the corner of her room. Celestia gave then a cup of tea.
“So, Martin, how are you doing?”
“Very well.” Martin said as he took a sip of the tea. I tasted like earl grey and he liked it.
“How did your date with Luna go?” She asked very simply.
“Very well, we had a lot of fun. And it was a very good evening.” Martin said while pouring him some more tea.
“And did anything else happen?” She asked, smiling and knowing more that Twilight did.
“No, no. Nothing happened after that.” Martin asked, heat flowing to his cheeks.
“Hmm… sure.” Celestia said, deciding to drop the subject. “What were you doing this morning?”
“We went to the infirmary to see if Martin has any magic in him.” Twilight said before Martin could say anything.
“Interesting. And what were the results?” She asked pouring herself and Twilight another cup of tea.
“I apparently have corrupted magic inside me and that I will have random fits of magic as I get angry.” Martin said calmly.
The only sound that went through the chamber was the sound of a cup of tea shattering on the ground.
“C.. Corrupted magic.” Celestia said, looking very alarmed. “That is very bad.” She whispered under her breath.
“Do you know anything about this corrupted magic? Because I couldn’t find anything in the books in the library.” Twilight asked, picking up the shards. “Is there anything bad about it?” She asked, looking at the shards.
Martin just sat there, surprised that the princess dropped a cup. He was trying to get the tea out of his shirt by using a pillow to dab it.
“Corrupt magic is a very rare form of magic and is only useful in the most evil of spells.” Celestia said while making the shards disappear.
“The doctor said that the magic will release itself from by body eventually and that it might hurt somepony, but not that. ” Martin said, no so happy anymore with the magic in him.
“The magic will dissipate, but no so violently that it will hurt. Somepony would have to be extra receptive to that kind of magic to be affected.” As soon as she finished that sentence she lapsed into deep thought.
“Are there a lot of ponies that are that receptive to that kind of magic?” Martin asked, grabbing himself another cup of tea.
“I don’t know…” Twilight said, before being cut off by Celestia.
“Martin…” She began.
“Yes…?” He answered, worrying a bit.
“I don’t want you to see Luna anymore.” Celestia said calm.
Martin eyes went wide. “What?!” He yelled out. Twilight was just as surprised as he was, albeit a bit happy somewhere too. “Why?!” He yelled just as hard.
Celestia stayed calm. “I have my reasons.” She sighed. “I just don’t want you two to see each other. At least until after the therapy.”
“But… but…” Martin said, feeling as hopeless as a young foal trying to reach the cookie jar.
“No buts. This is final.” Celestia said, a bit harder then was necessary.
There was some silence for a few moment until Twilight spoke up. “He could come back to Ponyville with me.” She proposed. “And he could be brought over for his therapy.” She said as a smile started to grow on her face.
“That sounds like a good idea. Is this alright with you, Martin?” Celestia asked, her face happier than before.
“Sure, anything is fine with me.” He said, sounding a bit sad.
“Then that is settled. You will leave tomorrow morning with Twilight.” Celestia said happily, but when she looked at the sad human her own mood was a bit dampened too. “You can say your goodbyes to Luna today.”
“Thanks.” Martin said, still sad.
They finished their cup of tea in silence, enjoying the peace and calm.
Twilight spoke first. “Excuse us, princess. We have to go pack out things.” She said while standing up and trotting towards the door. Martin got the hint and followed her to the door.
Celestia smiled and nodded, opening the door for Twilight and Martin.
They walked out of the room and towards their room to pack the little things that Martin possessed.
‘So the human has corrupted magic and is sad. Well the magic part isn’t such an surprise. One would be surprised how easy it is to make corrupted magic, you just have to put it in the human world for a while.’
‘The human’s sadness and anger will become so useful that I am almost thinking of doing nothing, but that would be too easy. And we need to keep thing fun, don’t we.’
‘Ugh, of course we do.’ Discord said to his exact cope.
‘Monologues are so last year, so do you have a monocle.’
‘I have a monocle, a top hat and one biscuit.’ One discord said while he threw the monocle and top hat to the other one.
‘Thank you. Shall we go back to spying, my worthy adversary?’
‘We shall indeed.’ The discord’s returned to the art of human gazing, in which Lyra had a gold medal. (awarded by the Discordant Olympics.)
Martin sulked through the hallways alongside Twilight who tried to cheer him up.
“Can I go get some books from the library?” Martin said emotionless.
“That wouldn’t be a problem. I have most of those books at home, in the library.” Twilight said, making an mental checklist of what to bring from the castle. I wasn’t very long, but there were a few books on it. “On second thought. Let’s pop by, there are some books that I need.”
“Fine.” Martin mumbled.
The walk to the library was completed in silence. When they entered the library Martin plopped down on one of the pillows while Twilight started searching for her books.
Martin grabbed some of the books that were in the bookcase closest to him. Most of them were cooking books, but behind them he saw a dusty old book.
“Come on, Martin, let’s go.” Twilight said from the hallway.
Martin quickly grabbed the book and rushed after Twilight.
They continued their trek through the castle.
“Where are we going?” Martin asked as they walked through another door.
“Just going to my chamber. I have to do something. You can do something for yourself.” Twilight’s expression faltered a bit. “Or you can spend some time with Luna.” She said as if it hurt, which it mentally did.
Their paths split and Twilight took a right while Martin walked on, not knowing where he would end up.
He ended up at a large sitting room, the floor covered in pillows and various other things. He plopped down and thought for a bit.
‘What am I going to sat to Luna. That I am just not ready yet for… for… anything really. I just had the lawsuit and I have the therapy on the horizon. Maybe it is a good thing to do things a bit slower. Luna is a very nice mare, but having an interracial relationship is something new to me and will be something that I have to get used to.’ He rubbed his eyes. ‘I just hope that things aren’t getting worse with all this corrupt magic messing things up. Twi did seem happy, somehow. That mare keeps surprising me.’
Martin laid there for a while, closing his eyes. He dozed off, the book still in his hands.
Meanwhile Celestia was going over some very old notes, bound in an book. As she carefully flipped through them she came across the one that she was looking for.
It confirmed her fears. Nightmare Moon was created by corrupted magic.
Today we collected shards that chipped of the armor of Nightmare Moon. They had to be collected with magic that was powered by multiple ponies. That was because the shards weigh incredibly much. After we collected 3 shards we went back. We couldn’t carry more because the carriers couldn’t carry more. The shards were collected after the princess fought with Nightmare Moon. In the fight several hard blows were dealt. The blows caused several large chips to come of her armor. After Nightmare Moon was fled the scene the princess rested and then we collected the shards. The shards are made of an unknown metal. We tried to bend it, but the material is unbendable. We tried to dent it, but with the same result. We tried to change the temperature. We first tried to cool it down, but the metal resisted by heating itself to room temperature. After that we tried to heat it, but the same result was achieved. Then we tried to affect it with magic and we met interesting results. The metal absorbed almost every kind of magic and stored it. When somepony touched the side of the armor which Nightmare Moon touched all the internal magic was given to that pony. The pony in question reported that he got a warm feeling and that a small cut on his arm was healed almost immediately. This was most likely caused by the large amount of corrupted magic that it stores internally. Because of the nature of corrupted magic everypony that touched the shards burned his hoof if he physically touched it, or , if he touched it by magic, the pony got a headache that lasted for several magic. This could only be countered by the presence of the Elements of Magic. This caused the shards to shake violently and lose all effects of the corrupted magic. One of the shards disintegrated after prolonged exposure to the Elements. We held a storage crystal next to a shard as we exposed it to the Elements. We saw a small amount of black smoke flow from the shard to the crystal. The resulting stored corrupted magic isn’t useable for anything other than exchanging the corrupted magic with any other kind of magic. The object that is infused with the corrupted magic is unstable and releases the magic at random intervals, damaging any objects or ponies near it. We advise anypony that works with corrupted magic to take extreme caution and make sure that the corrupted magic is safely dissolved into the atmosphere. We will continue out research on the metal on a later date, after we have searched the site for more material. End of entry 1008. Signed, Dr. Wolf.
Celestia closed the aged journal, trying to refresh her memories of the corrupted magic. The corrupted magic hasn’t been around for almost a thousand years and she feared it’s return.
She knew that there was something between Martin and Luna, but she feared the return of Nightmare Moon. This cause ensured her that the heartache was justified. She had to talk to Luna, but she knew that Luna wouldn’t like that. But it was all to prevent more problems and sacrifices would have to be made. That the sacrifices wouldn’t have to be made by her, didn’t bother her in the slightest. The only thing she wanted is the best for her subjects.
A hoof prodded in Martin’s side, waking him for his nap. A dark blue mare sat next to him, a bit of heat on her cheeks.
He smiled at the mare that sat next to him on the pillow. He tried to ruffle her mare, but his hand went right through it and landed on her head and it felt very weird, not bald but no like there is a lot for real hair too. She nuzzled the side of his head and got comfortable next to him.
“What were you doing?” She asked.
“Just taking a nap.” He responded.
Luna smiled and rubbed a bit against Martin.
“I talked to Twilight this morning. We wondered if I have any magic.” Martin said out of the blue.
“And did you?” Luna asked.
“We went to a doctor and got me tested. Apparently I have corrupted magic in me.” Martin said calmly.
“Corrupted magic. I can’t say that I have a lot of magic on that. Will you have any normal magic?” She asked, trying to think of anything related to corrupted magic.
“Maybe, but only after all the corrupted magic left my magic, which isn’t going to happen for a few months or years.” He said while slowly stroking Luna’s head.
“That isn’t for a long time, but it will be a lot of fun to see you use magic. A large hairless ape using magic.” She giggled at the thought, enjoying the attention.
“There is something else…” He said, sounding sad.
“What is it?” Luna asked, the sad undertone not going unnoticed.
“Celestia doesn’t want me to see you anymore. I am supposed to leave to Ponyville with Twi tomorrow.” He said, even sadder that before.
Luna’s expression was one of sadness and then quickly changed to one of anger. “She said what?”
“Celestia said that I am not allowed to see you anymore. Why? I have no idea, she wouldn’t explain anything. I think that it maybe has something to do with the corrupted magic.” Martin said, trying to keep an angry Luna under control.
“Why would corrupted magic have anything to do with it?” She said while blowing air through her nose and looking pretty menacing. “Maybe I need to have a word with her.”
“I can still see you when I visit Canterlot for the therapy.” Martin said, trying to prevent a fight between the sisters.
What Martin didn’t know was that Luna had been angry with Celestia for a little while longer. Celestia wanted to keep Luna inside. Luna’s different nature wasn’t one that was familiar with the residents of Canterlot. To prevent a weird and wrong look of Luna Celestia kept her inside. Her only friends were some of the staff and Twilight, but that friendship has dwindled a bit because of an certain ape coming in between them.
Luna didn’t listen to Martin, but flared her wings and rushed to Celestia’s room.
As soon as she arrived there she threw open the doors, sending notes flying everywhere. “What the buck are you trying to do to me and Martin!” Luna shouted very unlike a princess.
There was silence in the room as Celestia took in what Luna screamed at her. Martin ran into the room. He ran after Luna as soon as she flew away.
“What I have done and am doing is for your own good.” Celestia said as she teleported the notes away to another place. “Everything I do is to keep you safe. Please calm down.” She said, trying to get the mare to stop making a mess of her room.
Luna calmed down, only if it was just a bit. “But why are you trying to control my life all the time.” She tugged in her wings again. “I can handle myself just fine.”
“Luna, you´re my little sister and I will do everything to keep you safe. And if I say that being with Martin is dangerous to you than you will respect that and obey me.” Celestia said, putting force behind her words.
“No I won´t. You can´t boss me around anymore. I am a grown mare and I can take care of myself. And why would you want to keep Martin away from me? ” Luna said, getting angry once more.
“I can´t say exactly why, but please trust me in this.” Celestia said, close to pleading. Her expression turned hard again. “If you will keep reacting this way then I will have no choice but to move Martin´s departure to tonight.”
Luna´s mouth just fell open and her expression went from angry to one of sadness. She sighed and teleported out of the room. Martin stood in the corner. He was as sad as Luna and we wanted to know too why he had to go.
Luna´s mouth just fell open and her expression went from angry to one of sadness. She sighed and teleported out of the room. Martin stood in the corner. He was as sad as Luna and he wanted to know too why he had to go.
Martin walked towards Celestia and picked up a few notes, skimming through them. “What are these notes?”
Most of them were quickly snatched out of his hands by Celestia´s magic. “Those are not for your eyes.” She said, still a bit angry. She missed one and he quickly put it in his pocket. Celestia didn´t notice.
Martin grumbled. “What is the real reason that I have to leave tomorrow?”
Celestia blew some air through her nose, getting annoyed by the questions. “I am not going to tell you. And that I final.” She said while teleporting Martin out of her room and into the library.
*POOF* Martin appeared in the library, a couple of feet above Twilight. She was just reading an book when Martin fell right on top of her. “Ouch!”
Twilight said under Martin for a while as she processed what just happened. Then both their eyes went wide and they scrambled of each other.
“Uhm… yes… Sorry about that.” Martin said as he helped Twilight to her hooves. “Celestia teleported me away and I appeared in a bad spot.” He said as he tried to battle the dizziness that fell over him.
“Why would she teleport you here? It isn´t like her to teleport someone suddenly.” Twilight asked while reorganizing the books that were knocked over.
“There was some trouble with Luna and Celestia,” Martin said, not wanting to share what just happened with Twilight, “and now we´re going to leave early, this evening in fact.”
“What?! But I have so many things to do.” Twilight said while shooting up and making a checklist and a quill appear in front of her. She started scribbling on the paper, ignoring the sad human in front of her.
“I´ll go find something to do.” Martin said quietly. He wandered off, leaving Twilight alone with her books and checklists.
He grumbled a bit as he walked through the corridors, trying to find Luna´s room. ´What have I done to deserve this. First I have to go and then I have to go even earlier. Maybe I should take a look at that piece of paper.´ Martin took the paper out of his pocket and ironed out the folds.
The first line on the piece of paper was : ´Entry 1008´. He sat down in a corner and read the small piece of paper.
He finished it soon and walked straight to the nearest maid he could find. He asked her where the room of princess Luna was. The maid pointed towards one of the doors and gave some instructions. He followed them, thinking about what was on the paper.
He walked into the room and found a sobbing Luna on the bed. He sat down next to her and tilted her head with one hand. He looked her deep into the eyes and kissed her. I wasn´t very long or deep, but it did the trick.
She stopped sobbing and she smiled. “Thank you.” She leaned against him and closed her eyes, a wide smile on her face. Both of them felt about as good as one can feel.
They sat like this before Martin broke the bliss by pulling out the piece of paper. “I grabbed this before I left Celestia´s room.”
Luna plucked it out if his hands, floating it in front of her face, and started to read it. Her face stopped smiling and put the paper down. “This piece of paper describes the time after I turned to Nightmare Moon. It describes pieces of her armor and some of the tests that were done on it.” A small tear appeared in one of her eyes. “I´d rather not talk about it.” She said while rubbing herself against Martin´s side a bit.
“It says something about corrupted magic. Do you know anything about it. Maybe this is the reason that Celestia wants me gone. When I told her I have corrupted magic in me she reacted kind of… strange. She changed completely when I told her that.” Martin said as he put his arm around Luna.
“Martin, if you stay near me long enough I will turn back into Nightmare Moon.”
“You’ll turn into what? And why would that happen if I am near you too much.” Martin asked her with a worried look.
“Nightmare Moon. She’s a horrible creature that plagued Equestria 1000 years ago,” Luna said as tears started to well up again in her eyes. “And it’ll happen because of that stupid corrupted magic.” She wiped the tears away with her hoof, leaving streaks of wet matted fur behind. “Nightmare Moon was created by my jealousy and me doing test with corrupted magic. I wanted to see if I could use it to make the moon more attractive to ponies or find a general use for it, but a large amount of it was stored in my body and reacted with me hate filled mind. That created a monstrosity named Nightmare Moon. She wanted to make the night last forever. She succeeded in that plan and held the moon in the sky for 2 weeks. Then Celestia thankfully found a solution.”
She sniffed some more and continued. “She used the elements of harmony against her and banished her to the moon. She stayed there for a thousand years until she returned one and a half year ago with the same motives. She tried again, but the elements thankfully released me from her bonds. Celestia had been helping me get used to this time until now, but she still acts if I am a little filly.”
“You mean that you first were almost just like you’re now then you changed into an evil being. Celestia imprisoned you on the moon and the elements freed you. And this will all happen again if I stay near you too much. That is not good.” Martin said, a bit sad because of how things turned out with this whole magic thing.
“That is true. Now I understand Celestia’s decision to keep us apart, but the effects shouldn’t be so severe. It took large amounts of magic to transform me and I don’t think that this t ime it would be any different.” Luna said as she leaned a bit more on Martin.
“I’m sure we can work something out. I don’t think that you will turn into Nightmare Moon if I am near you for a few hours.” Martin said while stroking Luna’s side.
“I hope so.” She says while rubbing her eyes. “I am a bit tired. Do you mind if I lay down for a while?”
“No, I don’t. Let’s take a nap.” Martin said while letting himself fall back on the bed.
Luna silently agreed and lets herself fall back too, landing on Martin’s chest. She curled up a bit and they soon fell asleep.
Twilight, after finishing packing, walked towards the dining room for a quick snack. On the way there she passed Celestia’s room and heard scribbling come from inside. She decided not to bother her mentor, but she did see a book laying sprawled on the floor in front of the door.
She was alarmed with how someone would handle a book and picked it up, deciding to clean it later. She sat down in the dining room and grabbed herself a glass of orange juice and a daffodil sandwich and her curiosity got the better of her and she took the book she found out of her saddlebags. The title was ‘Corrupted magic.’ Nothing else was on the book, nothing on the cover, no author, nothing. The pages looked old, very old.
She carefully looked through the first one and was surprised. The book started with the uses of corrupted magic and all of them were evil and/or harmful. As she looked through the book she saw passages that described in detail how a pony’s organs would shrivel if one was injected with a certain type of corrupted magic. She got disgusted with it and soon closed it. She probably missed some important stuff and wanted to know more, but if she had to dig through all that horror than she wouldn’t want to learn anymore.
She quickly ate her food and left for the library, leaving the book on the table.
Celestia sat in her study, scribbling on a piece of paper. What she was scribbling included notes on Luna’s change to Nightmare Moon a thousand years ago and how she was freed and on the few other cases of corrupted magic.
To be fair, there had been only a few known appearances of corrupted magic and those came mostly from vague eye witnesses who saw the horrible acts that were conducted with the magic. She didn’t had much to work with, but wrote down everything she knew. She knew that Luna kept a journal of her findings on the magic somewhere, but that was a thousand years ago and Luna wasn’t in the best mood then.
So she scribbled on, trying to come up with a remedy, cure or something that could help Martin get rid safely of the corrupted magic and without turning Luna back into Nightmare Moon.
‘Who would be the only creature to benefit when Nightmare Moon would return? It is the lord of chaos, Discord.’ Discord through while he silently watched over Celestia’s shoulder.
‘Oh, wouldn’t it be magnificent to have Nightmare back. We could rule together.’ He thought while he teleported his mind out of Celestia’s room and back into his stone prison. ‘Basking Equestria in darkness will bring so much chaos that I will be satisfied forever.’
‘Just joking. There never can be enough chaos. If I can get that human rooting for my side that things will be perfect. Maybe I can do that with a nice deal.’
‘I think that letting him chose between Equestria and his beloved Luna will do the trick; and then I let Equestria fall into darkness and the human fall into the dark pit called his mind.’
‘Ooh, what a lovely plan.’ Discord squealed, for as far as a mind can squeal. His mind went quiet as Discord’s mind took a nap.
Martin woke after napping for an hour or two. He quietly slipped away from under Luna and decided not to wake her because she looked so calm and cute when she slept.
His stomach made some sounds which he interpreted as hunger. He decided to grab a quick bite, but before he left he quickly made a small note saying that he would be in the dining room.
He opened the door as silently as he could and walked towards the dining room.
He entered through the door and walked into the kitchen. He grabbed some large tomatoes, a couple slices of bread and peanut butter. He put the things down and the then noticed the book on the other side of the table.
He walked around the table and picked up the book. He recognized it as the book he took from the library. The title was ‘Corrupted magic..’ He noticed that there was some dirt on it and wiped it away, revealing some more words. The full title said ‘Corrupted magic. Part, It’s uses.’
‘Huh, corrupted magic. Maybe I can learn some more about it; but the fact that there are uses for corrupted magic warns me. I can only hope that the uses are good, but I don’t think so.’ Martin thought as he looked through the book.
He quickly closed the book after reading some spells. ‘I think that I can safely say that the corrupted magic in my body is a bad think.’ Martin thought as he put the book back on the table and resumed eating. ‘Maybe I should show it to Celestia; maybe she knows something.’ Martin finished his meal and stood up.
He walked out of the room with the book under his arm. He walked through the hallways, not coming across any ponies on the way. He sees if there were any more hidden words on the book, but it was completely devoid of any more words. ‘Maybe I can find the second part in the library, but finding this book was lucky so I think that finding the second part will be hard.’ Martin thought as he arrived at Celestia’s door.
He opened them and walked through, “Hi, Celestia. What are you doing?” Martin said as he walked over to her and looked over her shoulder to see what she was doing.
“Oh, hi, Martin. Good to see you again.” Celestia said as she quickly teleported away the piles of notes in front of her. “How is Luna doing?” She asks worried.
“She is a lot better actually. She explained why you are doing this to us. I understand that the corrupted magic will turn her into Nightmare Moon,” Celestia shivered a bit when he said that name. “By the way, I found this book.” Martin said as he put the book on the now empty desk.
“It’s good to hear that; and what is this book?” Celestia said as she floated the book in front of her. She looked at it for a few seconds and then she dropped it in shock “Where did you find this?” She said angry as she looked clearly at the title again.
Martin jumped back a bit. “I found it in the library, behind some other books.”
Celestia took a deep breath to calm herself down. “This books is a very dangerous one and shouldn’t be in the library. This book contain very dangerous spells that involve corrupted magic as an ingredient.”
She walked across the room and put the book in a small drawer which was completely empty. “If anyone with evil goals would get their hooves on that book and you, a large container of corrupted magic, than a lot of bad things will happen.” She said as the shut the drawer.
“So I need to watch out for ponies with bad intents.” Martin asks as he sits down on a large pillow in the room.
“Ï don’t think that many ponies know of your situation. Please try not to tell too many ponies.” Celestia said, trying to lighten up the grave situation. The situation did lighten up and the conversation moved to tales from the Earth. She listened and tried to understand the many strange concepts from Martin’s world.
She listened with gusto until a butler came walking in, announcing that the dinner was ready.
“A butler never came to announce dinner. What’s the occasion?” Martin asked as they followed the butler towards the dining room.
“I asked for a special meal to be prepared because you are leaving for Ponyville. I wanted to end on a good note and I thought that a nice dinner together would be a good start.”
“I think that it would be a good start, but I’m sure that I will see Luna again.” Martin said as they walked through another pair or doors.
“I am sure you will, but not before I have found a solution for your problem.”
“And how long may that take?” Martin asked as they approached the dining room.
“I have no idea how long it might take, but no so long.” She said as they entered the room. “I hope.” She whispered afterwards.
They entered the room and saw Twilight and Luna sitting at the table, chatting a bit. “Hey, come in.” Twilight said happy as she took a bite of a piece of bread.
Martin waved at Twilight as he sat down in between Luna and Twilight. Celestia sat down on the other side of Luna. “Martin, have you packed your things?” Twilight asked him while she hoofed him a piece of bread.
“Do I have things to pack?” Martin said as he took a bite.
“Uhm… I actually don’t think so.” Twilight said as she looked at something in her saddlebags. “Did you change your clothes anytime during your stay?” Twilight asked, sniffing Martin.
“I think that Celestia cleaned them with some magic.” Martin said as he sniffed them himself.
“Thank her, because I don’t think that you’d smell good.” Twilight said as she put something back into her saddlebags.
Luna nuzzled Martin in his side. “I got your note. Thanks for leaving that, but what have you been doing after that?”
“I’ve been talking to Celestia about Earth. I think that I retold a lot of my old books to her. It was fun, but got a bit boring after a while.” Martin said as a lot of butlers started pouring into the room.
“But it was quite interesting to learn about your world and its history.” Celestia said as she got a small bowl of soup put in front of her. The same happened to Martin, Luna and Twilight.
Luna leaned a bit more on Martin, not enough to be noticed by the staff, but enough for Martin to notice. As soon as the staff was out of the room her put an arm around her.
No word were further spoken as all the creatures in the room enjoyed their soup. During the start of the meal a certain disembodied mind was watching.
‘They’re having dinner together, gag. This is so sappy that I could pop my eyes out.’ Discord thought as he made a gagging gesture. ‘Let’s see if Tia has anything fun laying in her room.’
The disembodied mind flew over to Celestia’s room and went through the wall. He walked around, pulling open drawers at random. He found nothing of interest, just a couple of old dusty books.
He got bored and walked over to the large walk-in closet at the end of the room. He swung the door open and started digging through her sock drawer. Why she even had one wasn’t something he asked himself.
At last, he found something. It were a couple of loose pages, all of them had a date on top. He teleported them away to one of the few hidey-holes that Celestia hasn’t found yet. He teleported after them and the room was silent once more.
The food in the dinner room kept coming and soon the while table was filled with all sorts of food, ranging from large salads to heavily decorated trees that were filled with fruit.
Everyone was enjoying their meal and having a good time. They chatted with each other. Martin told stories from his past and so did Twilight. She told stories about her foalhood, mostly about her adventures with Cadence and her brother Shining Armor.
“Wait, you have a brother?” Martin asked after he swallowed a rather large piece of bread.
“Yes, haven’t I told you about him?” Twilight said as she grabs another portion of hay fries.
“No, so you can begin telling about him.”
“Well, he is my BBBFF and he was one of my only friend when I was young.”
“BBBFF?”
“Big Brother Best Friend Forever. He always was there for me and we did almost everything together. I actually haven't ’seen him for a while, maybe I should visit him next time.”
“Alright, he sounds like a nice guy, but who is Cadence?” Martin asked Twilight as he grabbed a large apple from one of the trees.
“Cadence was my foalsitter. She took care of me after school. My mother thought that Shining couldn’t do it alone, so she asked princess Cadence to look after me. Now that I think of it; I haven’t seen her too in a while,” She turns to Celestia. “Princess, have you seen Cadence or my brother lately?”
“Your brother and Cadence are on a visit to the Griffon Empire. They are there to discuss the hunting that has been taking place on Equestrian ground. The griffons have been doing this longer, but they usually listened to us and stopped. However it seems that are a bit more pushing this time, not responding to most of our attempts to come to an agreement, but I am sure that Cadence and your brother can work something out.” Celestia said as she gestured to a butler to come. “Are you finished eating?” She asked them as some butler took the empty plates from the table.
A nod came from everyone and the army of butlers began clearing the table.
“That tasted very good, my complements to the cook.” Luna said, close to shouting. She wiped her muzzle with Martin’s shirt, which he then wiped off on her coat. They got a glare from Celestia and they returned to their respective conversations. Luna and Celestia got back to talking about corrupted magic and if they could remember anything important. Martin and Twilight got back to talking about her brother and Martin’s siblings back on Earth.
He had two younger brothers who annoyed him all the time and a sister who annoyed him even more. He liked his peace and calm back on Earth, but they always managed to tick him off in one way or another.
Twilight had some of the same experiences with her brother, but those got less and less as they grew older. She also told about the one time that she, Shining and Cadence went into the woods next to the castle and got lost. They eventually found their way back to the castle and they weren’t hurt. Twilight did have some nightmares for a while after that, but they quickly went away. She did have a fear of forests for a while, but that disappeared a couple of years ago.
They all told their stories as they enjoyed a small desert. After they finished up Celestia stood up. “Twilight, you will receive a letter from me with the details on Martin’s therapy. I has been nice seeing you again and I hope to see you again soon.”
“Thank you princess, and it has been nice seeing you again too.”
“I have other things that I need to attend to, I bid you farewell.” Celestia said as she walked out of the room and towards her own study.
“I was nice seeing you too, princess Luna.” Twilight said as she turned to Luna.
“I was good to see you once more, Twilight Sparkle and I hope to see you once more.” Luna responded.
“The same, princess.” Twilight turned to Martin. “I will go to the carriage and we will leave in 10 minutes, see you there.” Twilight said to him as she walked out of the door, leaving Martin and Luna alone.
“I hope that your next therapy is very soon.” Luna said as she walked towards him.
“I hope so too.” Martin said as he kneeled down. “I’m sure that the corrupted magic leaves my body soon.” He said quickly.
Luna’s approach halted. “I think that it will, but we won’t have to worry about that. We should enjoy the minutes that we have and wait until the next ones.” She said as she walked towards Martin and leaned a bit on him.
He stroked her mane as much as one can stroke a mane like Luna’s. she closed her eyes and enjoyed the attention.
Martin got a bit more comfortable and pulled Luna a bit on his lap. He gave a small kiss on her nose and said, “Everything is going to be fine.”
He gave her one last hug and stood up. He started walking towards the door and when he got there he turned around. “Goodbye.” He said to Luna.
She watched him walk through the door and out of her sight with watery eyes. She wiped them away with her hoof and walked towards her own chambers.
Martin walked over to the closest servant and asked directions to the place where he would leave. He got the instructions and walked over to the platform where Twilight was already sitting next to some overflowing saddlebags.
She gestured for him and he walked over to the carriage. He sat down next to Twilight and the carriage left with a shock. They started flying back to Ponyville.
The carriage swayed a bit as the stallions pulling it made an adjustment. Martin sighed; he was getting a bit tired of sitting during the flight. He thought about the fact that he wouldn’t see Luna as much as he would like, but also about all the other ponies that we would meet. He had already met some of Twilights friends and would like to meet the rest.
He sat back and looked at what Twilight was reading; the book was filled mostly with strange symbols that he didn’t understood, but Twilight seemed to read it as easily as normal Equestrian. He got a bit curious, partly out of boredom, and asked her about them.
“They are symbols that show you how to perform a spell. This one, ” she said as she pointed to the top most right one. “Says that you need to make a swirling form or your magic and then push it outwards to make a cone.”
Martin understood a bit and didn’t care for much more, but it seemed that Twilight enjoyed telling him that and he needed to learn something if he ever wanted to use his magic for other things that bring back evil from past times, so he asked for more explaining.
Twilight pointed to one that looked like a ‘p’ with a cross through it. “This one means that you have to change the points where you inject the magical energy. Otherwise the spell might go very wrong or do nothing at all.”
She pointed to two that looked like a sun and a moon. “These say under what celestial condition you need to perform the spell, moon for the night and the sun for the day. This applies mostly to spells which have two different versions. Like this simple one,” Twilight pointed to a spell which consisted only of two symbols. “If you perform this one in the night if creates an orb which gives off light, but if you perform this during the day it sucks all the light out of the environment.”
“Interesting, but why would somebody want to suck all the light out of something?” Martin asked as he tried to understand something, but it would be nuance to remember what they all meant.
He listened to Twilight explain many of the symbols. Twilight enjoyed explaining it to Martin and she visibly enjoyed the time that she spent with Martin on the carriage. When they arrived in Ponyville and started walking towards the Golden Oaks Library wearing a very large smile on her face.
Martin opened the door for Twilight and followed her in. They saw Spike coming out of the kitchen wearing a very large smile, his face smeared with a cream like substance. When he saw Twilight and Martin standing here his eyes went wide and he quickly ran back into the kitchen.
“Spike, what are you hiding?” Twilight said as she quickly chased Spike into the kitchen. Martin just stood there for a moment before he followed them into the kitchen.
“Spike, what have I been telling you about eating so much ice-cream, it is bad for you.” Twilight yells at Spike who stands next to a large tub of ice-cream which is empty, completely void of anything that even remotely resembles ice-cream. “Why did you even eat all of it?” She said as she floated the tub away from Spike and began cleaning his face with a cloth.
“Uhm…,” Spike mumbles as he tries to come with an answer. “I was… uhm… hungry.” Spike said with a sheepish smile, making it sound more as an suggestion than an answer.
“Wrong answer, mister. To your room now.” Twilight said firm as she pointed to the stairs with a hoof.
“But… but.” Spike said, but he hangs his head low and walks up the stairs having accepted his defeat.
“Hi, Spike.” Martin said to Spike as he walked up the stairs. Spike gave just a wave back. He turned to Twilight. “Did you really have to be that hard on him?”
Twilight put the tub in the bin and sat down on one of the chairs. “He is still a baby dragon and a whole tub of ice-cream isn’t good for him. He needs to learn that he can’t do anything when I’m away.” She floats a glass over to the sink and fills it with water. She gulps it down and yawns. “I’m a bit tired, I think that I’ll go to bed.”
Seeing that yawns spread Martin yawned too. “I’ll think that I’ll go to sleep too.” He walked over to the couch which strangely was completely clean and flopped down on it. “Goodnight.” He mumbles through a couple of pillows.
“Goodnight.” Twilight said back as she trotted up the stairs. She smiled as she looked at the human lying on the couch. She walked towards her room, threw her saddlebags in the corner and got into her bed. She fell asleep within minutes.
Martin couldn’t fall asleep. He had a buzz in the back of his head that wouldn’t go away. It started to grow into a small headache, just enough to keep him from falling asleep.
He went into the kitchen to drink a glass of water. The buzz grew a bit less, but came back soon, so he took another one. He noticed that it wasn’t doing much so he took a last one and tried to get back to sleep again. His headache got worse, but he still managed to fall to sleep after a few hours.
In his sleep he dreamt of fire and burning woods. He dreamt of choking in smoke and in the middle of the night he shot up. He kept his eyes closed and turned his pillow around. He laid back down and got to sleep again.
Twilight opened her eyed. She got out of her bed and stretched a bit. She felt as fresh as a daisy and wanted to keep it that way. She went into her bathroom and combed her mane, brushed her teeth and plucked some dirt out of her coat. She felt great.
She walked towards the stairs with the intention of making a nice breakfast for her and Martin and then taking care of some old things.
Her intentions were shattered when she arrived at the staircase and saw the room downstairs.
Twilight’s mane got a bit disheveled as she saw the mess that was made of her library. In the middle of the floor was the couch on which Martin’s laid, but there wasn’t much left of the couch itself. It looked like a large spider web of destruction spread itself over the floor, destroying many books and the couch in the progress.
The web seemed to originate from Martin, who, despite the mess around him, still wasn’t awake. He laid there shivering on the destroyed couch, his clothes torn here and there and his hair was singed.
“What, in Celestia’s name, happened here!?” Twilight screamed out as she ran down the stairs. She ran towards the sleeping Martin, avoiding the destroyed books, and started shaking him a bit. “Wake up, Martin, wake up.”
Martin woke up and made the destroyed couch collapse fully and he rolled onto the floor, scraping his skin over the destroyed floor.
“Wha… what´s wrong?” Martin mumbled as he opened his eyes. He opened his eyes quickly as he noticed the large mess that was made of the room. “What happened in here?”
“I was just asking you. You were the one sleeping here.” Twilight yelled at him as she tried to piece the couch back together. The couch collapsed again and she growled in annoyance.
They heard the steps of a small dragon come from the stairs. “Whoa, what happened here? Did Twilight blow the library up again?”
“Spike!” Twilight yelled as she tried to straighten her mane. Twilight lit her horn and looked closely at one of the chipped of pieces of the floor. “Hmm… Martin do you feel any different?”
Martin rubbed his eyes. “A bit; I feel a bit less energetic than I normally would on a morning.” He stretched a bit and sat down on one of the less singed pillows.
“Then I think that I know what might´ve caused.” Twilight said as spike walked into kitchen to make a cup of tea for the rest.
“What did it then?” Martin said as he looked at one of the chipped pieces of the floor.
“You did it.” Twilight said as she started collection the chipped pieces, some of which were glowing.
“What? But what do I have to do with this?” Martin asked her as he threw the piece towards Twilight who caught it in her magic and put it with the rest in a small pile.
“Your corrupted magic caused all of this. You must´ve had a large expulsion of corrupted magic in your sleep. It is a wonder that you didn´t wake up; it is a wonder that you didn’t blow up the library.” Twilight teleported a large see-through bag to the room and put almost all of the chips in the bag.
Spike walked from the kitchen, carrying three cups of tea. He handed them over to Twilight and Martin. They thanked him as he sat down on a pillow, drinking his own tea.
“So I caused all of this, damn.” Martin said as he looked at the mess that me made of the room. “Shouldn´t we do something to prevent a next time.”
“We should, but maybe we should clean this mess up first.” Twilight said as she floated a broom towards Martin and a smaller one towards Spike.
“Awh…” Martin and Spike said in unison. “Do we really have to?”
“Yes, you do that while I send this with a letter to the princess.” Twilight said as she walked into the kitchen and started writing a letter.
“Dude, did you do all of this in your sleep.” Spike said as he started picking up the rest of the pieces of the floor. “It would be awesome if it wasn’t so that we have to clean it.”
Martin picked up some of the larger remaining pieces of the couch and put them in a trash bag. “I hope that it won´t happen some more. My magic that caused it isn´t exactly that good kind of magic.”
“You have magic? How did that happen?”
“I have no idea how it happened, but it isn´t very good. My corrupted magic can cause a lot of trouble. A prime example is this destroyed couch and floor.” He said as he grabbed his broom and started swiping the floor.
They swept the floor and put the rest of the debris in the trash bag. Twilight called Spike to send his letter and he walked over to the kitchen, bringing the empty cups with him. Martin heard a sound not unlike a flamethrower and through of the worst.
He rushed towards the kitchen. “Is something wrong?” He was surprised that there were no screaming ponies nor anything on fire. “Why is nothing on fire?”
Twilight looked at bit confused. “What do you mean? Why would anything be on fire?” Spike just shook his head and walked over to the stove and started making breakfast.
“But I head something be lit on fire.” Martin said as he looked around for any ashes. He didn´t find anything.
“Oh, that was just Spike sending a letter to the princess via dragon fire.” Twilight said as she cleaned up her quill and ink.
Martin chalked it up to magic, again, and sat down next to Twilight. “We finished cleaning up the mess. Where can I put the trash bag?”
“I´ll take it out when we go get a new couch.” Twilight said as she starts putting some plates and cutlery on the table. “Let´s eat some more breakfast and then we´ll go shop.”
Martin put the broom on the floor, next to Spike´s. “What are you´re making, Spike?”
“Just some eggs.” Spike said as he flipped the eggs in the pan.
“Sounds good.” Martin said as he stood up and helped Twilight put other things on the table.
When they finished putting all the stuff on the table they sat down again. Spike put the eggs on the plates and handed them out.
Martin walked through Ponyville alongside Twilight. Since he wasn’t really introduced to Ponyville properly a lot of the ponies ducked behind their stand or ran quickly inside. He paid no attention to it as he got used to this kind of behavior during his time in Canterlot.
They walked into the ‘Sofas and Quills’ store and up to the counter. “Hi mister Ink. Nice to see you again.” Twilight said to the shaking shop owner.
He looked closely at Martin and whispered in Twilight’s ear. “Why are you bringing this monster in my shop. He might try to eat my foals.”
“Oh, he is of no harm.” Twilight said as she looked back at Martin. “Just don’t anger him and all will be fine.”
The shop keeper stood up, still shaking, and gave them a sheepish smile. “Wh-What can I do for you? Would you like to take a look at my latest shipment of quills?”
“Normally I would, but today I am here for a sofa. My nice,” She thought a bit about her next words. “friend ruined the couch and I need a new one. So do you have on that matches,” She looked at her checklist. “Type ‘New Equestrian’ and model 2, revision 7?”
The shop keeper swallowed and pulled out a large book. He started flipping through the pages, looking for the correct sofa. After a few minutes of searching he looked up and showed the page to Twilight. “Is this the one you are looking for, miss Sparkle.”
“Yes, do you have it in here?” Twilight asked after examining the drawing for a while.
“I think I do, miss Sparkle, let me take a look.” He says as he turns around and walks into the back.
Martin, who was waiting near the door, walked over to Twilight. “Why do they only sell quills and sofas here? They can’t possibly make that profitable.”
“They do somehow and the quills that they sell are very good. If somepony need a quill or a sofa than they go here.” Twilight said.
The shopkeeper returned without a sofa. “Ï do have the sofa in stock, but today my helpers have their day off. So I can’t move it. You’ll have to wait until they come back.” He said to Twilight, but then he remembered that Martin was standing next to her and started shaking again.
“That is no problem. I can wait. I will wait for the sofa then,” Twilight extended her hoof and the shopkeeper shook it. “Goodbye.”
Twilight turned around and started to walk towards the door.
“Couldn’t I carry the couch back?” Martin said as he looked at the size of the common sofa in Equestria. It was a bit smaller than a normal one on Earth.
The shopkeeper looked at Martin and then thought about the wellbeing of his sofas. “S-Sure, you could do that,” He pointed towards the back of the shop. “Follow me.”
Martin followed and came out carrying a sofa on his back.
Spike heard a bonk coming from the front door and left his pans and pots for what they were. He opened the door and got a face full of couch.
He spat out a couple of feathers and was finally able to talk. “Why is there a couch in my face?”
Martin put down the couch next to him. “Could you get out of the way?”
Spike snorted and kept standing there.
Martin rolled his eyes. “Please.”
Spike smiled and stepped out of the way. Martin dragged the couch into the living room and put it in the spot of the last one, right in the middle of a destroyed floor. He wiped the sweat of his brow and puffed out a puff of air. Twilight came through of the door, carrying a couple bags of groceries, and sat down on the couch.
“Thank you for helping me move that couch. If I would have to wait until it was delivered that I would have to read books on the floor and that would leave me behind on my schedule and then the princess the princess would get angry and then she would send me back to magic kindergarten.” Twilight’s mane got a bit disheveled and her eye twitched once. “But that won’t happen because of the couch.” Her mane got back to normal and so did her eye. She grabbed a book form her saddlebags and started reading.
“Is she always like this?” Martin asked Spike as he moved the couch just a bit so that it would be in the right spot.
“Most of the time.” Spike said as he walked back to the kitchen. Martin, having nothing to do, followed him. “But only when she’s got to hand in an assignment.”
“Ah, and when does she have assignments?” Martin asked as he sniffed at something that was in one of the pots. It smelled like rotten eggs. “And what is that smell?”
“She always has assignments and that is sulfur stew, it’s my lunch.” Spike said as he tasted the stew. “Needs a bit more pepper.” He added the pepper and put the lid back on the pan.
“Are you making anything for us too?” Martin asked as he looked in some of the other pots, finding nothing in them.
“Uhm…” Spike said as he scratched his chin. “No, I don’t think so.”
Martin looked expectantly at him.
“Ooh, you want some lunch too. Sure, I’ll some it for you.” He started grabbing various plates and pans. “What would you like?”
“Just some bread would be fine.” Martin said.
“Then you’re a lot easier than Twilight. You should see some of the request that she gives me. She even gave me a blueprint for the perfect daffodil sandwich and if it’s even a couple of millimeters out of place she’ll scoff at me and order a new one.” Spike said while pointing to a blueprint that laid in a drawer next to Spike.
Martin picked up the blueprint and looked at it. It looked quite similar to something he had seen before.
Martin, Spike and Twilight were sitting at the table, eating together. Spike had a steaming bowl of sulfur stew in front of him, Twilight had the perfect daffodil sandwich and Martin had a couple of slice of bread.
They ate in silence, mostly because Martin was a bit tired, Twilight was thinking a lot and Spike was simply enjoying his meal.
After they were done eating and they had cleaned up Spike laid on the couch. He started to have some stomachaches and could not walk anymore. Twilight did the dishes while Martin looked at the bookshelves, looking for anything to read.
He grabbed a book and looked at the back when he heard a sound and something hit him in the back of his head.
“Ow!” He yelled as he turned around, seeing where the thing came from. “Who threw that?” He only saw Spike clawing at his stomach and Twilight rushing into the room, a wet towel still in her magic. He stumbled against the bookcase and knocked out quite a lot of books.
“What happened?” she screamed as she quickly scanned the room for anything abnormal.
“Something hit me in my head.” Martin said as he rubbed the spot where he was hit.
“What? Where?” Twilight said as she looked around Martin for anything that might have hit him. She dug through the pile of books on the ground and dropped the wet towel on the ground.
Martin looked around the room and saw that next to Spike was a letter on the ground, a seal that resembled the sun on it. He heard a burp and something else hit him in the face. It dropped onto the other scroll. It was another scroll, only this one had a seal with a moon on it and Martin’s name on it.
“Hey, Twi. I think that I found something.” He said as he held the scroll up high.
Twilight’s head poked out of the pile of books and grabbed the scroll with her magic. She opened it and quickly read the contents.
When she finished she dug some more through the pile until the finally uncovered the small gem on a keychain. “Here, I found it!” She said as she examined the small gem.
Martin put the scroll with the moon on a shelf. “What is it?” He said as he walked over to her and kneeled down next to her.
“It is a gem, sent to me by princess Celestia, which absorbs all the magic of the pony,” She looked at Martin. “Or human who wears it.” She floated the scroll in her magic as she put the gem around her neck. As soon as the gem sat around her neck, the scroll fell to the ground. She tried to pick it up, but to no avail. She couldn’t get the scroll to levitate again. Only after a lot of effort and more than just one bead of sweat on her face was it that the scroll slowly started to float again.
She pants a bit before finally being able to talk again. “But it isn’t for me.” She said as she clumsily pushed the necklace of her head with a hoof. “But for you.” She put the gem around Martin’s head.
“Why?” Martin asked her as he looked at the gem. Twilight just pointed to the destroyed floor. “Ooh, this is also capable of holding back my corrupt magic?”
Twilight nodded. “This is supposed to hold your corrupted magic in check until a better solution is found.” She started floating the books back into the bookcase. “The gem will collect the magic, make it harmless and slowly give it back to the atmosphere.”
“Wow, but how much can it store. Because seeing from the floor, it needs to hold a lot.” Martin said as he grabbed a couple of floor crumbs.
“It will get rid of the cleaned magic fairly quickly, so that shouldn’t be a problem.” She said as she put the last of the books in the bookcase. “You should just keep that on and everything should be fine.”
“I hope that everything will be fine.” Martin said. He turned around, looking at Spike who looked at bit better than before. “Maybe you should take a look at Spike here. He looks a bit pale, or as pale as a dragon can look.”
Twilight jumped up and rushed towards the small dragon. “Oh, Spike. Are you all right? Are you feeling a little warm?” Twilight floated over a thermometer and stuck it in Spike’s mouth.
Spike spat out the thermometer. “You do know that I am a dragon?” He said, sounding very un-sick like.
Twilight smiled sheepishly and teleported the thermometer away. “Uhm… Sure. I knew that. He, He, but are you all right?”
Spike nodded. “The princess sent two letters and that gem, but the gem was a bit bad on my stomach.”
“And why did it hit Martin?” Twilight said, more motherly than Martin expected.
Spike cringed a bit and now it was his turn to smile sheepishly. “Uhm… good aiming?”
Twilight sighed and smiled at Spike. “Aim a bit lower next time.” She patted Spike on the back and walked over to the kitchen to get a glass of water for Spike.
“Did she just say to aim lower? Does she know what there is?” Martin asked, a bit worried about Twilight her plans for his small Martin.
“I think she does and when push comes to shove I’ll root for you.” Spike said as he slowly came of the couch and followed Twilight into the kitchen.
Twilight came out of the kitchen, carrying a plate with three glasses of water. She gave a glass to Martin and one to Spike. The laid the plate on a desk and sat down onto the couch.
Martin and Spike joined her and they talked about a couple of small things, mainly the floor that needed to be fixed. What nobody noticed was the small bolt of magic that shot towards Martin’s gem; its origin a bit chaotic.
Spike went out of the front door, going to look for someone to fix the floor. He left Twilight and Martin in the hope that he could return to a library that still was in one piece. His hopes weren’t very high.
“So, do you want to study some more?” Twilight asked while she was looking for the book ‘Magic for foals’. She found it within a couple of second and gave it to Martin.
“I actually wanted to read the letter Luna sent me. Maybe we can look at it after some time.” Martin said as he put the book and a shelf and grabbed the scroll with the lunar seal.
“Fine.” Twilight grumbled as she sat down at her desk and laid a book down next to her. The quill next to her got enveloped in her magic and floated over to the paper. Twilight got lost in thought as she started scribbling on the paper.
Martin sat down on the new couch and tried to pry the seal of. After a bit of plunking and pulling the seal came off in one piece. He opened the scroll and noted how ornate his name was written on top of the page.
My beloved Martin,
Even though we have been separated for less than a day it already pains me that I have to wait for you. The pain sinks deeper in my heart than the deepest point in the ocean.
I have consulted Celestia for the times of your therapy. The first time that you will come is in two days. What this brings to me is joy greater than the tallest mountains.
I read Twilight’s letter to my sister and learnt of your predicament. If this means that we can be together without great disaster falling upon Equestria than I would be in even greater joy then I already am.
I am looking forward to your visit and hope to spend time with you when you arrive. I will come to take you for your appointment tomorrow night.
I am already looking forward to it.
Your dearest,
Luna.
Martin closed the scroll and put it back on a shelf. A smile grew on his face as he through off the day after the next one. It faltered though as he thought of his therapy. He wasn’t really looking forward to them, having a couple of not so great experiences with them before.
During his childhood he was frequently visited by nightmares in his sleep. After some time he was so scared that he couldn’t look at his own shadow without cowering back in fright. He got therapy for it. The therapy he got then consisted of him being exposed to his fears and long talks. A few talks and a couple of pills later he could walk normally over the streets again.
The only thing was that what he was handed was a mask. Something that he could put on during the day. At night the mask would come off and his real face would show, streaked with tears. During many nights he would stay awake, afraid to even close his eyes for more than a second. This got less as he grew up, having laid the mask beside him during the day, but the nightmares never went away completely.
He only had one or two nightmares since he came to Equestria, but the one he had the night before was bad, very bad. Every single fear and thing that scared him when he was young came back to haunt him in his dreams. The fact that he was shivering wasn’t only the corrupted magic, but the nightmares too. In fact, the corrupted magic made the nightmares worse as it thrives on fear.
He hoped that he wouldn’t destroy a lot more couches in his sleep, but with the large amount of corrupted magic in him he can’t be sure of it.
Martin walked over to the concentrating Twilight and tapped her on her back. “Hey, Twi, can I lend a quill and a scroll?”
Twilight looked up, a bit annoyed that she was interrupted. “Hump, sure. They’re over there.” She pointed to a drawer.
Martin walked over to the drawer and opened it. It extended half a meter and was completely filled with ink, quills and scroll, enough to write a book. He grabbed two quills, a jar of ink and a scroll.
He walked over to the kitchen and sat down at the table. He opened the jar and dipped the quill in it, enveloping the tip in dark blue ink. He thought for a few seconds before setting down the quill on the paper, forming letters.
-------------------------------------Meanwhile in Canterlot Castle------------------------
The psychiatrist who was going to treat Martin was sitting in his chair, looking at the papers about Martin. He scratched his head, thinking about how he was going to treat the first human in Equestria. He looked at the problems: anger management and problems with nightmares. At least that was what he could make out of the report.
He sighed and looked at the other dossier. This one talked about Mr. Acula, ex-doctor, who was the losing party in a recent lawsuit. He was supposed to be treated for an addiction. The doctor was a bit annoyed that he had to treat drug addicts alongside his normal patients.
There had been savings on the budget for the treatment of addicts and to save the money they placed the patients within normal clinics, to be treated by normal doctors. Even though a lot of doctors weren’t happy with this they had to shut up or lose their jobs. So they went quiet, treating the addicts as they came.
He still had to treat him, but only when he saw fit.
He knew that he had his first appointment in two days and that he had to prepare something, so he got to work, trying to make a good program for Equestria’s first human.
The psychiatrist put his pen down and looked at the stack of papers he had written. It consisted of several plans of approach, a couple eyewitness reports and a few medical reports. The medical reports didn´t contain much, just a couple of paragraphs about his, mostly failed, treatment.
He had been writing for a while now and was very tired. He wanted to go to sleep, but had to mail it to the princess for her approval. She decided that everything concerning the human should be approved by her, for she wanted to make sure that nothing like the past tragedy would happen again.
He decided not to bring them personally and called his assistant and asked him if he could bring them to the princess. The assistant got the papers and walked to the princess´s room.
The psychiatrist rubbed in his eyes and locked the door. He walked along his path towards his house.
What he didn´t see was that a couple of papers in his office glowed for a bit, its contents altered.
Luna was lying on her bed, reading Martin´s letter. She just received it, sealed with Twilight seal, but with her name on it. She already laid the ink, quills and scrolls ready for another letter to Martin, but she was rereading it for good measure.
Dear Luna, I´m glad to see that we can write this easily. On Earth his would´ve taken a lot longer. I still am amazed by magic every day. The medallion thingy that Celestia sent to me would help greatly in containing the corrupted magic in my body. Maybe even to such an extent that we can sit next to each other without the whole world getting destroyed. I hope that the therapy will of alright and that I won´t be stuck with a no-good psychiatrist. I had some experiences with psychiatrist that weren´t really up to standard. I won´t tell my whole past to you now, that´ll have to wait for another time. (And I’m too lazy to write it all down right now.) I still am thinking about how I got here. I asked Twilight, but she has no idea and neither does Celestia. I asked Celestia if she could send me back, but she had no idea. I was wondering if you had any idea on how to get a connection to Earth. The things here are so amazing, flight and magic, that I really don´t want to leave. But then there is the problem of my family. I don´t want to leave them without a last visit, maybe even a couple of visits. I am wondering what my family´s reaction would be to you, or any pony for that matter. I am sure that my sister wouldn´t stop laughing at me for ´playing´ with ponies and that my younger sister wouldn´t stop yelling that she would finally get a pony. But I know one thing, whatever they say I won´t leave neither you nor Equestria forever. I am looking forward to seeing you again and hope that everything will be fine. With greetings, Martin.
Luna put the letter in a small box, that was worn by time and that had only a couple of items in it, all of them of great value to her. It contained a moon rock, the first one she collected of the surface of the moon, a small scroll with a couple of scribbles on it and a small burning gem, an old gift from Celestia which she cherished. The scroll joined them and the box closed again, the key twisted and the box was locked again.
She gave a happy sigh and grabbed the writing utensils. She smiled as she wrote the first few words on the paper and smiled even more as she wrote the rest.
Celestia was enjoying a slice of cake, even though she should be doing something governmental, but a servant interrupted her. She quickly hid the cake, knowing that she shouldn’t be eating it.
She was on a diet because apparently Appleoosan apple cake, it´s even better tasting than their apple pie, isn´t as good for your figure as she thought. She always kept one in one of her drawers for those long nights of writing reports. The problem is that it got a bit too habitual and after a while the castle´s psychiatrist prescribed her a nice strict diet and then another problem rose. Celestia never was able to keep to strict things, so the cake supple was kept flowing and she kept consuming.
She wiped the last crumbs of her muzzle as the servant laid a think pack of paper in front of her and asked her to read through it and give it her approval. She gave a nod and put the stack in front of her.
She sighed as she looked at the red high-priority stamp. She would have to get it done tonight, so there went her evening. She sighed again and looked at the first page of the stack.
´The treatment of the human.´ was written across it. She raised an eyebrow as she read through the first few papers, which were essentially her own words. It was literally her report that was used as an intro.
After digging through a lot of her own material she finally came to the new bits.
She read the stack quickly first and noticed something interesting. The psychiatrist proposed joined treatment. He wanted to treat Martin and Dr. Acula together since the cause of their problems is partly joined. She thought that it would be interesting, but some problem would arise. She made a small not, saying that she would like to join the joint sessions. She hoped that the psychiatrist wouldn´t mind herself being there, but she knew that it wouldn´t be a problem. Being the ruler of a country has it perks.
She read some of the last things, namely the experiments he wanted to perform on Martin. She gave a surprised look as she tried to take in what the psychiatrist wrote down. It said that he wanted to examine Martin´s brain.
Chapter 33. Trying his hand at magic, or rather, losing one.
Chapter 33. Trying his hand at magic, or rather, losing one.
Celestia read the part about the brain-picking again. It said that it would like to use a newly developed method of sedation method. It would keep the person/pony under a heavy magical sedation that would allow the doctors to do surgery better. It would also allow the doctors to remove Martin’s brain without damaging him in any way. He would even be breathing throughout the whole progress. The brain could be examined by the doctors in a special way, by seeing how it functioned.
If the brain would be removed several magical connections would keep the nerves intact. This would allow the doctors to see where several signals will be sent from and to. They could even ask Martin questions as the new method would keep him awake.
Celestia was going to talk to Martin about this. She knew it would be useful, but something like this would have to be asked. The method was unproven and she didn’t know if it would be smart to test it on an extraterrestrial being.
She looked through the rest of the papers, finding only a couple of small tests and the question he was going to ask. She found no problem with the questions, as they were small and calm in nature.
She sighed and grabbed the piece of cake, putting the papers aside. She went back to enjoying her evening.
-------------------------------------------The next day, in the library.----------------------------------------------
Martin rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he got off the couch. He looked around with sleepy eyes for a while before getting standing up. He got up and walked to the kitchen. He grabbed a glass of water and gulped it down.
Only then he noticed that he toppled Spike over in his journey to the kitchen. Spike crawled up again, a bit grumpy now, and walked over to Martin.
“Maybe you could look where you walk.” Spike grumbled. He rubbed in his eyes too and his mood cleared up a bit. “Could you get me a glass too?”
“Sure,” Martin said as he grabbed another glass and filled it. He handed it to Spike. “Here you go.”
Thanks came through the water as Spike walked back into the living room. Martin, after putting his glass down, followed him into the living room. He sat down on the couch and grabbed the book he read a bit in yesterday.
It was another book on symbology, but this one had the words advanced written on it. He put it back on the shelve and grabbed the one next to it. He now had the beginner’s version in his hands and thought that it would be a better place to start.
He flipped through the first few pages, they were mostly the authors and the title page, and arrived at the first chapter. ´Symbology for foals.´ He went to the first few paragraphs and started reading.
He had been reading for a while when Twilight came down the stairs, sporting a classical bed mane. She gave grumble that had to be seen as a greeting, and walked into the kitchen. She emerged with a glass of milk in her magic. As she drank from the glass she walked over to Martin, trying to get a look at the book he was reading.
Her eyes were half closed so she couldn’t really get a good look. She placed the glass on a desk and rubbed her eyes a bit. “What are you reading?”
“Some book about magical symbols,” Martin said as he showed her the cover. “I’m just trying to understand some basic magic.”
“Shouldn’t you watch out with trying anything out,” Twilight said as she grabbed the glass once more. “Or you might ruin more couches.”
She sat down next to him and they read together for a while. Up until the point Spike came walking in, wearing an apron, and said that breakfast was ready. They followed him into the kitchen and sat down.
They enjoyed the meal that Spike had prepared for them and after they were done Martin went back to reading, Twilight went off to Fluttershy to help her with something and Spike went off to Rarity’s, doing Celestia knows what.
Martin got an idea and grabbed the writing utensils he needed. He looked at the book, re-reading the instructions, and drew a symbol on the piece of paper.
The symbol he drew was a simple one. It was supposed to make the object it was drawn on disappear, requiring only a very small amount of magic. He thought that something as small as this wouldn’t hurt anyone or anything.
He had no idea how to use magic so he just concentrated on his hand. He tried to get it to warm up, wave it at it, rub his hand on the paper, but nothing worked. The ink didn’t light up, the paper didn’t disappear nor did it started to move.
He got a bit angry and slammed his hand down on the piece of paper.
Nothing happened.
He slammed again.
Nothing happened, again.
He slammed again.
This time something happened. The paper fell to the ground and something more happened. The paper disappeared and Martin cheered. “Woohoo!” Martin jumped up and pumped his arm into the air.
He then looked at his hands and noticed something. He only had one. The hand with which he slammed the paper was completely gone. His arm ended at his wrist.
There was no stump, it just ended. It looked weird. If you looked into the end you would see a normal skin color, as if the hand never was there.
He plopped down on the couch and looked defeated at the hand, or rather, the place where it was.
“Well, this isn’t good,” He sighed. “How am I going to explain this to Twilight? Well, at least I can prank Spike with it.” Martin said to himself, trying to look at the bright side of life, but that’s a bit hard, when you miss one hand.
Martin sat there for a while, making a plan of approach. He knew that he had some time before Spike or Twi would come back, but if another pony came to visit he would, or need a good excuse or just run very hard.
Maybe Twilight could make Martin a prosthetic or let someone make one for him.
He still had no idea how it disappeared, how it isn´t bleeding, where his hand has gone (since it´s not even lying on the ground) and how he is not bleeding out.
He thought off the vanishing symbol he wrote on the piece of paper and looked around if he could find it. He couldn´t and came to the conclusion that not only the scroll disappear, but his hand with it.
He got up, off the couch, and walked towards the kitchen. He got a towel and draped it over his arm, hiding the stump from sight.
He walked out of the library and towards the cottage of Fluttershy. He just smiled and waved to the ponies that waved at him. No one suspected anything and he got to the cottage without any trouble.
He knocked on the door of the cottage. Fluttershy opened the door, but quickly backpedaled back into the cottage, yelling out for Twilight.
He quickly ran after her, trying to calm the mare down. He made sure not to let the towel fall.
He ran into the living room to see an alarmed Twilight sitting on a couch and a pink mane poking out from behind the couch.
“That´s the thing that attacked me!” Fluttershy scream quietly form behind the couch. “Please take care of him.”
Twilight smiled, sighed, and sat down again on the couch. “Fluttershy, this isn’t a monster, that’s my friend I was talking about.”
Fluttershy poked her head out from behind the couch and looked at Martin with fright. “But… but… but he looks so scary.”
Martin understood that no danger was in Twilight anymore and sat down next to her. “Come on, Fluttershy, I’m not a biter.” Martin said as he smiled at Fluttershy. He hid the arm with the towel from Twilight sight, or as much as he could.
Fluttershy walked slowly, but cautious, towards the couch and slowly climbed onto the couch, always having an eye on Martin.
She was shaking heavily as Martin extended a hand. She slowly extended her hoof and shook hands/hoofs with Martin. She took a deep breath and smiled at Martin.
“Hi, you must be Twilight´s friend, it´s nice to meet you.” Fluttershy said to him as she picks up Angel, who hopped up next to her.
“I indeed am Twilight´s friend, but I prefer to go by the name of Martin.” Martin said as he looked at the variety of animals.
“Nice to meet you, Martin,” Fluttershy said as she gave Angel a hug. “Do you like animals?” She asked him, not able to think of another topic to talk with a large hairless ape.
Martin noticed that Fluttershy was a bit nervous. “I really like… uhm…,” Martin looked around the room for a nice animal. He laid his eye on a nice one. “Birds.”
“Oh, I really like birds too.” Fluttershy said as she looked around her cottage for birds, finding quite a few of them. “What kind of birds do you like?”
“Uhm… every kind.” Martin said, not able to think of any specific kind at that moment.
“Ooh, would you like one as a pet?” Fluttershy said. Her nervousness disappeared as she got excited about finding Martin a pet.
Martin got a bit worried about having a pet when his life wasn´t exactly at its finest. He looked worried at Twilight, hoping for a piece of advice. Twilight made a ´go ahead´ gesture as she smiled at him. “It´s fine. I´ll take care of him when you´re not there.”
“Sure.” Martin said to Fluttershy. Fluttershy´s smile met unknown proportions as she heard that.
Fluttershy hopped off the couch and started walking around the cottage, looking at the variety of birds. She found nothing in the living room and walked into the other one.
After a couple minutes of silence Fluttershy came out of the room with a bird on her back. “Is this good for you?” Fluttershy asked Martin as she showed him the bird. It was a bald eagle, but it´s colors weren´t the normal brown and white, but a red and yellow. And it was quite a bit slimmer that one too.
“Is that an eagle?” Martin asked Fluttershy as the eagle looked at him with beady eyes.
“It is. And he has been looking for a nice owner ever since he came to me, his wing broken from a fall. The other mean eagles won´t have him back because he is a bad hunter, but my Eagle certainly isn´t. He is a very good hunter; he brings me 2 mice every week.” Fluttershy shook a bit as she recalled the dead animals in front of her. “Would you like him as a pet?”
Martin, enthralled by the idea of having an eagle as a pet answered without thought. “Yes, I would love to.”
Fluttershy smiled brightly as she nudged the bird towards Martin. The bird looked at Martin, as if he was valuing him. He decided that Martin was alright and flew over to him. The bird sat down on Martin´s shoulder and pecked him in the ear. During this he kept the handless arm hidden from sight. The arm itself completely slipped from his mind, the bird having taken up all space in his mind.
Martin tried to stroke him, but he bird pecked at his hand. Martin tried again and this time the bird let him. He petted the bird a few times before the bird hopped onto his head and didn´t move.
“And now I have a pet and a nice one with too.” Martin said. “Thank you Fluttershy.”
“You´re welcome,” Fluttershy said as she smiled at the bird. “I´m glad that I finally found an owner for that poor eagle.”
The whole room smiled as Martin looked at his new pet.
Martin lost a hand, something that he hasn’t told to anyone or anypony, but he gained a pet, an awesome one with that. He was walking along side Twilight through town, very surprised that nopony actually noticed the cloth on one of his arms.
Twilight was so sunken in her own thoughts that she didn’t even thought about asking about the cloth. She kept on talking about symbols and magic and so much other stuff that Martin stopped listening after 5 minutes. He just walked alongside her as they walked towards the library.
He gave most of his attention to his new pet. The eagle was quite nice to him in comparison to the expectations Martin had. Martin thought that the eagle would be proud and not let him touch you or that it would be so frightened of him that the eagle wouldn’t even come close to him.
Martin never really had a pet that he liked. He only ever had a couple of fish, but he usually killed them within a couple of days. He gave up the idea of pets altogether after fish number 42 died.
But he was happy that the eagle accepted him as his owner. He petted him a couple of times and the bird returned his affection. He was glad to have something by his side that wasn’t a pony or a cynical dragon.
When they arrived at the library Martin had a couple of marks on his fingers. He patted his pet a bit too vigorously and the bird pecked at his fingers a couple of times.
He sat down on the couch, taking care that his hand is still covered. He still had to think of a way to tell Twilight without making her destroy half of Ponyville in surprise. The bird on his shoulder flew towards Owlowlicious, who was sitting in one of the windows, looking at a book.
Twilight walked into the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water. She came walking into the room again and looked at Martin. She tilted her head as she noticed something. Martin’s ex-hand was no longer covered by a cloth. “Can humans take off their hands?”
Martin shot up, shocked at her statement. “Uhm,” Martin looked at his arm. “No.”
“Then why is your hand gone?” Twilight asked as she took a closer look.
Martin used his left-over hand to point to the open book on the table, which he had thrown to the side in confusion earlier.“I tried to use a simple disappearance symbol to make a piece of paper again. Let’s just say that a little bit more than just the piece of paper disappeared.”
Twilight walked over to the book and took a peak. “You wrote the symbol on the piece of paper or on your hand?”
“I wrote it on the piece of paper, it said so in the book.” Martin said as he pointed to the corresponding page.
“That shouldn’t have made your hand disappear. How did you perform the spell?” Twilight asked as she took a look around the room for the piece of paper. She couldn’t find it.
“It wouldn’t disappear so I slammed my hand on it a couple times. Then my hand disappeared. I have no idea how it happened.” Martin said as he rubbed over the stump. “It wasn’t cut off or anything, but it just disappeared.”
Twilight scrunched her face as she thought of something. She took a sip. Then her facial expression took a U-turn. “WHAT!” She screams. “You lost what?!”
‘I think that it finally came through to her.’ Martin thought, just as all hell was about to break loose.
Twilight’s face contorted into an angry face. “You managed to lose your hand?! How did you do that?!”
“I… uh-just did something.” Martin said, a bit surprised at her reaction, even though he was expecting it.
“I don’t lose my hoof, do I?” Twilight yelled. Then, in a split second, her whole expression changed. “But what if the princess finds out about it? What if she punishes me for negligence? What if I get sent to the moon or forced to hoofwrite the Equestrian law book or be forced to hoofwrite the Equestrian law book on the moon. And what if I get sent to magic kindergarten after it.”
Twilight went from a raging unicorn to a paranoid one, sitting on the ground, looking crazy. “Uhm… are you alright?” Martin said as he walked over to the mare, who was stroking her tail at this point.
“Of course I am alright, Can’t you see that I’m alright. I’m perfectly fine. I think that I’ll talk to my parents, see if they can escort me to the kindergarten.” Twilight said, some hairs in her mane starting to go everywhere.
“Maybe you should have some more water.” Martin said as he held the glass of water in front of her face.
“Nah, won’t need it. I got my tears right here.” Twilight said as she batted the glass away. The glass went sailing through the air, landing in front of Spike.
After Spike got himself a bath he walked up to Twilight. “Has she gone crazy again?”
Martin nodded.
“Didn’t you use to have two hands?” Spike asked as he picked up the glass and walked into the kitchen.
“Huh, what?” Martin didn’t want to have another crazy creature at hand, so he quickly returned with another question. “Is there a way to get Twilight fixed?”
“Hit her on the head a few times?” Spike said as he grabbed a mop. “It might help. Just give her a cup of yellow tea, the special one made by Fluttershy. It calms her down enough to be reasoned with.”
Martin cradled Twilight in crazy mode. “Could you get me a cup of that stuff?”
Spike mopped up the last of the water and started walking to the kitchen. “Sure, I’ll make some for us too.”
Martin sat there for a few moments, looking at Twilight, with her eyes opened, looking into nothing.
Spike walked out of the kitchen with three cups of a black liquid in his claws. “Here you go.” He said as he gave a cup to Martin. “Will you or I give it to her?”
“I’ll do it.” Martin said as he started slowly pouring the black liquid through her lips. She willingly swallowed and drank the liquid with gusto.
After he was done giving Twilight the drink Spike gave him his cup. He started drinking, but noticed something weird. “This doesn’t taste like tea.” He said as he smacked his lips, getting a good taste. “I tastes more like coffee.”
“So what is it then? Didn’t you say the tea was yellow?” Martin asked Spike as they both stared at their cup of ‘tea’.
“Uhm…” Spike looked a bit worried. “Let me check real quickly.” He said as he gave a sheepish smile and quickly ran into the kitchen.
He came from the kitchen with a bag filled with other small bags that looked like teabags. They weren’t teabags in any meaning of the word. He threw it at Martin. “Here, take a look.” Spike walked over to Twilight, who Martin had cradled in Martin’s arms, since she was shaking quite a bit and prone to damaging herself in the process.
She has been shaking ever since Martin gave her the black, non-yellow liquid. Martin took a look at the back of the bag.
It read: ‘Blue Cow, energy coffee. Perfect for the learning egghead.’ It reminded him of Red Bull and he thought of what this kind of drink would do to an already crazy Twilight.
“How strong did you make this stuff?” Martin asked Spike as he took another look at Twilight. He was worried that giving the energy drink to the mare was a very bad thing to do.
“How strong did you make this stuff?! ,” Martin asked a bit louder. “It tasted quite strong.” He smelled the bag. It reeked of a strong smell, most likely the energy drink, with a bit of coffee being noticeable too.
“Uhm…” spike said as a sheepish smile formed on his face. “A… lot.”
Martin sighed and smiled at Spike. Crazy Twilight was still mumbling to herself and Martin’s new eagle was still staring at them, a bit of jealousy showing in his eyes. “How long does it take to work out?” He asked Spike.
“With this strength? A long time.” Spike said as he patted the wide-eyed Twilight on the head. She didn’t seem to notice it and kept mumbling.
She then suddenly jumped up. “I have to hide otherwise I’ll be send to the moon!” Martin, Spike, Owlowlicious and the unnamed eagle are all pushed back by a wave of Twilight’s magic. Before anything can do anything Twilight is out of the door and running away.
“I’m going after her.” Martin yelled as he crawled back to his feet. “You look after my eagle and Owlowlicious.” He ran to the door and followed Twilight.
He saw her rush through the streets, bumping into a lot of the ponies. He ran after her, bumping into almost the same ponies as Twilight.
“Twilight! Stop!” He yelled when he caught a glimpse of her through the masses.
No response came from the purple blur. Martin heard some other voices near Twilight and he recognized Applejack.
He ran over to Applejack, who had a lasso wrapped around Twilights legs, trapping her on the ground. A bag filled with apples laid next to her. “What in tarnation are ya doing Twi? Runnin’ around like a crazed up filly.”
“Hey Applejack.” Martin said as he puffed out beside the orange mare. “I’m glad that you caught Twilight. She was being a bit crazy.”
Applejack didn’t say anything; she just stared at his arm. “Didn’t ya have ta used two of them hand thingies.”
Martin looked at her with a questioning look, but then he looked at his ‘hand’. “Oh, yes, I lost that in an unfortunate magic accident.” He said as he smiles sheepishly.
“That aside. What happened ta Twi?” Applejack asked, letting the hand-situation go.
“When fear that the princess will lock her up and some kind of super charged drink are combined, this is the result: One crazy Twilight.” Martin said as he looked at Twilight. She still was shaking and mumbling.
“Ah, she’s going crazy again. Ya know how ta take care o’ her?” Applejack asked a she patted Twilight on the head.
“No, do you want to shed some light on that? The advice that Spike gave wasn’t the best.”
“Most of ta time ya can just talk to her and she’ll get fixed after a while.” Applejack said. She grabbed the bag that laid next to her. “Ah gotta go and held Mac with his cart. See ya!” She yelled as she walked away, towards the market that he saw in the distance.
He waved at her as he took Twilight on his back, making sure that she laid comfortable. He heard her mumbling and he shook his head. He smiled as he walked back to the tree library. Most ponies turned their head as he walked past with a crazy mare on his back, but since Ponyville has seen a large amount of weird happenings most of them didn’t really cared.
He arrived back at the library where three pair of eyes stared back at him. “Did I do something wrong?” He laughingly asked as he walked in through the door.
“Nah,” Spike said. “”Let’s put her in the back and since you broke her you can fix her.”
“Weren’t you the one that gave her the super charged drink?” Martin asked Spike as he gave him an accusing look.
“Yea, yea. You take care of her and get your hand back. Then we’ll talk again.” Spike said as he grabbed a broom and started brushing some left over debris from the destroyed floor.
Martin walked up the stairs and over to Twilight’s room. He opened the door and walked into her room.
It was mostly decorated with stars. There were stars everywhere, but it looked quite nice, not too hard on the eye nor unnoticeable.
He walked over to her bed and laid her down on it. He looked around the room and walked over to the bookcase. It was a large bookcase, none of them marked with anything that indicated that they were owned by the library. She must’ve owned over five hundred books. ‘How can she read all of them?’ Martin looked around for some books that he might enjoy. He, after some looking, found a book: Equestrian history; the old days. He grabbed the book and sat down to Twilight. ‘The best way to console a bookworm: read a book to them.’
Martin opened the book and started reading to Twilight. She seemed to be enjoying it.
Martin put down the book, having read most of it to the sleeping Twilight. She had a smile on her face as he walked down the stairs. It was late at night and since they had a couch again he had a place to sleep.
When he arrived downstairs he saw Spike sleeping sound in his basket. He followed his example and laid on the couch. He quickly fell to sleep. He thought a bit about his lost hand and how he was going to replace it. He was wondering if a magic hand would be corrupted immediately if he got one.
In the north of the Everfree Discord’s mind, having taken the form of a see through version of his solid version, sat on top of a tree trunk. He was whispering in the ear of a couple of animals. Some dangerous and some a bit less dangerous. Most of the animals had a severe case of swirly eyes. Only a few of the more resistant animals, like cockroaches and little kittens, weren’t affected by Discord, they just liked the colors.
After a few minutes of talking to most of the animals he left them. His ghostly form slowly started dissipating. He gave a cocky smile as the last whispers of his face faded into the ether.
The animals stood there for a while, doing nothing. Then they shook their heads and the swirlyness disappeared from their eyes, but they still were hypnotized. They scrambled off into the distance, disappearing into the night.
Luna was walking through the hallways of Canterlot castle. She was on her way towards the artifact room. She wanted to use a specific artifact, one with not such a great power, but with great use.
The use to look anywhere in a large range, if the user’s magic capabilities are large enough. And of course the magic capabilities of Luna were far greater than were necessary for her goal.
She was getting closer to her goal, but she was still thinking over it. She wanted to take a look at Martin. She knew that he was coming soon, but couldn’t wait to take another glance at him.
He was the only one, even though he was of another species, she ever felt close to. Close to her, not as a sister, not as a friend, not as an adviser, nor as anything else than a lover. It also was a first one for her. When her sister dabbled and slept with guards and others so satisfy her needs, she kept away from any needs. She wanted to wait for the right pony, or alien. She now had found the right one. The only thing she wasn’t certain off was if he thought of her in the same way. Even though they talked long conversations and sat next to each other for a long time she still didn’t know for certain. He was an alien, someone from a different culture. She might be a friend to him. She wanted certainty. The artifact could help her find out. It didn’t just watch locations, but people their minds. She could look inside his mind and see if the chemicals reacted in the same way as they did in her head. She would have to dig deep though and she was sure that he would have a good night’s rest.
She kept on walking, not being stopped by anypony until she reached the room. She opened the door and walked in, straight towards the artifact.
The thing she completely forgot when she started looking was that magic is something that is everywhere in the body, even if it is a little. And that Martin’s main form of magic is corrupted. That could cause problems.
One of the animals Discord had hypnotized was walking along the edge of the forest, seeing if anything was watching it. Nothing capable of forming words was watching it at that moment, but a certain zebra saw it some time ago wander through the forest. However, she wasn’t alarmed by this occurrence, since animals wander often near the edge of the forest, never to cross it.
The animal in fact was a cockatrice. And it was flying low over the ground, turning its head, looking over the road that led along the edge of the forest. After it saw that there were no ponies to see, it he quickly flew over the road, towards Ponyville.
The creature flew quickly to the town and it reached it in minutes. It had little knowledge of the town and only got told that the human resided in a large, hollow tree. Even though the given instruction were small and few in numbers it was easy to find the tree Discord mentioned.
It flew a bit higher over the town and quickly found the tree. It flew towards the tree and ticked on the window. Not to wake any, but to see if anypony was still awake. Nothing happened as the cockatrice sat there.
After a while it decided that it was safe. It pushed the, somehow, open window open and climbed through. It quietly walked through the house, looking for the human. It quickly found him sleeping on the new couch.
It started walking towards it, walking carefully not to wake anything that could stop him from completing his task. He didn’t wake anything, since you can’t wake something that hasn’t even been to sleep.
It wasn’t Owlowlicious though. The owl sipped a bit of coffee that morning so it had been more active during the day. The animal that was actually awake was Martin’s new pet, the unnamed bald eagle.
The eagle thought that sleep was for the weak so it stayed up. Another reason might be that he took a bit of the Blue Cow.
The eagle noticed the cockatrice; the cockatrice didn’t notice the eagle. The eagle glided silently down and landed back of the cockatrice.
The eagle didn’t know what the cockatrice wanted to do exactly, but he knew that it wasn’t something good. The eagle tapped the cockatrice on the back and the cockatrice turned around, annoyed that something interrupted him.
The cockatrice, not able to use its turn-to-stone ability more than once a day, didn’t want to waste it on the eagle. So it gave it a scratch with its talons, drawing blood on the eagle’s face.
This only made the eagle angry. The eagle gave it a quick scratch back and flew away to a bookshelf, having drawn its attention. The cockatrice, despite wanting to complete its objective, couldn’t let this go. It quickly followed the eagle up to the shelve.
Then the eagle and the cockatrice had a showdown. They stared deeply into each other’s eyes, glaring at each other for a while.
The cockatrice jumped at the eagle and when it was close enough it swung its talons at the eagle. The eagle ducked and dashed under it, giving it a head-butt on its back. The cockatrice lost its balance and fell onto the shelf.
The Eagle walked over to the cockatrice that was still lying on its back, a bit dazed by the blow. The cockatrice knew that if he didn’t do anything he would lose the battle and not be able to complete his objective.
The eagle decided to give the cockatrice a sucker punch right on the side of its head. It dazed the cockatrice even more.
The eagle hanged over the cockatrice, wearing a smug smile, for as far as an eagle can wear a smug smile. The cockatrice was running out of options and it determined that not dying was more important than completing his objective.
It put deed to thought and gazed deeply into the eyes of the eagle. The eagle went rigid and even though his body tried to move, his body stayed in one place. His smile changed to a silent scream as its talons started to turn grey and to stone. Soon enough there wasn’t an eagle anymore, just a stone statue.
The cockatrice gave a happy sigh, glad that he had won the fight, but sad that he had to retry his goal tomorrow.
What the cockatrice didn’t notice was that the eagle statue wasn’t perfectly balanced. The eagle statue slowly tipped over and started its short journey.
The journey ended with a loud sound as the eagle statue hit the ground. Loud enough to wake any human sleeping nearby…
Martin heard a loud noise, a loud thump. His eagle had fallen to the ground, completely turned to stone. He rubbed his eyes. “What was that?” Came out of his mouth, although it sounded a bit drowsy; that represented his situation at the moment.
He put his arms under him and looked around. The first thing that caught his attention was the very scared cockatrice. The cockatrice, since it just wasted its once-a-day petrifier, didn’t have too much of a defense, so it did the only sensible thing: it ran.
After Spike kept leaving the window open, and he did it a lot, she installed the windows at an angle, so that they would close after time, 1 minute to be exactly, an enchantment made sure of that.
So when the cockatrice returned to the window it had entered through, it couldn’t get through. This cockatrice was quite scared, so it didn’t think, but just slammed itself repeating on the glass.
Even though Martin had no idea what was going on and he hadn’t found the stone eagle yet, he didn’t take too kindly at the constant noise. So he walked up to the cockatrice and caught it by its neck.
The cockatrice gave a shriek and tried to fight back, but since a cockatrice is around three quarters of a pony’s height and Martin is around twice as high as a pony, it didn’t stand much of a chance.
It screamed some more as Martin walked back to his spot on the couch. He put the cockatrice on the couch and held it down with his stump. He grabbed and shook his pillow to get it out of the cover. He then had an empty sack and a screaming creature that fit in the bag. The bag was large enough because Twilight was worried that they might be too small, so she bought them super jumbo sized.
He stuffed the screaming cockatrice in the bag and put it on the ground. He held the bag under his arm as he shoved a large pile of books closer to him. He put the bag and the ground and put the pile on the end of the bag, holding it closed.
He got the task done, even with only one hand, and laid back on the couch, content with the fact that there was no longer any sound that stopped him from getting a good night’s rest, but some other pony knew that it would be no calm night for him.
Luna peered into the orb. She could do it without the orb, but it would be even more painful. Peering into someone’s mind was easy, but understanding and seeking through their brain, their very self is a lot more demanding, for both the one who looks and the one who is looked upon. Usually this orb would be used on enemies, since it would be painful for the receptor, but she would be calm and easy, since she still would be looking at Martin.
So Luna was using this ancient artifact. The artifact was only usable who is an expert in magic of the night. The books that told about that kind of magic were locked up and only accessible by a few ponies. Only Luna was an expert in night magic and since she helped in the creation of the orb in one of her darker days, so it would be even easier for her in comparison to any ordinary expert in night magic.
So the kept on peering into the orb, controlling the swirling mist inside and focusing it on a particular place and on a particular human. She closed her eyes as her mind’s eye, combined with the strength of the orb, started entering the first layer of Martin’s mind.
She saw nothing. His conscious mind was empty, which is logical, since he was sleeping. The color of the mist in the distance of the conscious mind can tell a bit about the personality of the one who is looked at.
Blue means strength. White means wisdom. Red means malice and evil. Green means bravery and courage. Purple means strength in magic. Dark blue means a tendency to the night; this means one has a tendency to turn to night, or dark, magic and lead a nocturnal life. Yellow means an accepting mind, a kind one and orange means that one speaks truth and the truth only. A mix is possible too or another color all together, creating a unique personality. Usually these ponies are special and perform extraordinary feats. An example is Starswirl the Bearded, whom is the father of many great spells.
Martin’s mind was something that looked like a child’s blanket that has been mended over and over. The color pattern consisted of something that looked like polka dots randomly thrown on a blanket of stitched together colors.
The colors floated around, blending together and mixing. There never was a clear view of a section. As soon as Luna looked at a spot a second time it already had changed.
There were differences in quantity though. Red was only present in small dots and they were far and few in between. One of the more present ones were white and yellow, with a few dark blue here and there. She deduced that they were present due to the corrupt magic in his body.
She was surprised to see some purple, since he never actively used magic, and some colors she had never seen in anybody’s mind, not even in the unique cases she had seen. She was baffled and a bit scared too. Not once in her long lifetime had she seen this.
She feared of what was lying deeper in his mind, but she continued on, determined to find out what Martin thought of her.
She focused her magic once more and delved deeper into Martin’s mind. She went into the second layer, the subconscious. This is the subconscious that controls all of the functions that the conscious mind doesn’t cover.
Everybody’s mind is different too in this aspect. Some minds are organized, with file cabinets and a complete staff manning the mind office. Some minds are just one big pile of paper and one lazy ‘person’ working there. The ‘people’ working there are just exact copy of the person that owns the mind. They go around and do the stuff the body has to do, like breathing and making sure that you keep sweating.
Martin’s mind consisted only of one big computer. A large hunk of metal with a couple of wires and a few meters on the front. One lonely screen sat on the front with a generic keyboard and a mouse in front of it.
Luna had gotten curious and walked over to the screen. There were computers in Equestria, but they were very simple and were only standing in its child stages.
She pressed down on the mouse experimentally and the screen turned on. Green text appeared on screen saying: “Password?” Luna had no idea what to type in and when she tried something her hooves were too big for the screen so after a few seconds of typing the whole screen was filled with an assortment of random letters.
It was a wonder she didn’t hit the enter key up to that point, but she soon did. And when she did that a large ‘WRONG!!’ appeared on screen and she stood there, intrigued by the fact that it changed so quickly.
Before she could react a trapdoor opened up under her and she fell through, into the inky black that was another part of his brain. She screamed, but since she wasn’t there physically, no one heard her.
Luna kept falling and falling. The fall seemed endless and the strange light at the end of the tunnel didn’t seem to get any closer.
Luna tried to use her magic to slow her fall, but she failed to conjure anything. Magic seemed to escape from her. She couldn’t bring any magic to appear in her horn and after a few failed attempts she stopped trying.
She tried to think of a way to escape this trap, but nothing that didn’t involve her horn came to mind. She had already tried to use her wings, but she didn’t seem to be able to move them an inch from her body.
She gave up, thinking of what might lay ahead of her. She feared it, but her curiosity got the best of her and she hoped that her fall might end soon, so she would find out what would lie ahead.
As soon as the though left her mind the trip ended. It seemed that thinking of the end of the trip caused it. ‘This might be useful on my journey through my beloved’s mind.’Luna thought as she felt herself crashing into a floor.
She laid there on the ground; the ringing caused by the impact had caused a pain in her head that wouldn’t dissipate within seconds. Only after rubbing her temples for half a minute did the pain disappear and she was able to stand up and take in her surroundings.
She appeared to be in a small room with only 2 things in it, one very large screen, not unlike the previous one and a small map, hanging on the wall. The screen caught her interest and she walked to it.
This one seemed more expensive and more advanced than the previous one. This one lacked a keyboard though, so she saw no way to interact with the device.
After she looked around the device the found only one thing, a small button which had the general on/off symbol on it. She couldn’t hold in her curiosity, and there wasn’t anything else to do, and so she pressed the button.
A low buzzing sound came out of the screen before it switched on. It displayed only white noise, nothing more. The noise started to get annoying very quickly and started to hurt, so she tried tapping on the screen to change it.
As soon as her hoof left the surface the screen changed to a different vision. It changed to one of a city, not unlike Manehattan. She knew Martin wasn’t in Manehattan or any city else, so this place must’ve been the only other place his mind could reside in: the mind itself. He was dreaming and she was watching his dreams.
Luna knew a lot about dreams, she was the princess of the night after all, but it interested her to watch the dreams of another species.
She watched the scenery change from the city to a house, in front of a house to be exact. The view moved around, it was a bit sick making to her, seeing something move, but her body moving not an inch.
She closed her eyes and focused her magic, which she could use now again. She focused on the mind she was residing in. Usually it would be quite difficult to enter a mind with this large of a distance between her own body and the one she was entering, but since she already entered it, it was a cakewalk.
She saw the same as on the screen, but now she could move around herself.
As it always was in a dream, only the part that was in the mind of the dreamer was actually solid, or anything. The rest was white and if anypony would jump in it they could only escape if they could use magic, otherwise they would be stuck in limbo until the dream was over. And being stuck in limbo isn’t a pleasant experience.
The house she saw in front of her was one she saw only in the sub-urbs of Manehattan, one of the homes owned by the richer ponies. The house had 2 stories and an attic, a large front garden and a driveway. There was a extension from the side of the building, a garage, but since Luna had no idea what cars were she had no idea what the garage was meant for. She would to ask Martin about it when she was out of his mind, but that would reveal her plans, so she would have to wait for a good opportunity to ask.
In front of her she saw Martin walk up to the front door and open it. He hesitated for a second before entering the house. She couldn’t see his face, but the small stop in his walk ensured her that there was something in the house that made him hesitate. She heard the sound of a door closing as she hesitated. Should she enter or not?
After a few seconds she decided to enter the house. She looked behind her and saw the limbo advance as more and more of the front garden disappeared. She walked up to the door and walked right through. Being in a dream has its advantages.
She walked into the hallway and stood behind Martin. He couldn’t see her. He only could if Luna revealed herself to him and she wasn’t going to.
Martin stood in front of the staircase and sounds came from the living room. Martin though about what to do. Go upstairs and avoid his family or walk in and talk to them. Luna had no idea why he would avoid them. As much as they talked about his home, back on earth, she had no idea how his family was.
Martin, after some hesitation walked into the living room and Luna heard an argument rise. She hesitated to enter the room, not wanting to eavesdrop on his family. Her curiosity got the better of her and she walked into the room. The words that were thrown at Martin surprised her quite a bit.
The words Luna heard were so violent. She couldn't fathom anything using such words to describe their own children. She had heard of some bad cases since she picked up her place in the diarchy, but this surpassed everything, verbally then.
She was standing in the doorway, right behind Martin. In front of Martin was a man sitting in a large chair. On the stand next to the man, who was the one yelling at Martin, stood several empty bottles; Luna recognized them as beer bottles, their design similar to the few she had seen in Equestria. The smell of alcohol lingered in the room and Luna found the smell repulsive, almost as much as the man she saw in front of her disgusted her. His hair was unkempt, he looked as if he hadn't seen water in a week and he had large stains on his shirt. She couldn't even tell the original colour of the shirt, nor of the pants he was wearing, tattered as they were.
The words that Martin's father used to describe him ranged from 'useless', 'motherfucking bastard' to simply weird things; 'you son of a silly person' was one of them.
Martin just stood there, head bent down at the floor and holding a neutral expression, as if he was hearing his father sum up the grocery list. But there was something; after a few more minutes of ranting a single tear fell from his face. This went unnoticed by Martin's father, but Luna saw it and she felt compassion for Martin. 'No creature should undergo this and especially not Martin. With his situation he doesn't need nightmares too.'
As Luna finished her thought the father stopped ranting and stood up, his face red with anger. "And you never come back like this." He turned his back to Martin. "Go and get me a beer!" He yelled as he walked back to the chair.
"No." Martin silently said back to him.
"What did you say?!" His father yelled as he turned around, his head even redder than before.
"Are you deaf? I said: NO!" Martin screamed at his father. "I am sick with you drinking all the time. Go and do something useful!" This time it was Martin's turn to have a red head. He walked over to the empty bottled and knocked them over.
His father's head came close to exploding as the shattering of the bottles left the ears ringing of everyone standing in the room. Martin loomed over his father, seeming larger, and stared at him, almost as if he was asking him to do something.
And something he did. A crack sounded through the room. Martin stumbled back, away from his father, whose head was red with fury. A large red spot appeared on Martin's cheek, an angry, pulsating red spot that marked the place that Martin's father had hit him.
Luna's mouth fell open. Hitting one's child was considered a crime in Equestria and such it appeared only rarely. She felt anger well up, wanting to hurt anyone who hurt the ones she loved.
Martin's father walked up to Martin, raising his hand for another strike, but it never had contact with human skin. As the last wisps of magic disappeared from Luna's horn and the air around it, silence fell. Luna felt two pairs of eyes look at her with astonishment.
Luna just broke one of the few rules that she set for herself with visiting dreams, never make you known. Not because being there is dangerous, but because seeing their princess appears suddenly in a dream is a shocking thing to most Equestrians. This shock can cause anything from a mild headache to a full blown coma, but the worst cases only happened once or twice in all of Luna's dream travel. What it always caused though, except in rare cases, was the end of the dream and a sudden awaking of the one being visited and visitor.
But because Luna was visiting a human and her primal purpose wasn't going into a dream, the dream ended, but she wasn't thrown out.
The scene before Luna melted into darkness and she was falling again, deeper into Martin's mind.
After, what seemed to Luna as, seconds she hit a floor. She looked around and was surprised to see herself in a library. Many books filled the shelves around her. They were too far away to properly read the titles. When she had stood up she walked to the nearest bookcase. She tried to pry one book, titled 'Geography: Earth (general)', out of its spot on the shelve, but it wouldn't budge. Not even when she tried with her hooves of mouth did the book seem to move one millimeter (A/N: screw the imperial system.)
Luna felt a tap on her shoulder. She gasped and quickly turned around to see Martin stand in front of her. He looked at her with a blank expression.
"M-Martin?" Luna slowly asked the human in front of her.
"I represent the memory of Martin. I am only the librarian. If you wish to know anything that Martin knows, simply ask loudly and the knowledge will come towards you. The whole library and all sub-systems are voice-operated so it will be easy for a creature without fingers, like you, to acces this database." Martin said, almost like a robot. Luna realized that this wasn't Martin, just something that his mind conjured up, together with the library, to make his memory seem more organized.
Luna wasn't sure how much Martin knew about Equestria, but between the talks he had with her and Twilight and his time reading books, he should have gathered a substantial amount of knowledge. “Equestria." She said to the book case.
She heard a rustle coming from a bookcase on the other side of the library. She turned around to see a book flying towards her. She stumbled backwards, surprised that the books suddenly had the ability to fly. When she dared look at the airborne book again she saw that it was hovering at her eye level above the ground.
The book was aptly titled 'Equestria' and when her muzzle almost could touch the cover it flipped open. At the top of the page it said 'Content menu' and below that 'Please state the subject you wish to know about.' Luna took this as a hint and said her name to the page. The pages started turning quickly and they stopped at a page titled 'Chapter: Ponies; Luna.'
The page was slowly filled with information. At the top a picture of her face appeared, it looked rather good and Luna smiled as she saw herself. Below that it listed her name, age (it had a question mark next to it and this didn't surprise Luna in any way), height, last name (This one was empty). Below this was a description of her. It missed some key things about her, mostly things of her past that she opted not to tell Martin. But the description was written from a neutral point and only listed facts. She was a bit disappointed, but this disappeared quickly as another small line slowly appeared.
Relation:...
It took a few second for anything to appear, and she was puzzled why it came so late, but she was even more surprised with the result. 'Error!' flashed in front of her. The word slowly started to grow and turn an angry red. Not before long had the word enveloped the entire page, blocking away the other text.
A heavy thump resounded through the library as the book fell to the ground, the page still displaying the large 'Error.' Luna slowly backed away from the book, not having encountered something like this before. It was like the mind couldn't decide what to make of the situation between Luna and Martin.
"Explain this error to me, book!" She demanded of the book, decided not to just sit back and wait, but to do something.
The error message changed from 'Error' to something she understood even less:
This all seemed gibberish to Luna and she almost dismissed it, but the word disintegration caught her attention; it couldn't mean anything good. The fact that she was sure that she was the cause that it was going to disintegrate couldn't mean anything good too.
When she looked up from the book she saw that a grate had fallen down over every bookcase, blocking the books from sight. She heard a slight rumbling and looked to another corner of the library. One of the bookcases swung open and a something rolled out.
"Exterminate!" The thing yelled as it opened fire on Luna.
The approaching machine frightened almost every creature it met. It was a Dalek, an alien warrior race that kills or exterminates everything it meets. There are very few things that could kill it, but an easy way of shortly impairing them was covering their eye stalk.
Luna dodged the first few beams that were shot at her head by simply moving it. The Dalek yelled exterminate again as it shot another few beams at Luna. This one hit her mane, leaving a sizzling hole right in her ethereal mane.
She literally turned tail as she tried to flee the attacking machine, but she, as hard as she tried, couldn’t find any grip on the floor. She fell down on the floor; the smack rattling her brain.
The monster swiftly approached her and aimed all three stalks, the beam part, the eye part and the plunger part, at her. She heard a soft crackling as the weapon started charging up for another shot.
Just as the Dalek was going to release the shot Luna closed her eyes, waiting for the coup de grace.
One that never came. She heard three taps, sounding like something hard on metal.
Luna slowly opened one eye and looked at the metal creature. It had backed down and was standing next to Martin.
“M-Martin? What are you doing here?” Luna asked as she quickly jumped up and rushed to Martin.
“Me? I’m not Martin, well not technically anyway. I’m his memory keeper. I make sure that his mind and memories stay in one piece. I usually don’t show myself, but when my pet Dalek triggered the alarm I had to come.” He said as he petted the Dalek.
“Why would you have a monster like that as a pet?”
“He makes very good tea and he keeps it nice and clean in here. I usually am too busy indexing and sorting through his short term memory.” He said as the Dalek rode off and went through a door that wasn’t there a minute ago.
“Could you tell me what the real Martin feels for me?” Luna asked, hoping for a simple answer instead of another journey through Martin’s mind.
“I can’t help you with that, but the emotions department could. I’ll give you a map if you want?” He said as he handed Luna a map, which appeared out of nowhere.
“Thank you. I think that I should be on my way.” Luna said as she took a look at the map, taking in the maze like structure of Martin’s mind.
“Wouldn’t you like some tea before you go?” He asked as his pet Dalek rolled up behind him, with a platter balancing on his stalks. The platter was covered in two teacups, a teapot and a plate of biscuits.
“I’ll take one on the go, if you don’t mind.” Luna asked as she looked around the room for the door marked on the map. She soon found it; it was on the ceiling.
Martin grabbed a cup and filled it with tea. He thanked the Dalek after he filled another cup and grabbed two biscuits. He handed one to Luna and gave her a biscuit. “Here you go. Say hi to the emotions guy for me.”
Luna flapped her wings and opened the door with her magic. She said a last goodbye to him as she flew through the open door and ended up in a long corridor. As soon as she moved fully though the door she felt the gravity shift and she stopped flying. Her hooved dropped to the floor as she heard the door shut behind her.
She ended up in a long grey corridor lined with all sorts of doors, none of them marked. She took another glance at the map, but noticed that it had completely changed. She vaguely saw the old map beneath it. The map she currently held showed the corridor and all the rooms, but the rooms were so long that they ran off the end of the map. At the end of her current corridor there was a small room, marked Emo-Room.
She started walking toward that room, since it was the only one that had a marking and it started with Emo. She wanted to speed the walking part up a bit but the corridor seemed to be just too small to fly in. So she walked on, becoming a bit depressed at the greyness of it all. There was nothing happy about this place. Even though she had seen some hardship in her life it was a bit contrast to the general happiness of Equestria.
When she ended up at the door she was a bit hesitant to open it. After standing in front of the door for a few minutes she finally opened it.
This room had walls that shifted color every so often, according to Martin’s emotions. She saw one man sitting in front of a large switchboard and a single screen, filled with shifting bars and graphs.
“Uhm… Hello?” Luna asked quietly.
The large chair in which the person was residing swiveled around. Martin was sitting in it, or a version of him anyway. This version had his hair sticking everyway and a mad grin on his face.
“So you must be Luna. The one the owner is so sweet about, somehow.” He said with a slightly off voice.
“What do you mean with somehow? Explain!” Luna yelled, worried that Martin’s affection wasn’t genuine.
“Yea, this guy. He wasn’t even attracted to ponies before and still isn’t. He doesn’t look at any other pony and not because he’s loyal, he literally cares only for you. He also got as thick as a wall, can’t even pick up on simple signs or take a hint.” He stood up and grabbed at the wall, pulling out a drawer and grabbing a dossier out of it. “These records show that there was a lot of meddling in his brainpan some time ago. I think it was around the time that he arrived here in Equestria.”
Luna was a bit fazed with the fact that there was something wrong with her loved one. “Can you maybe check who has done this?”
“Sure, lemme check the records.” He said as he started flipping through the pages of the dossier. “Ah,” He exclaimed as he pointed with his finger. “The changes were done by someone or something named Discord, whoever that may be.”
Luna’s pupils shrank. “WHAT?!” She screamed so loud that the walls of the chamber rippled. She heard a crash and the walls fell down. The crazy-haired Martin disappeared. She was standing in nothing. Then she felt herself being pulled back.
After one very strong pulling feeling she found herself back in the artifact room, sweating a lot. She threw open the doors with magic and rushed towards Celestia with fear in her eyes.
Martin woke up, but he noticed that he wasn’t on the couch in the library anymore. He was floating in space. He saw a planet beneath him and concluded that it was the planet that Equestria resided on. He turned around and saw only a yodeling sausage pass by. He heard a voice behind him. “Hello. I thought it was time we finally met.” Martin turned around and saw a draqonuus standing there. It was Discord.
Twilight walked down the stairs, not really paying attention to anything. She walked into the kitchen to get a cup of tea. As she walked out again she took a long gulp, letting the tea warm her up. Only then she noticed that something was missing in her living room. Her favorite human had disappeared from his spot on the couch, leaving only the blanket. After a scream and a broken cup on the floor she rushed to Spike.
She had a letter send within minutes.
Two doors shattered on contact with the wall. Luna flew through, her horn still going from recently using magic.
Celestia was lying in her bed at the moment, sleeping sound. This didn’t remain the same for long. The dropping of a scroll on her face and the destruction of her two doors woke her from her sleep almost instantaneous and her mood wasn’t good at all.
“Who in Tartarus dares to wake me up?!” She yelled as she shot up.
Luna was standing on the end of the bed, yelling at Celestia. “Celestia, I believe Discord is loose.”
Celestia, even though she was mad, listened to her sister. “Luna, are you sure?”
Luna was a bit hesitant to say that she had been rummaging in the mind of Martin, but she had to say it someday and today is as good of a day as any. “I was wandering around in Martin’s mind, why I’ll explain later, and I found records in his mind showing that Discord has been doing something.” After this rant the adrenaline left her system and she crashed down. “Martin never loved me. It just was Discord talking.” Tears streaked her face and she closed her eyes. She crawled over to Celestia and hugged her.
Celestia was blown back by this and was speechless for a second, but she recovered soon enough. She was tactful enough to start with the broken heart. “Of course he loves you. He spent so much time with you.”
“I know he did, but he doesn’t love me. Discord made it so. I saw it myself. His preferences were altered. The real Martin doesn’t love me.” She sobbed into Celestia’s coat, leaving large wet stains.
“Shush, shush. I understand, but if Discord is truly free we need to focus on that now.” Celestia said as she padded Luna’s back.
Luna replied with nothing else other than a few sobs. Celestia patted her on the back as she floated the scroll to her face. ‘A letter at this time can’t mean anything good.’ She thought as she opened the letter and read it. Her face turned grim. ‘This isn’t good, not good at all.’ She padded Luna on the back and laid her down on the bad and stood up. She had a lot of stuff to do.
Discord was rummaging with some matter as he floated around. Martin was just staring at him, wondering how he was able to breathe, among other things. Every time he wanted to say something Discord snapped his fingers and Martin suddenly lost the desire to speak.
After a few more minutes. “You know. I can brake time. We could be here forever and nobody downstairs would notice a thing, but that would make things to easy. So I left time nice and flowing so we can spend a few nice hours together up here.”
“What do you want, whatever you are?” Martin snapped at Discord.
“Oh, I feel vaguely insulted that you don’t know who I am. I am Discord, turmoil among ponies and other species. And I must say, the way you brought turmoil to these ponies. The mind of that pretty Luna is all stressed out.”
“What did you do to my Luna?!” Martin yelled at Discord.
“Oh, I forgot. Let me fix that.” Discord snapped his fingers and Martin’s eyes flashed bright white. When his eyes went back to normal he blinked a few times. “Better now?”
Martin just glared at him. He shook his head one last time and started speaking. “What did you do to me?”
“Oh, just the general. Made you fall in love with a pony princess and I gave you those lovely destructive powers you have. I never liked that couch in the library.” Discord said as he ticked the things of off his fingers. “I made things a bit easier and made you forget all of the time and feeling you had for Luna. But she’ll remember them. That ought to cause a nice bit of pain on her part.” Discord smirked.
Martin gaped. He tried to remember the days that he knew he had spent at the castle, but he drew a blank. “Why would you do this?” He asked angrily.
“Oh, when you’re as old as me you tend to get bored and what is more fun than messing with the lives of the other immortals I share my endless life with.” He smiled at the human floating in front of him.
Martin tried to float closer to Discord and take a swing at him, but each time Discord was within arm’s reach he just seemed to float away. “Come here and fight you coward.” Martin yelled at him.
“I don’t think so, in Germany we don’t hit little girls.” Discord said with a fake german accent.
“Don’t you dare quote ERB to me!” Martin said angrily.
“Oh, just stop. You can’t beat me.” Discord said smugly. “If you stop being such a pain in the ass I might even send you back home in a few years.”
That shut Martin right up. He would love to go home, but just in a few years. He thought that Celestia or Luna could think of something earlier than that. But, he thought, it’s better to have something other than nothing.
“Fine, what do I need to do? I just want to go home.” Martin finally said with a sigh.
“See that’s the spirit. Now, I am going to send you back. Give you some even more destructive powers and you’ll have to do something when I ask you to.” Discord said as he gripped a red ball of energy in his paw. He threw it at Martin and Martin caught it in his chest.
Martin cringed as the ball hit him. Discord snapped his fingers and Martin was flown back at the planet.
It was good that Discord protected him with that nice red ball of energy, otherwise he would’ve burned up or been flattened against the wall he now crashed through.
Fortunately the wall he crashed into was adjacent to a room which contained one single white pony named Celestia.
A moan came out of the pile of rubble in Celestia’s room. A few pieces of rubble floated away as Celestia was standing over the pile, frantically searching for whoever had crashed through her wall. She never saw Martin crash, but a moan told her something was still alive.
She felt her progress was too slow, so she just teleported everything non-organic outside. Unfortunately this also included Martin’s clothes. A blush appeared on her face before she teleported his clothes back on his body. Just after that the doors swung open once again, but just a bit less forcefully as Luna entered
“What happene-” She began, but she cut herself off. She saw Martin lying on the ground, unconscious. She rushed over to him and hugged him.
Celestia picked up the letter, which had been flung away because of the crash, and showed it to Luna. “You need to read this.”
Luna slowly grabbed the letter and read it.
Princess Celestia,
Martin just disappeared from my home. I haven’t seen anything, he just disappeared. I am going to search Ponyville with my friends. Please tell me if you find anything.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
“I think that Discord took him the moment you discovered him.” Celestia said. “I don’t know what Discord did to him, just that it probably isn’t anything good.”
Luna just nodded, tears starting again on her face. “Should we wake him up?” She asked Celestia as she moved Martin to Celestia’s bed.
“No, I don’t think that it would be wise. I don’t want to force anything on him until I know what Discord did to him. I think it is best to just let him sleep.” Celestia said as she gave Luna a quick hug. “I’m sorry for you, Luna.” She ushered Luna out of the room and left Martin alone to rest.
Martin’s mind was a mess. Discord’s energy ball made some changed, but most important was a new connection. His emotions were connected to his powers, becoming destructive or non-destructive depending on his emotions.
Other adjustments made were to the chaotic magic inside him. It was now stabilized; It won’t spill out at random, but it, just as his new powers, fluctuates with his emotion. The angrier he gets the more chaotic magic he releases.
When the energy ball hit him, the massive amounts of changes overloaded his mind, which caused him to faint. After about 2 hours of lying on the bed Martin woke up with a splitting headache. He rubbed his temples as he swung his body so he sat up on the bed. There was still a gaping hole in the wall and Martin just gave it a glance, to preoccupied to think about it.
The door slowly opened and Celestia walked in. “How are you feeling?” she asked quietly.
He grunted. “I have a splitting headache and am very thirsty, but otherwise I’m fine.”
“Luna and I think that there might be more to it.” Celestia said as she sat down next to Martin. “Can you tell me what happened? Nopony just crashes through a wall.”
“It’s all a bit fuzzy, but I remember someone, or something, called Discord. He threw something at me, something red. I remember being angry and then, then I was falling and,” He looked at the wall. “Apparently I crashed through the wall, but how I am unharmed, I don’t know.”
“I think that Discord might have something to do with that. I need to check your mental health, would you mind?”
Martin gave a weak grin at the pun and nodded. “Now, if you would please look me in the eyes.”
Martin did just that. Celestia gasped. “Your eyes! They’ve changed.” She quickly floated over a small mirror. Martin looked at himself and mirrored Celestia’s gasp. His eyes were no longer the usual brown, but had changed to black slits, surrounded by fire red, just like the ball Discord flung at him. “Thankfully, I can still check.” She said as her horn gave a quick flash. Her eyes glowed white for a moment. After all the white faded she gave a weak smile. “Well, at least you’ll be able to think normally.”
Martin sighed. “And what is the verdict without the silver lining?”
“Your mind is shattered. Nothing too bad, but you’ll keep having those headaches for a while. I also see a stabilization in your chaotic magic, but it has gotten a lot more powerful. I don’t really know what to make of this, we’ll just have to see.” She said. She stood up and walked to the door. She turned around. “You might want to go and see Luna. She has been upset since she…” She hesitated for a moment. It wasn’t wise for her to tell him that Luna has been rummaging around in Martin’s mind. “Heard about your opinion of her.”
“I remember something vague about it. I don’t know how, but I lost the feeling.”
Celestia nodded. “You rambled in your sleep. She heard it then. She has been crying ever since.”
Martin sighed. “I really don’t want to hurt her. I mean that I understand that she is hurt, but I don’t love her and don’t want to pretend that I do.”
“She isn’t happy about it, but she’ll understand. Don’t you want to stay friends?”
“I don’t see why not.” Martin responded.
“So go to her. She needs you to see her.” Celestia said as she opened the door for Martin.
Martin nodded and stood up. He looked outside the door and turned around. “Which side?”
Celestia pointed to her left. Martin thanked her and he went to the room on his right. He opened the door and walked in. The room was sparsely furnished, not much there besides a bed and one drawer.
On that one bed lied Luna. Martin walked up to her and sat down, petting her on the back. She slowly looked up and gave a weak smile, but that soon disappeared.
She opened her mouth, but closed it. She hesitated for a second. “D-do you… do you still want to be my friend?”
Martin smiled and said nothing and just hugged her. Luna happily smiled, but there was a sour edge to this happy hug. Physical contact with Luna caused chaotic magic to be transferred from the high point to the low point, or in other words, from Martin to Luna.
Just as they broke the hug their chaotic magic levels leveled out, Discord made sure of that. Martin stood up. “I guess I’ll see you later.” He waved at Luna and left the room.
Luna waved back as she sagged back to the bed. In that short time the chaotic magic had enough time to fester. Something snapped in her mind and she quickly teleported away, her coat just a tinge darker than before.
The moon was a lonely place. The only resident was Luna, who was there for a thousand years. But she was rescued by a few stars.The stars that freed Nightmare Moon were also Discord’s doing. Anyway, it has been vacant for a while, but Luna checked in again. From the moment she felt something slip into her brain she knew it: The corruption was back and it was out to get her. She knew that there was corrupted magic in Martin, but it was so dormant that she didn’t worry about it. But she was wrong.
Now she was on the moon, her mind had divided into a corrupted and a non-corrupted part, and the corrupted part was gaining control fast. She knew she had to do something, but she didn’t know what. For all the knowledge that she gained over the years she didn’t know how to fight the corruption alone. For every single occasion that the corruption took a shot at her Celestia had been there to help her. The corruption never went after Celestia for reasons unknown to them both.
Her persona itself stood completely still on the moon, nothing moving. She wasn’t even breathing, her magic took care of her bodily functions so that she could focus completely on the mess in her mind.
And what a mess it was. After the last time she set up many a barrier to ward of everything from mind-invading spells to corruption, but this time they were all knocked down as if they were nothing. She was fighting mental hand to corrupted hand. And she was losing.
There was nothing she could do anymore. She could only let herself loose and hope that the corruption would let her be kept a prisoner. She salvaged all of the sanity that she had left and hid in a corner of her mind, throwing up defenses that even she didn’t know how to knock down. Only her sister knew how to and that was good, because the corruption had access to her memories. This barrier meant that the corruption never could wholly drive her out and that if needed, her sister could rescue her.
The corruption wasn’t like the last time. Last time it only sought to destroy what Celestia had made of Equestria. This time is was going to be subtler. The corruption was going to replace Celestia and be a different ruler. It was going to be even more devilish than last time. This time its plans were to cleanse Equestria of every filth it could find and make Equestria the best place in the whole universe. And then it would let it all crash down. There would be so much panic that not only Equestria would collapse, but the whole planet would come down in turmoil. And it would come up on top.
That was its plan and it wasn’t going to be deterred by anything. The human would soon be under its control and would be a perfect weapon. The memories of war machines would help, but his sight alone brings fear to the ponies. He’s the perfect weapon.
Celestia felt it. She felt the magic residue of a very long distance teleport. She quickly teleported herself to the room next door, but she only saw a very distraught Martin. Not caring for feelings at the moment she stood on her back legs and grabbed Martin by the shoulders. “What happened?” She yells at him.
His eyes glazed over for a second then they focused. “We simply hugged and then she teleported away. That’s all I know.”
Celestia’s eyes turned down to the floor. “I’m sorry, but I have to search for her right now. Please wait in my room.” She quickly said before teleporting away, leaving Martin to care for himself.
The moon now had for the first time in its existence two habitants. It was only a shame that both of them weren’t so friendly to each other. By the time Celestia arrived Luna had already surrendered and her mind was damaged, but not destroyed. ‘Luna’ sat there, not moving a muscle, when Celestia approached, but even when she came close enough to touch…. Nothing happened. It wasn’t until Celestia actually touched her shoulder was it that ‘Luna’ did anything.
‘Luna’s’ head turned around, it did a full 180. Her mouth turned into a very wide smile that was on the verge of crazy. After less than a second it went across that line and broke new crazy ground. Celestia was genuinely scared, something that hadn’t happened in a long time.
“L-Luna, what’s happened?” Celestia asked with a trembling voice.
“Let’s just say that Luna won’t come to the answering machine for a while.” She said laughingly.
Celestia was even more scared. The corruption finally had her sister. “W-What’s an answering machine?” She asked.
“Oh, some human thing. It must’ve rubbed off on me when I was inside his mind. Now that I am speaking about that, his mind is a wonderful place. So many methods of destruction. It’s every tyrant’s wet dream! You should take a look, I’m sure you could be in there for years and still find new stuff to look at.”
‘It never hurts to ask.’ Celestia thought. “Will you leave Luna if I promise not to throw you into the sun?”
‘Luna’s’ body turned to meet her head and the smile stayed. “Nah, I think I can manage on my own. But I think it shall be your flesh that shall sizzle in the sun. Did you know that Martin is an omnivore?”
Celestia said nothing. She didn’t know about it, but it didn’t surprise her either. She simply nods.
“So, you must know that Martin hasn’t eaten meat in a while and I figure, he would love to take a bite outta you.” ‘Luna’ opened her mouth and showed her teeth. Instead of the normal molars she had a mouthful of sharp teeth. “Maybe I’ll even get started already. You do look quite good if I might say so.”
“Luna don’t do this. Fight that monster.” Celestia said.
“Have you lost your ears. I already said that Luna ain’t here no more.” ‘Luna’ said. “I figured that Nightmare Moon got a bit stale, so I got a new name, Blood Moon.” With those last few words she charged at Celestia.
Martin was just waking up, thinking about what had happened the day before. He only just noticed that his hand was back and that he had a good night’s sleep once in a while.
He was marveling about it when he heard a knock on the door. It slowly opened and a servant poked his head through. "Uhm..." He said, sounding frightened. "Breakfast is served in the dining hall."
Martin nodded at him and stood up. He flexed his new hand a bit. He noticed that this wasn't his old hand. His old hand has little scars and other small thing, but this one really is new and the skin is as soft as baby skin. He wanted to go down to the dining hall and show Luna and Celestia his new appendage.
So he hopped out of his bed and walked towards the dining hall. When he arrived there wasn't anyone there, just a long table filled with food.
"Hello, Is anyone there?!" He yelled, but the echoes already gave away that there was no one there.
He just shrugged and sat down, eating what he anything that he could digest. After a while a servant came in.
“Have you seen the princesses?” We both asked at the same time. “I guess not then.” We both said, again at the same time. He just shrugged and walked out of the door, leaving Martin to himself.
Martin sighed and ate on. Even when he was done he sat there for another hour or so, waiting for anyone to show up that he knew. He sighed and stood up, walking towards the door. Then he heard something behind him and that was followed by a heavy thump.
He turned around and gasped. The thump was caused by an unconscious Celestia being dropped to the floor. Standing behind her was Luna, or somepony who looked like Luna. She had the same coat, but her eyes were slits and a dark red. Her mane changed from the flowing stars to the surface of the moon, but with a red tinge.
Martin couldn’t move. It was as if he was nailed to the floor. “L-Luna?”
She shook her head. “Nay, it is I, Blood Moon. Luna is no more.”
When she said that Martin’s head sagged down. He said nothing but quickly moved towards Celestia. He moved his hand towards her neck, but before he could take her pulse Blood Moon teleported her away. “My foolish sister shall no longer be ruling so I see no point in her appearing in public anymore.”
Martin just looked at her, partly angry and partly surprised. He never thought that Luna could turn into this, but the doctors warned him about it.
Blood Moon walked up to him. “I heard from my sister that you murmured something, something about not loving me. Is that true?”
‘To be honest to myself, I don’t even know for sure. I think that in the light of the events here it would be wise to just say that I still love here otherwise I might pay dearly for it.’ Martin thought. “That was a mistake on Celestia’s side. I wouldn’t ever say that sort of thing.”
Blood Moon smiled at that. She stepped closer to Martin and wrapped her wings around him. “We shall rule together and with no one to stop us, there shall be no end to our rule.” She gave a wide grin, but it quickly disappeared. “The elements… They need to be handled.” She looked at Martin. “You lived with the Element of Magic, didn’t you?” She asked Martin.
Martin just responded with a nod.
“You will go to Ponyville and talk to the Elements, sway them to our cause. Make sure they don’t become a problem.” As she finished she gave Martin a hug before she teleported him away. She walked through the door, going off to reorganize the whole government.
A quick flash later Martin appeared in Twilight’s living room, right next to Twilight, who was sitting on the couch. She jumped up when the human was dropped next to him. He just sat there, still surprised and a bit shell shocked
“Martin!” Twilight yelled as she quickly hugged Martin. “What happened? I haven’t heard anything from Celestia.”
“I-I don’t think she will be answering soon.” He said with a weak smile, but it quickly disappeared. “Something bad, very bad happened.”
Twilight turned serious and listened closely. “What happened?”
“Luna, she turned into something. Her eyes turned completely red and so did her mane. She was calling herself Blood Moon. She ordered me to go here and convince all the Elements of Harmony, who that may be, to follow her. I don’t know what to do.”
Twilight was blown back by this. “W-What happened to Celestia?”
“I don’t know. I know that she is defeated, but don’t know if she’s alive. I’m sorry.” Martin said, his head slumped down.
“N-No, that’s impossible. Celestia couldn’t lose. She’s much more powerful than her sister.” Twilight said with a quivering voice, not able to believe what she heard.
“She did, but I’m not planning on helping Blood Moon. She said she loves me, but I don’t love her.” Martin sighed. “She must be stopped.” He looked at Twilight. She was just sitting next to him, looking at her hooves. “Do you know how?”
“My friends and I defeated her before, using the Elements of Harmony. Luna turned into Nightmare Moon and a Celestia banished her to the moon for a thousand years. When she came back my friends defeated her using the elements, turning her back into Luna.”
“Then we have our work cut out for us.” Martin said, a bit cheered up by the fact that there was a way to defeat her.
“It appears that we have.” Twilight said. “We have to gather the elements quick.” Twilight said, her demeanor turning serious. “We have to defeat Blood Moon and free Celestia.” She stood up and ran out of the door, leaving Martin sitting there.
Blood Moon sat on her throne literally working her magic. She wasted no time converting the whole government into her own. She was magically implanting her own ideas in the minds of the ponies. Those ponies would spread her propaganda and make sure her rule would continue smoothly. Some things were as easy as replacing Celestia’s image with her own. Some were a bit more difficult, they sometimes required something that was closer to a complete memory change.
Sitting behind her, invincible, was Discord. He was just sitting there, grinning because his plan finally showed some progress and it only required him to throw a human through a wall.
He patiently waited until she had finished brain-washing the last ponies, then he became visible and stepped out in front of her.
“Hello, Moon, how is it hanging?” He asked, way to cheerful for the situation.
She reacted, against his suspicions, calmly. “Discord, I already had a strong feeling that you had something to do with it.”
“Of course I did. Did you think that the human could crash through the wall himself?” Discord thought for a moment. “That would be hilarious though.” He smiled at Blood Moon.
She just gave him a flat stare. “Hold your nonsense to yourself and tell me why you have come to me.”
“Oh, you know you love me.” He said as he trailed a claw under her chin. Then Discord’s face went from happy to serious. “Since I freed you, I ask you to let me roam free in Equestria, maybe help you rule. Generally do anything else than being stone or manipulating some human.”
Blood Moon nodded. “I’m sure that we can figure something out, but I’m going to take over Equestria first. There is something you could help me with.”
“And what would that be?”
“At the moment Martin is convincing the Elements to join my cause. You are going to assist him.”
Discord gave a salute. “Yes, mam!” He yelled before teleporting away.
Martin ran through the streets, following Twilight to Celestia knows where. He knew that this was serious and the fact that Blood Moon was expecting her to sway the Elements wasn’t making it easier. They were running through the streets, catching looks from all the other ponies outside.
“Martin! Catch up!” Twilight yelled to him.
Martin huffed. “Sorry, I just don’t have so many legs as you!” He yelled back to her between breaths.
He heard Twilight grunt and saw her horn charge up. A quick flash later and he was stumbling besides Twilight.
After a few seconds he was steadily running besides her. “Where are we going?”
“First we are going to Fluttershy and Rarity. We’ll send Fluttershy to fetch Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Then we are passing back through town to get Pinkie and then to the station.” She said while running steadily. Martin nodded and they ran on.
Soon they nearing the town limit and Rarity’s house came into view. We sprinted the last few hundred meters and while Martin was leaning against the wall, breathing heavily, while Twilight was rapping on the door.
Martin peered through a window and saw nothing that looked like a white unicorn. Twilight was hopping in place, the sweat showing on her forehead. Martin saw Rarity come down the stairs with an annoyed look on her face.
After a few more raps on the door from Twilight Rarity yelled, annoyed, ‘I’m coming’ a few times.
When Rarity finally opened the door the worried look on Twilight’s face scared her to death. “Twilight, dear, what has happened?”
“I…, Celestia…, Luna…,” Twilight looked at Martin. “Martin, will you tell them?”
Martin was staring at nothing and didn’t respond to Twilight. Not until a poke from Twilight did he look up.
He started staring back into nothing again. “I have magic.”
Rarity raised an eyebrow at this. “Magic?”
“Corrupted magic mostly. No one knows how I got it, only that it isn’t good for anyone. I already ruined Twilight’s couch with it.” He stopped for a second. “I have ruined something else this time.”
“What?” Rarity asked, sounding urged.
“It’s whom. It was Luna and she turned into… something. She calls herself Blood Moon. I think she has done something to Princess Celestia, but I don’t know what exactly. ”
Rarity turned to Twilight and whispered. “Did she turn into Nightmare Moon?”
“Not exactly, but close.” Twilight whispered back. “At least, as far as I know.”
Martin continued. “I had a confrontation and realized that I don’t love her nor ever did. She still loves me and because of that she tried to employ me. She said that I need to sway the Elements of Harmony to her cause.”
“And what cause may that be?” Rarity asked.
“To rule the world with me by her side.”
“I see.” Rarity said. She turned to Twilight. “I assume you were going to get the others?”
“Yes. We have to gather the girls and meet at the train station. The Elements are in Canterlot and we need to pick them up and we need to be quick.” Twilights sighs. “We need to find the Princess too.”
Rarity nodded and had a determined look on her face. “I’ll go get Applejack and go to the station. I’ll meet you there. I just have to tell Sweetie that I’m going.”
Twilight thanked Rarity as Rarity ran back into the house.
Twilight turned to Martin. “We have to go to Fluttershy.” She lifted Martin up to a standing position with her magic. “Let’s go.” She said sternly.
Martin gave her a faint nod and followed her when Twilight started running into the direction of Fluttershy’s house.
After a while they arrived at Fluttershy’s house, meeting few ponies on the way. Martin thought about Blood Moon on the way there. He was mentally beating himself up about Luna turning evil. He caused it, even if he didn’t meant it. Then there was Discord; he made a pact with the one who ruined his life. What was he even thinking when he agreed to his offer. Doing Discord knows what for a chance to get back home. It would be cowardly to flee after making such a mess. He was hoping that Twilight could solve the mess with the help of the Elements and that he could leave this mess behind him. The only difficult thing on his part was breaking the news to Blood Moon. There was one thing that he was certain of right now and that was that Blood Moon wasn’t going to be happy.
Twilight was much calmer than before and wasn’t rapping on the door like a madman, but when there wasn’t any sound from behind the door she got a concerned look on her face. When a quick peek through the window didn’t make her any wiser she started to get worried.
She tugged on Martin’s shirt with her magic and led him alongside the house. There they saw Fluttershy feeding some animal. When the animals noticed Martin coming they fled the scene and Fluttershy looked up.
When she saw Twilight and Martin she got a smile on her face. “Uhm… Hello Twilight, Martin. What can I do for you?”
Before Martin could say a thing Twilight beat him to the chase. “A situation came up and we need to go to Canterlot. Something has happened to Luna and Celestia is hurt.” She said stern, not once she faltered, unlike at Rarity’s.
“Oh my, what do I need to do?” Fluttershy said, sounding worried enough to make even the manliest man concerned.
“You need to fly to Rainbow and tell her to meet us at the train station. We’re going to Canterlot.”
Fluttershy got a determined look on her face and nodded. “I’ll see you there.” Then she flapped her wings and flew towards some clouds in the distance.
Twilight turned to Martin. “Let’s go. We still need to Pinkie.” With another tug on Martin’s shirt she urged him back towards Ponyville.
After more running and more strange looks from ponies they stood in front of Sugar Cube Corner. When Twilight was about to knock on the door it swung open and Pinkie was standing in front of them, looking ready for a war. She was wearing a pink helmet and had a bandolier with candies in them slung around her.
“Let’s go Twilight, let’s catch this meanie.” She then paraded through Martin and Twilight and went on her way to the station. “Let’s GO!” She yelled back at the pair who was still standing in front of the door, mouths open from surprise.
“Did she just…?” Martin started
“Don’t question it.” Twilight responded.
After they had closed their mouths they followed Pinkie towards the station.
After a sprint they made it to the station and they found the other girls waiting there.
Rainbow was the first to notice them and she flew up to them. “Twilight! What the hay is going on right now?”
“There is a situation with the Princesses. We need to get to Canterlot immediately and get the elements.” Twilight explained.
Rainbow still wasn’t satisfied. “I’m gonna need a little more than that.”
“Luna turned into Blood Moon, some sort of Nightmare Moon, and did something to Celestia.”
Rainbows eyes widened. “Yea, that’s a valid reason to wake me this early.”
Twilight gave her a flat stare. “It is around 10.”
“Early for me.” Rainbow responded as if it was a fact.
“Sure.” Twilight said. She turned towards the rest of the girls. “Alright, we have to be on this train,” She pointed to the current train in the station. All the girls and Martin nodded.
“Let’s do this!” Twilight and Martin said at exactly the same time.
