Papa lay in his rocking chair. He said it was his grandmothers. We were apple farmers. We had a quiet life. But, Papa is dying now. Mama died a little after I was born. Papa never said how.
Now, I sat in front of him. His sandy hair gleaming with white stripes. His green eyes were closing and opening. His freckled face smiled at me. He was sick. The Doctors said he wouldn’t get better, and as Papa usually does, papa mumbled about the past. My papa’s old, but he’s really tall. His name is Mac. Papa told me it was short for something, and I never asked for what. His friends called him Big Mac. He was a quiet man. He either said “Eeyup” or “Nope”, sometimes he spoke a lot. This was one of those times. Probably the last.
“Twalight,” He said in his deep southern accent. I stared up at him. Tears were in my unusually purple eyes.
“Yes papa?” I replied in my soft southern accent.
“I have a present for you sugar.” He took out a leather book. It was the one he always wrote in recently. I always asked him what was in it. Papa was always secretive, and he never told me. “It’s all ya ever wanted to know about ma past.” He handed it to me. I gingerly received it. “Now, don’t go openin’ it ‘till ah pass. Ya hear?”
“Yes, papa.” I stood up.
He reached up and petted my head. “You have your mothers eyes. Yet you look somewhat like ma sister.”
“Jacqueline. Right?”
He chuckled. “Yes. You know I always called her Applejack, correct?”
“Yes papa. You called her that because she loved apples so much an’ had an apetite of a grown man.”
Papa looked me in the eye. “Now, whatever is in this here book,” he pointed at the notebook. “is the honest truth. Just like ma sis would’ve wanted it. Ye hear?”
“Yes papa.”
“Sugar come sit on my lap.” I sat. Papa was old but he always had his enormous strength of a stallion and always will. “Twalight. You know I love you dearly. I always will. Just do me a favor.”
“Anything papa.”
“Don’t grieve over me. Except that I’m dead. When your mama died, I knew I needed to move on an raise ya.” I sat on him for a while. Suddenly he looked at me and I knew he felt he was dying at the moment. “I love you.” were his last words. Then his head bobbed down. I looked at him for a while, then closed his eyes. I curled up into a ball, hugging the notebook. Tears appeared in my eyes and I cried. No. I sobbed. I sat there taking in all his warmth until he was cold. I got up. Looked at him and went to the phone crying to call someone to bury him and to arrange a funeral.
~
It’s been 10 days since papa died.
I’ve grieved, despite papas wishes.
I’ve kept up the apple farm, no prob.
The problem is, I have not touched the book since that day. Too scared to know whats inside and to sad to be curious and read.
But, this morning, I woke up and decided that today I would read it. Today I would take a break from work, and read it. Papa won’t mind. He always thought that one should one day of rest from work and everything.
After breakfast I went to papas rocking chair where I had placed the book. It’s been there since papas body was taken away. At first I just looked at it. I was hesitating for a reason I did not know. I mentally slapped myself saying that whatever papa wrote here he wanted me to read. I picked it up, and sat down carefully on papas rocking chair. I opened up the book. It had old looking pages with papas neet, print handwriting.
I read.
My dear daughter Twilight. What you are about to read may shock you. You may not believe me. But I am as honest as my sister was. The first thing you need to know is my full name. My full name is Big Macintosh. I understand that you would think it’s funny that I’m named after an apple, but where I come from it’s natural. My sisters name is not Jaqueline it’s the name I always told you that I called her that as a nickname. Her real name is Applejack. Now I bet you’re wondering where I come from. I come from ponyville. It’s not a town you know of because here, it doesn’t exist. I come from the Equestrian universe. You are not really human. You are a pony. Unicorn to be exact. You were named after your mother Twilight Sparkle. Everyone in Equestria is a pony. I will not reveal anymore. I need to tell you the story from the beginning. Starting with the truth that your mother discovered.
Once there were two princesses who were alicorns. They lived in Equestria. The younger was much loved by her subjects. She raised the moon every night. Her subjects loved her for her kindness, her laughter and her generosity. The older was jealous. She was not very nice. The older sister was so jealous that she started spreading rumors about the younger, saying how the younger was jealous of her and wanted to make the night last forever.
The younger heard these rumors and went to the older demanding that she tell the truth. The older refused saying that the younger should try and make her. The younger agreed saying that if it was the only way to make her see reason.
The battle lasted a week, it was a horrible battle. All the ponies in Equestria starved, they were poor and all this resulted into stealing. All because there was no ruler to rule them, but finally the older summoned enough power by using the elements of harmony, to send the younger to the moon.
After this great battle, she went back to ruling and told her subjects a story that turned into this legend:
"Two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land. The eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn. The younger brought out the moon to begin the night. Her subjects, the ponies, played in the day but ‘shunned’ the night and slept through it, which made the younger unicorn grow bitter, eventually refusing to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. Her bitterness transformed her into a ‘Wicked mare of darkness’, Nightmare Moon. The elder sister reluctantly harnessed the power of the Elements of Harmony and ‘banished her permanently in the moon,’ taking responsibility for both sun and moon, maintaining harmony in Equestria.”
No one knew the real truth. This is where your mother comes in she-
I placed the book on the chair and ran to open the door.
Lana was standing there. She had long black hair and she was African American. She wore a skinny strap top, jean shorts, cowboy boots, and cowboy hat. She worked at her parents Orange farm. She had a southern accent too.
“Hey Lana!” I said.
“Wanna hang?” She asked, smiling.
“Um,” I shuffled my feet. “ahm kinda busy.”
“But, it’s your free day silly!” she said joyously.
“Ya, but, um, ma pa left me somethin an I really wanna finish it by the end of today.”
Her smile faltered. “Well, if you're still grieven over yer pa, you could’ve just said so. Ah understand.” She turned around and walked back to the orange farm.
I stood staring at her walk. When she was out of sight, I slammed the door and skidded back to the rocking chair. I picked up the book and began reading. I was ready for all the answers.
This is where your mother comes in, she was the oldests faithful student. I will tell you how we met. It was all my sisters doing. She befriended your mother when she moved to ponyville, Twilight Sparkle’s her name (We named you after her and my sisters healthy appetite. You only know yourself by Twilight but your full name is Twilight Fritter.-
I put the book down. My name was Twilight Fritter. That was totally stupid. I continued reading.
I understand you thinking it’s stupid, but as I said before, it’s perfectly normal in my world). When my eyes fell upon her, I knew she was the one. A year later, I found she thought the same of me. I was overjoyed. We went on our first date. It was a walk through canterlot gardens. Her generous teacher, Celestia, allowed us to. We saw Discords statue. Your mother had turned him into a statue at the end of the last year. Your mother looked lovely with the dress she wore to the Gala. Your aunt and mother’s friend Rarity had made it. I told her that. She responded by telling me I looked handsome in my suit. I remember blushing.
After our walk, Twilight lead me to the library. She took me to a part she said she’d never been to before. We read book after book. Now you know I’m not one for reading, but your mother convinced me to. She promised me on our next date we would walk through sweet apple acres (my home apple farm) and we would have a picnic. We read until your mother called me over. I put down my book, A History of the Disappearance of the Crystal Ponies, and walked over to her. She used her magic to hold up the book so I could see and told me to read the last sentence, all the way to the bottom where it cut off. From what I can remember, it said: Princess Celestia banished Nightmare Moon to the moon, and our Princess told all her subjects-
I looked at her with confusion on my face. She told me to look at the next page. I looked, it said:
-how she banished Nightmare Moon to the moon.
The next chapter was about how your mother had defeated Nightmare Moon who was discovered to be Princess Luna, Celestias sister. I still didn’t understand her point. She looked at me exasperatedly and said “This was magically edited, as was the next chapter added to the book once it happened.”
I asked how she knew, and she said “I can sense it.”
That was all I needed to hear. I believed her.
We did go on that next date. As we sat she explained to me her findings on our last dates matter. She told me about how Celestia was the one who was jealous of Luna, not the other way around, and how that whole chapter was filled with magical changes. She also told me her questions, like: “Why haven’t we seen Princess Luna since the day we supposedly freed her?” “What’s the Princess keeping from us?” “Did she fake missing her sister?” There were a lot more but, these are the ones I’ve remembered for the past 20 years.
All these questions ended with her going up to her once beloved mentor and confronting her. Your mother barely escaped with her life. Celestia was furious that she uncovered the truth, but Twilight came back with the information we needed. Luna was destroyed forever. After she was supposedly freed Celestia took her back to Canterlot castle and, well, killed her. Celestia told your mother that being sent to the moon was like some sort of timeout. Since Luna didn’t benefit from the timeout, Celestia destroyed her with the rase of the sun, burning her into ashes now spread all across Equestria.
When your mother came back to tell me this, I knew we had to escape. Celestia was bound to look for us. Your aunt found one of our family members in Las Pegasus and sent us there disguising me as the brother of my cousins and Twilight as my fiance, which eventually turned out to happen and we got married. For two years we hid peacefully, we worked on their apple farm, I did my usual heavy lifting and Twilight sped up sales with her organization. After two years your mother became pregnant with you. Sales went down a bit, but your mother kept working to keep it up. Months later you were born, a Unicorn, like your mother. Your mother wanted to name you Apple Fritter and I wanted Twilight Sparkle after your mother, but we eventually agreed on Twilight Fritter.
Your birth was when the trouble really began.
All births are magically recorded into Canterlot Castle files. Celestia found your file which said where you were born and tracked us down. Your mother was warned, and created a portal to the world you are currently in. I took you in the portal and we changed into human form, but your mother was too late to go in. She had to be the last to enter so she could hold the portal up, but Celestia got there, attacked and forced me to watch her kill Twilight Sparkle. As she died the portal faded and closed. I stood there, in the human world. Tears pouring down my now human face. As I write this I remember that horrible day.
I used to cry at night. I remember, little six year old you coming up to my bed and asking me why I was crying. I told you I missed your mother. You came over to me and hugged me. You crawled into my bed and fell fast asleep. Do you remember?
Tears were pouring down my face now.
“Yes pa. I remember.”
Well, back to the past.
As I got myself settled, I met a remarkable man who is currently in our universe, stuck there actually. He told me if I ever wanted to go home to call this number: 666-777-8888. This number calls the TARDIS. He stored some power for me if I ever wanted to go back. It will be the same for you. If you want to go there, call him and tell him your name. He’ll know what to do, and it will take you to the inside of the TARDIS. Darling, if you want to go to Equestria, you can never come back. If you decide to, sell the farm and pack everything you might need. No keeping my rocking chair.
Shit.
Only take the things you can carry.
Love,
Big Mac
Your loving Father.
That was it.
All these years, I felt so out of place in the world.
I could feel at home.
But, is it worth it?
Leaving my friends.
Well, my friend, and acquaintances.
Well, Lana really didn’t know much about me, did she?
It was the day after I had made my decision. I sold the farm and most of my belongings. The money I gained from selling things I donated to charity.
I know Pa said not to but, I kept his chair.
Another thing I had kept was my Cell Phone.
The Cell Phone was so I could call this guy with a Tar-thingy.
I was standing outside my old farm. I took out the phone, then the book with my dads letter. Later I had found that the rest of the pages were drawings. Some of me, some of someone who looked like me, and some of the farm. I had never known Pa was an artist.
I opened the book to the last part of Pa’s letter and dialed, 666-777-8888. I pressed the call button with my thumb and held the phone to my ear. It rang for about 10 seconds and I worried in the ringing silence. The phone picked up.
“‘ello?” It was a male voice with an English accent.
“Hi. Um. Ma Pa he, um, told me in a letter, after he died to, um, call you. You are the guy with the,” I looked at the book for that word. “TARDIS, am I correct?”
“Well, yes. Um, who exactly am I speaking to?”
“Ma name is Twalight.”
“Twilight!” He hesitated. “Wait. Aren’t you dead?”
“No, sir. I’m very much alive”
“Well, she didn’t have that accent anyway. So, who are you really. Ponies don’t have phones, and you are most definitely on a phone. Your father gave you, this number. Am I correct?”
“Well, yes, in his letter.”
“Narrows it down. May I ask who he, um, was?”
“Well, of course, um, his name is Mac.”
“Mac, Mac, Mac. DERPY!” He called out. “Do we know a Mac?” There were some mumblings from the other side of the phone. Then he spoke. “Nope. Sorry don’t know a Mac. You sure you have the right number?”
“Of course I am!” I suddenly remembered something. “Oh! Wait, hold on!” I leafed through the pages of the book till I found the end of the letter. There was Pa’s signature, Big Mac. “His name, is Big Mac.”
“OH! BIG MAC! Oh, I liked that quiet, big guy! How is he? Oh, sorry, right, he’s dead. Sorry. So, um, you’re his daughter, um, on the tip of my tongue, yes! You’re Twilight Fritter!”
“As I was recently told.”
His voice got as quiet as a whisper. “Right, that means I’ve got to create a rift in the universe to get you home. In this case into my TARDIS. Sexy’s not gonna like this.”
“Excuse me? Who’s, ‘Sexy’?”
“Oh, nevermind that now! We’ve got to get you home! Now, do exactly as I say.” He paused. “Oh right, I remember, right before I left the human universe.” His voice became stern. “Don’t take any large objects, that includes the rocking chair.”
I looked back at the rocking chair that was right next to my backpack. How did he know?
“Now,” he continued. “here are the instructions. When I hang up, wait a minute and a portal will appear. You might want to put your suitcase in your mouth, because you will be changing into a pony form. Next-”
“It’s a backpack.”
“Great! Even better! Put it on your back! Anyway, after you’ve got your backpack on, step through the portal. You will feel slight pinches because you will be changing into your true pony form. Now I’m going to hang up, and you will see me through the portal. Ready?”
“I think so.”
“Good.” He hung up.
I closed the phone. He was crazy. Pa was probably crazy too. But, this tiny voice inside my head said Pa was not crazy, he was the smartest man ever! I ignored it. I sat down on Pa’s chair and waited. I thought. I thought about all my fun times with Pa, and cried. As I was about ready to bawl my eyes out like a tired baby, I heard a faint whirring sound.
I searched with my eyes for the sounds origin and what appeared was a portal. Through the portal I saw a light brown stallion, with a dark brown mane, and a hour glass on his flank. He was standing in a room with a console. He smiled at me. He spoke with the voice of the guy on the telephone. “Well, come on! Can’t hold it open forever you know! Way too dangerous!”
I stood up, swung my backpack on my back and headed towards the portal. When I reached it I paused, took a deep breath, and stepped through. It was a mixture of feelings. I felt I was falling though I was completely still. I felt pinches, and things changing on my body. The painfulness of it all. I felt my finger slowly going back into my hand. I felt hair sprouting everywhere, and a long tail growing out of my butt. I felt my ears moving up and growing pointy. Everything hurt. My nose changed in a way I could not describe. I let out a scream I had tried to hide. I screamed a scream of a banshee, a long scream that seemed to go on forever. A scream I kept screaming on the floor, of the TARDIS. A scream that was louder that the stallions yells for me to shut up. What did shut me up was when someone forced a muffin into my mouth.
I opened my eyes. There I was, laying down on the floor of the room I saw the stallion standing in through the portal. I swallowed the muffin with some difficulty. I stood up, but surprisingly on four legs instead of two, and it felt, well, natural. I started walking easily as if I still had two feet.
The stallion was looking at me clearly impressed. “Wow! You’re a fast learner! It took me ages to walk as easily as you do!”
“Well, shucks, I don’t know how, but it just feels natural.” I replied.
“Well, anyway,” he held out a hoof, “hullo! I’m the Doctor!”
I held out my hoof and shook his with my usual excited energy. “I’m Twilight! Well, I guess fully I’m Twilight Fritter.”
We let go and the Doctor said “Well then,” He walked over to the console, “we better get you to your aunt.” He pressed something and I heard that whirring sound again. It was only a minute later when he said “Well, here we are!” He opened the door and walked out. His head appeared from the door. “DERPY! COME ON!” He called.
I heard flapping and I searched for the origin of the noise. It seemed to be coming from up the stairs. I looked and crashing out, came a grey pegasus with a blonde mane and tail. The picture on her butt was bubbles.
I ran to help her, but I still wasn’t completely used to four legs, so I tripped and fell. I lifted my head up to see she was alright, had seen me fall, and came to help me up. I must’ve looked silly with my butt in the air, but when I got a closer look at her eyes. I gasped. At the time I had felt sorry for her, but I found it just went like that sometimes. “That” meaning her eyes went cross eyed.
She helped me up and I thanked her. She told me her name was Derpy Hooves. We both walked out the door, together into an apple farm. My one true habitat.
