Chapter 1: An Unexpected Visit
Thomas turn on his computer as he sat down next to it, putting a cup of hot chocolate next to it while he waited for the machine to boot up. After a hard day’s work he liked to unwind at his computer with a sweet beverage. He preferred soda, but until he took a trip to the store he’d have to settle for something else.
Today had been a bit of a hectic day, the project was due to ship tomorrow and just when it looked like everything was going to go perfect he’d found a bug in the software that could bring down the whole system, costing the company billions. He’d reported it to his manager, of course, but he was amazed at the reaction.
Don’t tell anyone about it, write a patch and get it shipped out as fast as possible. If we’re lucky we can fix this before anyone notices.
Yeah right. Thomas knew exactly who would get the blame when shit went down. He’d written an email right after that and sent it to the head of the company. Like he’d learned from his first job, a middle school educator, cover your ass, ‘cause no one else would do it for you.
He shook his head and smiled slightly, thinking back to when he’d taught choir. The job had been one he’d actually enjoyed doing, unlike his new one. But the amount of work behind the scenes was ridiculous, the requirements were dumb and the pay…well the pay was shit.
He’d gone back to school and gotten a second degree, this time in software development, and had thoroughly enjoyed himself while he earned it. Then he’d graduated, taken a job with Big Oil and it was like being back where he started, only in reverse. Now the pay was great, and he still loved coding, but the atmosphere of his workplace was awful, everyone was just working to get ahead themselves, no one cared about the end product or their coworkers.
Thankfully Thomas did have his escapes, video games and television shows. Lately he’d gotten hooked on a new show, My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic. It was like a revisit to his childhood of Disney movies with the amazing soundtracks, the attitudes of everyone in the show. It was nice and fun, a great way to escape from life for half an hour.
The sounds of windows starting pull Thomas out of his internal thoughts and he quickly pulled up a browser and opened his standard tabs. Reddit, Something Awful and his email…which showed two unread messages. Thomas looked at who the first was from and groaned. It was from his boss. Quickly skimming the email his heart dropped. There was a lot of filler, but the meat of the message was clear. Thomas had gone over his head and didn’t need to come back into work tomorrow.
Thomas slumped in his chair as he glanced at the other email, he didn’t recognize the sender but the subject line caught his attention “New MLP episode leaked!”. He opened the email and followed the link to YouTube, figuring that he needed the distraction that the pony’s offered now more than ever. He couldn’t deal with reality right now.
The credits rolled and Thomas was surprised to see not the cast of the show, but Princess Celestia, wearing the elements of Harmony, tears streaming down her cheeks. Thomas quickly turned up the volume to hear what was happening.
“Luna please, it doesn’t have to be like this-“
“Silence, we are not your sister any longer. We are Nightmare Moon and YOU shall bow to US.” The screen shifted to show a shadowy figure that Thomas quickly recognized as Nightmare Moon standing with her horn leveled at Celestia..
“No…you will always be my sister.” Celestia closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Nightmare Moon smirked at her, "And how shall you stop me? Without your precious Luna you cannot wield the elements properly to defeat me."
"You're wrong." Celestia opened her eyes to show that the had become filled with light. "I may not be able to banish you from my Sister's body, but I can banish her body."
"You wouldn't dare!"
The Elements worn on the princess' body began to glow, slowly becoming brighter. As the glow became brighter the last words that Nightmare would hear were spoken, "I'm sorry Luna."
"Nooooo" The howl of the villian faded as the light grew brighter. Anthony smiled at this, it was a neat way to open an episode, something he hadn't expected. The screen didn't cut to the intro credits though, instead the light kept getting brighter, forcing Thomas to cover his eyes. Suddenly he heard the sound of glass shattering and the light vanished. Thinking that maybe his monitor had broken he quickly uncovered his eyes.
“It is done. I am so sorry Sister, I promise I will make this right. I will find a way.” The voice of Celestia was clearer now, crisper.
“What the hell?” The expletive just slipped out in his shock. In front of him was an impossibility. Instead of his room and computer, he was in the scene he had just watched, and in front of him was none other than Princess Celestia.
The princess’ eyes popped open to look in front of her, then widened in her own shock, “…what are you?”
“Celestia?” Thomas, unable to believe what was happening reached out in front of him to touch the Alicorn.
The Princess’ already wide eyes attempted to become even wider as she scooted away from his outstretched hand,
“Stay back! How do you know me? Who are you!”
Realizing that he was frightening her, Thomas dropped his hand and lowered he gaze, “Uh…sorry princess?”
Celestia’s fear lessened some at his reaction and she slowly stood, her expression changing from fear to curiosity, “You aren’t…*ahem* THOU DOST NOT SEEK TO HARM US?”
Thomas blinked, his ears ringing after the question, apparently the Royal Canterlot Voice was a real thing, and it was loud. He felt like he’d just been blasted with an air horn. Ears still ringing he just shook his head, staring down at the princess in front of him. She barely came up to his chest, about the size of a small horse, which made sense considering the show was about pony’s, why wouldn’t they be that size. Realizing that the princess was waiting for an answer he quickly shook his head, “No Princess…I uh…I don’t mean you harm.” He spoke softly, still looking down
Celestia nodded, her face quickly composed to a stoic expression, “GOOD. THEN THOU SHALT TELL HOW-“
Thomas quickly brought his hands up to cover his ears and shouted out in pain.
Celestia frowned, “ART THOU IN PAIN CREATURE?”
With his hands over his ears the sound was dampened enough that it didn’t cause pain, though it was still unnecessarily loud. Thomas thought about his response and then grinned slightly, time to test out one of the fan theories.
Taking a deep breath he shouted at the top of his lungs, “WORRY NOT PRINCESS, OUR EARS WILL HEAL!”
Celestia took a startled step back at the response, her hooves coming up to protect her own ears. “WHY ART THOU SHOUTING AT US?”
“You started it.”
Celestia blinked at the response, smiled and started laughing, “I suppose I did…” Her laughter stopped quickly, however, as she realized where she was. The alicorn motioned with her head to the door, "Perhaps we can talk somewhere else Mister…?”
Thomas nodded, “Thomas Salvadar.” He gave a slight bow as he introduced himself, “But my friends call me Tom princess.”
Celestia began walking to the door leading the strange creature out, “Very well…Tom?” She looked over her shoulder at him with a questioning glance. At his nod she continued speaking, “You seem to already know who I am?”
Thomas nodded again, “I’ll be happy to tell you all about it princess, but it’s a long story.”
“Please, call me Celestia.”
