The Human Element

by Skyline Frost

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Alternate Universe, Human
Length: 6597

Ponies, a fire fox, a human, and amnesia. What could go wrong?

Some may dream of being whisked away to a different world where animals talk and magic is normal, and I might have been one of those people. But I wouldn't know since I don't remember anything about my life before coming to Equestia.
Having said that, I'm fairly sure magic wasn't something I could always use.

This is the story of my time in Equestria.

Cover Art

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-06-09 14:20:02 UTC

I: F(r)iend

000 ???? ?? ???? - ?

'Where am I?' I'm standing in a room that I recognize, but I don't know where from. I walk out the door and into a hallway. 'Is this a house? I'm sure I've never been here, so why do I feel like I know the place?' I wonder. The place gives me a warm cozy feeling as though I was being welcomed home again after a long time. Only there isn't anyone to welcome me home. I begin looking around the house for someone. 'There's supposed to be someone here, but who?' "Hello? Anyone home?" I call out. There's no sound but the soft hum of the air conditioner. Air conditioner. I feel the cold at my feet as the temperature in the house falls rapidly. I want to leave, but I have to find the people who live here. "Hello? Please answer if you can hear me!" I yell, becoming more desperate. 'There has to be someone here, I just know it!' I begin frantically looking around the house, but to no avail. 'They are in this house, I just know it! So why can't I find them?'

I give up all hope of finding them. I curl up on the kitchen floor, next to the wall, trying to stay warm. My hands are numb though, and the house is so cold ice is forming on everything. I can only think of the people that live here. I have to find them, find out who they are.

"Hello."

I look up to see who's talking. A tall woman with long black hair, wearing an equally black fur coat, is standing in front of me. She definitely does not live here, but she might know who does. "Who are you?" I ask.

"Me? Oh, no one important. Though, I must say this is an interesting little world you've got here. Albeit a little cold for my liking." She says, pulling her coat tighter around herself.

"Where are the people who live here?" I ask.

"People?" She repeats, taping her chin thoughtfully. "Can't say that I remember seeing any people." She stops and looks over her shoulder as though she heard something. "Well, I hate to run out on you so soon, especially since we just met. But I really must be going least I get trapped in this frozen house. I'll see you soon." She says with a wink. And then she disappeared. No flashing lights, no sound, no smoke. Just one moment she was there, the next she was gone. I stare blankly at the wall behind where the woman had stood, trying to figure out what happened. The more I think about it though, the less sense any of this makes.

~~~~~

000 June 20th Night - Old Castle Ruins

When I first arrived here, I woke up in the middle of a castle ruins with no memory of who I was, and no idea of what was going on. Luckily, I still had my clothes on because it was chilly. It was dark out, but the moon shown bright enough for me to see what I was doing. Following my curiosity, I aimlessly wondered around the castle. It was obvious this place had been abandoned for a long time. The tapestries had holes, the stone floors had crumbled giving way to vines, and the roof was mostly gone. Where ever I was, no one had been there in a long time. I had found the main doors to the castle fairly quickly, but I continued looking about the ruins. After what seemed like hours later, I had searched all of the ruins that I could safely get to. While nothing was obviously out of place, the ruins felt odd somehow. Something that bothered me more, however, was that it was still night. I didn't have any way of telling time, but it sure felt like a long time for it to be dark.

I made my way back to the front doors of the ruins. As I stepped outside, what stood before me made me stop dead in my tracks. An armored horse, that was easily six feet tall, stood just outside the castle doors. But this was no ordinary horse, it had a long horn jutting out of it's forehead and a pair of large wings on its back. Even more peculiar was its mane and tail, which had a blue mist that hung around them.

"Who are you, and what are you doing in my castle?" The creature asked. From its voice, I could tell it was female.

"Uhh. . . " Was the only response I could muster do to the shock of the creature speaking.

"What? Are you so frightened by my presence that you can't even speak?" It laughed.

"What are you?" I asked, after regaining my voice.

The creature stopped laughing, "Beg pardon?"

"What are you? And how are you even talking?" I asked again.

Something obviously snapped as the creature lost it's cool demeanor. "What am I? Hmph! What are you! I am the goddess of the night! I would have thought a creature such as yourself would recognize my power, but you are nothing more than another insolent foal who knows nothing but what your 'precious princess' tells you! Nopony cares about princess Luna! She's just not good enough for them! 'She's just the princess of the night,' she's not as good as Celestia! All Celestia's ever been good for is taking credit for all the good things Luna does and then blaming Luna for her own mistakes! But I am their goddess now! And Luna will finally get the respect she deserves."

I was taken aback by the creature's reaction. Maybe I was crazy, or maybe the horse was crazy. Either way, I didn't want to start a fight. I hadn't really understood what all of what the creature was saying, but I got the jest that I had disrespected it somehow.

"Alright, sorry." I said, raising my hands and taking a step back. "I didn't mean-"

The creature cut me off, "Do you think I care what you didn't mean? The fact is that you don't even know what you didn't mean! Now get out of my sight you pathetic whelp!"

I wasn't about to stay around to see what it would do. So I did as I was told and ran off across a bridge and into the forest beyond.

~~~~~

000 June 20th Night - Dark Forest

Given my situation at that time, with the amnesia, being teleported to a different dimension, and talking to a strange creature, you can probably imagine that I was on edge as I walked along the dark path in the forest that surrounded the castle ruins. I had been walking for some time when all of a sudden there was loud screaming off in the distance. I was frozen in place by the squeals of terror that pierced the night sky. Just as quickly as they had started though, they stopped. My first instinct was to run back the way I came, which I did promptly. However, what I heard next made me stop. "Is that singing?" I thought, turning around again. Something in the back of my mind told me that whatever was singing could very well be what made whatever was screaming stop. Curiosity, though, got the better of me. I began walking towards the noise trying to make out what was being sung.

"- So! Giggle at the ghostly! Guffaw at the grossly! Crack up at the creepy! Whoop it up with the weepy! Chortle at the kooky!

Snortle at the spooky!"

I watched awe struck at the pink pony dancing around the clearing before me, singing as though her movements required no effort on her part. I made sure to stay hidden though. The last thing I wanted was to walk head on into another potentially dangerous situation. There were six ponies including the one singing. One had a white coat with a purple mane and another had a purple coat with a similarly colored mane, and both of them had horns. Two of the others had wings, one pony had a yellow coat and the other had a light blue coat with an odd rainbow colored mane. The pony who had been singing had a bright pink coat and mane. The last one actually seemed normal other than the stetson on its head.

As the song ended, all of the ponies fell on the ground laughing and I couldn't help but smile myself at the infectious laughter. I wondered if I should have stepped out and introduced myself, but what would I have introduced myself as? I didn't remember my name, nor anything else of importance for that matter. The choice was taken away from me though.

The pony with the white coat pointed at me and asked the others, "What's that?" The others turned to look, and began murmuring to themselves all whilst staring at me.

I contemplated running away, but I needed to know what was going on. So, I stepped out from behind the trees and gave a small wave. "Hi." I said simply. The ponies gasped in unison.

After a moment though, the bright pink pony took a step forward, "Hi! I"m Pinkie Pie. What's your name?" She asked.

"Crud." That was the last question I wanted to be asked.

"I uh. . . I don't really remember my name. I woke up a few hours ago in a castle back that way." I said, pointing back the way I came. "And I-" I was going to continue, but was cut off by the ponies all talking at once so I couldn't hear what any of them were saying. After a moment, they stopped as fast as they had started. They glanced at each other to see who was going to start talking again. The rainbow maned pony was the first to speak up.

"You're not in league with Nightmare Moon, are you?" She asked.

"Rainbow! Ya can't just go around ask'n everypony ya meet if they're work'n with Nightmare." The pony with the stetson scolded.

"Who's Nightmare Moon?" I asked. Although I assumed she was referring to the armored horse I had met earlier, Nightmare Moon seemed like a fitting name for it.

"Really? I bet you are working with Nightmare!" The rainbow colored pony responded with a scowl.

"Seriously Rainbow! He could help us. Besides if he can't even remember his name, do you think he would be working for Nightmare Moon?" The purple pony said, rolling her eyes.

"Oh come on Twilight! This is the oldest trick in the book! They say they don't know anything about who we're going up against, but they can show us a back way into the castle, and what do you know! It's a trap." The rainbow pony said, waving her hooves around dramatically.

The purple pony rolled her eyes again. "You said you were at the castle, can you take us there?" She asked.

I did remember the way back, but I also wanted to know more about what was going on and how I ended up in such a place.

"Alright I can take you there. But first I want to know whats going on." I said.

"Well, we're awfully pressed for time. Would it be okay if we told you along the way?"

I pondered it for a moment. "It's not like I have any other options." "I can live with that. Come on, it's back this way." I said, turning around to go back the way I had came.

~~~~~

000 June 20th Sometime later - Dark Forest

Turns out that my assumptions were correct. Nightmare Moon was in fact the armored horse I had met earlier. And she did not have good plans. She was an ill-tempered, powerful Alicorn (Both Pegusii and Unicorn) who had been imprisoned on the moon for a thousand years by Celestia who was also a Alicorn. And now that Nightmare had finally gotten out she had kidnapped Celestia and was going to destroy the only things that could stop her. These objects were called the Elements of Harmony and five of the known ones were in the castle that I woke up in.

"So let me get this straight, you're going to find the five known Elements of Harmony, create a spark to find the sixth and then somehow use them to stop Nightmare Moon?" I asked.

"That's the plan!" Pinkie Pie said, who was hopping along side me.

"Doesn't seem like a very good plan."  I muttered to myself.

"Now that we've told you why we're out here, perhaps you could tell us a little about yourself?" The white unicorn asked.

I contemplated saying no, but there wasn't much I could say about myself anyway. "I. . . don't remember a lot. As I was saying earlier, I just woke up in the castle a few hours ago. Everything before that is pretty much blank." I said.

"Well, we can't keep calling you 'you' or 'him' all the time. So what should we call you?"

I had lots of names come to mind, however, none of them had any merit. "I don't know." I said, "What do you think my name should be?"

"Me? I don't know. I've never given names much thought. What do you think Twilight?" She asked, turning towards the purple unicorn.

"Uhh. . . How about Misty Conundrum?" The purple unicorn responded.

I glanced over my shoulder to look at the unicorn and was happy to see she was getting similar disapproving looks from the rest of the group. "No." I said, looking ahead.

"Okay, how about Coal? You're wearing a lot of black, and you have black hair." She said.

"Oh, I like that one. What do you think, Coal?" The white unicorn asked, putting emphasis on the name.

"I like it better than the last one." I said drearily. I didn't dislike the name, but I didn't like it much either. Although, almost any name is better than no name. So, I figure it would work for now. "You can call me Coal if you like."

"I think it fits ya well. Gives ya a down to earth feel'n." The pony with the stetson said.

"Yeah, I guess." I said. "Since we're talking about names, you guys never told me yours."

"I told you mine! But it's okay if you forgot. I don't mind. I'm Pinkie Pie. This is Applejack," Pinkie Pie said putting a leg around the pony wearing the stetson. "She and her family run the the apple farm over at Sweet Apple Acres. I'll tell ya a secrete." She got right  up next to my face, much to close for comfort, and said in a hushed tone. "She sells apples!"

I was taken aback by her sudden outburst. "Uh. . .Okay." I said, leaning away from the pink creature who had invaded my personal space.

"This over here is Rainbow Dash!" Pinkie continued, pulling the rainbow maned pony down the the ground. I could hear Rainbow Dash groan slightly, but Pinkie kept talking. "She's the fastest flier in Ponyville. And not only that, one day she's gonna be apart of the Wonder Bolts!"

Rainbow Dash's ears perked up, "You better believe I'm going to join the Wonder Bolts. I'll probably even make captain one day!" She said taking off and doing a loop in the air.

"Any who! This," Pinkie Pie wrapped herself around the terrified yellow pegasus. "Is Fluttershy! She's one of the kindest ponies you'll ever meet. Although, if you couldn't tell by her name, she's also very shy." Pinkie ended, unwrapping herself from the still terrified Fluttershy.

She bounced over to the white unicorn, "This is Rarity, she owns the Carousel Boutique and makes the most amazing dresses you've even seen!"

"Why thank you Pinkie." Rarity said happily.

"No problem!" Pinkie said giving Rarity a smile. "And last but not least is Twilight! I couldn't believe it myself, but she's from Canterlot!" Pinkie paused for a moment. "Oh! And she has a pet dragon!"

"Wait, a dragon? Like shooting flames and terrorizing towns kind of dragon?" I asked incredulous.

"No! Of course not silly. He's just a baby dragon."

"Spike isn't my 'pet' either." Twilight said in a slightly annoyed tone. "I'm just taking care of him until he can take care of himself."

"If he's not your pet, then what is he?" Pinkie asked, tilting her head to one side.

"He's my assistant." Twilight proclaimed proudly.

"That's fantastic and all, but when are we going get to the castle?" Rainbow Dash interjected.

"Uh . . . There should be a river coming up soon, the castle's just past that." I answered.

"You mean that one?" She asked, point up ahead on the path.

I looked to where she was pointing and was surprised to see that the river was just around the corner. However, what was once a shallow calm river, had been transformed into a raging rapids. I could still cross it though, but it wouldn't be very safe. On the other hand, it would be near impossible for the shorter ponies to walk across. The source of the problem was quiet obvious. Just up the river was a giant purple sea serpent that was flailing about as though his head had been cut off. Unfortunately, it hadn't.

"What a world! What a world!" It cried.

"What's his problem?" I asked the others.

"I don't know. Let's ask him." Twilight said, trotting off towards the serpent.

"Wait a minute! What if he's dangerous?" I asked, running to catch up to Twilight.

She completely ignored me and walked right up to the bank, while I stopped a few feet behind her. "Excuse me sir, why are you crying?" She asked.

"Oh, I don't know. I was just sitting here, minding my own business. When this tacky little cloud of purple smoke just whisked past me, and tore half of my beloved mustache clean off! And now I look simply horrid!" He cried, dramatically falling back into the river. When he did this it sent a tidal wave towards us. Try as I might, I couldn't get out of the way fast enough and ended up getting completely soaked along with the rest of the ponies. Needless to say, I already disliked this guy.

"Really? You didn't have to get us all wet!" I yelled.

"Seriously, give me a break." Rainbow Dash said.

"That's what all the fuss is about?" Applejack asked.

Rarity stepped forward aghast, "Why of course it is! How can you be so insensitive? Just look at him. Such lovely luminescent scales."  She said, stroking the serpents chin, which was lazily sitting on the bank side while the rest of him still flailed about.

"I know." It said sitting up right again to run a hand through his hair.

"And your expertly coiffed mane."

"Oh I know. I know!" It sat up right again to run a hand through its hair, which was oddly enough still dry.

"Your fabulous manicure."

"It's so true!" The serpent squealed.

I couldn't help but grimace at his reaction to such shallow compliments.

"All ruined with out your beautiful mustache." The unicorn continued.

"It's true! I'm hideous!" The serpent sobbed, falling back into the water again. Luckily we weren't soaked again.

"I simply cannot let such a crime against fabulosity go uncorrected!" With that, she walked up to the serpent and plucked a scale off with her mouth.

"Ow! What did you do that for?" The serpent yelped.

Rarity didn't say anything, but rather turned around and cut off her own tail using the scale. I was mostly confused as to why she would do that while the other ponies gave a large gasp. Somehow though, the serpent saw this a good reason to fall over dramatically again. If he kept that up, there wouldn't be a river anymore.

I watched curiously as Rarity picked up her tail using magic. I had heard them talk about it earlier, but seeing it be used was quite different. Somehow she attached her tail to where his right side of his mustache was.

The serpent looked down to see that his mustache had been fixed. "Oh, my mustache! How wonderful!" He exclaimed.

"Oh Rarity, your beautiful tail." Twilight said, rushing up to her friend.

"It's not that big a deal, short tails are in this season. Besides, it'll grow back." Rarity responded.

"How did you do that?" I asked.

"Well, it was the least I could do for such a lovely serpent."

She obviously misinterpreted my question, "I mean, how did you attache it to his face like that?" I rephrased.

She gave me a confused look, "How do you mean? I only used magic."

It may have been 'only magic' to them, but it was by far the scariest thing I had seen so far. "Uh huh." Was my simple answer.

"Hey! We can cross now." Twilight proclaimed happily as she trotted across the now calm river.

The serpent guy wasn't gone though. He popped up seemingly out of nowhere to make a sort of bridge out of his body. "Allow me!" He said, giving a small bow. It was nice to see that he had at least seen what the unicorn had did as being kind and was willing to at least try and return the favor.

~~~~~

Once we had crossed the river, we continued following the path and we soon came to the castle ruins. We had small problem a problem at the bridge that ran across the mote, but it wasn't anything Rainbow Dash couldn't fix. Once inside the castle, the Elements of Harmony weren't hard to find. In fact, they were in the first hall of the castle. I couldn't help but think this was far to easy. That or Nightmare didn't know what she was looking for, which would be completely understandable considering what the Elements looked like.

"Those are the Elements of Harmony?" I asked looking up at the five broken stones as they sat on their pedestal. They weren't technically broken, but if you so much as looked at them the wrong way they would probably brake. I was amazed when Rainbow and Fluttershy took them and place them in a circle on the ground with out breaking them.

"Yes, these are the Elements of Harmony. I'm surprised they are in such great shape." Twilight said, closely inspecting each one.

"Yeah 'great shape', they look like their going to fall apart any second now." I said.

"Perhaps, however, considering they are over a thousand years old I'm surprised they are intact at all." She replied.

What she said kind of made sense. "Hmm." I grunted crossing my arms.

"So what's this spark dohicky thing you're gonna do?" Applejack asked.

"I'm not entirely sure, but you all should probably stand back, I don't know what will happen when I do whatever it is I'm going to do." Twilight said, sitting down at the front of the circle.

"Right. Come on y'all, we should let Twilight concentrate." Applejack stepped back out the main door, followed by the others. I hesitated for a moment. Something about leaving Twilight alone while knowing Nightmare was still around didn't feel right. Even though we were just on the other side of the door, it still might have given Nightmare the opportunity to do something before we even knew what was happening. I kept my reservations to myself however and followed the rest outside.

Outside, it was still dark and continuing to get colder by the minute. The up side though, was that no one said anything. It wasn't that I found them annoying, but I liked being able to think to myself without having to listen to the others. But like every other good thing that night, it didn't last very long. Not a minute after we had stepped outside, Twilight shrieked from back in the hall. We ran back inside just in time to see a cloud of purple envelop both Twilight and the Elements, but before we had the chance to do anything it disappear. A moment later there was a bright flash on the other side of the ruins. Applejack wasted no time thinking about what to do.

"Darn Nightmare! Come on y'all! This way!" Applejack commanded as she ran off towards the flash. The rest of us didn't hesitate to give chase. I was amazed though by the small ponies speed. Even though they were about half my height, it was all I could do to keep up with them.

"Applejack dear! Don't you think we should have a plan beforehoof? We could be doing precisely what Nightmare Moon wants." Rarity shouted so the further ahead Applejack could hear.

"I don't care if in we are! I'm not going to let Twilight be stuck with that witch by herself!" Applejack shouted back.

Somehow, Applejack was able to quickly navigate the castle to the room where Twilight and Nightmare were. We knew we were close when we heard Nightmare Moons evil laughter as we climbed a circling flight of stairs.

"Don't worry Twilight! We're coming!" Applejack called out.

"Yeah! We're almost there!" Pinkie Pie added.

As we came around the last corner in the stairs I saw that the stairs opened up into a much larger hall. At the far end of the hall was Nightmare Moon and just in front of us was Twilight looking back at us. A smile crossed her face.

Twilight turned back around to face Nightmare, "You think you can destroy the Elements of Harmony just like that? Well, you're wrong, because the Elements of Harmony are right here! Applejack, who reassured me when I was in doubt, represents the spirit of honesty!" As she said this, an odd thing happened, although it was by no means the oddest I'd seen yet. When she called out the Elements names, the shards of the Elements came flying back towards the bearer of that Element and began to circle them in mid air. "Fluttershy, who tamed the manticore with her compassion, represents the spirit of kindness! Pinkie Pie, who banished fear by giggling in the face of danger, represents the spirit of laughter! Rarity, who calmed a sorrowful serpent with a meaningful gift, represents the spirit of generosity! And Rainbow Dash, who could not abandon her friends for her own heart's desire, represents the spirit of loyalty! The spirits of these five ponies got us though every challenge you threw at us!" Twilight ended with a triumphant stamp of her hoof. While all the Elements were now in orbit of the ponies, they were still missing the sixth, which Nightmare Moon gladly pointed out.

"Ha! You still don't have the sixth Element. Your little "spark" didn't work." Nightmare Moon smirked.

"But it did. It was a different kind of spark." Twilight said before she turned around to the rest of us. "I felt it the moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see you, and how much I cared about you. The spark ignited inside me when I realized that you all are my friends!" Seemingly out of nowhere, a blinding light appeared directly above Twilight. Surprisingly though, this didn't faze Twilight at all. "You see Nightmare Moon, when those Elements are ignited by the. . . The spark that resides in the hearts of us all, it creates the sixth Element. The Element of Magic!"

The light that was above Twilight quickly got brighter to the point that I had to cover my eyes. I wasn't sure what was happening, but I heard Nightmare Moon screaming. After a few moments Nightmare Moons screams stopped and the blinding light disappeared. Now that the light was gone though, my night vision was completely shot which made the room significantly darker. But I could still see well enough to make out the ponies laying on the ground. I walked over to them, "You guys alright?" I asked. There was no response. I poked Rainbow Dash with my foot, "Hey Rainbow. Wake up!" The pony groaned. "I am not Rainbow Dash, how could you even confuse us?" Rarity said, groggily getting up. I could see that the other ponies were also getting up.

"Sorry, are you alright?" I asked.

"A small headache, but nothing more I don't think." Rarity answered.

"How's everyone else?" I asked looking to the others. They all gave their own reassurances that they were fine.

"Oh thank goodness!" Rarity cried with delight, waving her now complete tail back and forth.

"Oh Rarity, it's lovely." Fluttershy said softly.

"I know! I'll never part with it again!"

"No no, your necklace." Fluttershy said pointing at a purple diamond shaped necklace that hung about Rarity's neck. "It looks just like your cutie mark."

Rarity stared at the necklace for a moment before noticing that Fluttershy had a similar necklace. "So does yours!" She said.

Fluttershy gasped as she saw her own necklace. The rest also had necklaces which they were equally excited about, except for Twilight who had some kind of tiara.

I still wasn't sure what had happened, but whatever it was, it seemed to work as the first rays of light peeked in through the windows. I had a feeling though that none of them had the first clue either. "You had no clue what you were doing, did you?" I asked.

Twilight gave a nervous chuckle. "At first I didn't, and I don't really know how that spell worked. But once I realized that you all are my friends, everything just fit together." Twilight said, looking at her new friends.

"You have done well my faithful student." A voice said seemingly out of nowhere. We all watched in awe as a bright globe of light came in through one of the broken windows in the hall. The globe then transformed into a white Alicorn that was much more like Nightmare Moon in size and shape than any of the other ponies. Whoever she was, she was well known with the current group. Almost immediately they all bowed. Twilight on the other hand remained standing. "Princess Celestia!" She said rushing towards the white Alicorn.

"Twilight Sparkle, I knew you could do it." The Alicorn said as she embraced the much smaller pony.

Twilight took a step away, "But you told me it was all an old pony tale." She said confused.

The Alicorn smiled at this, "I told you to make some friends, nothing more. I saw the signs of Nightmare Moons return and I knew it was you who had the magic inside to defeat her. But you could not unleash it until you had let true friendship into your heart." The Alicorn turned to me with a quizzical face. "And who might this be?" She asked Twilight.

"Oh, Coal? He found us in the Everfree forest and guided us here to the castle." Twilight explained.

"Coal." The Alicorn echoed. "I would like to hear more about him. But first, Princess Luna!" The Alicorn called, walking to the back of the hall. Pieces of broken armor were scattered about a small pony, that looked as terrified as any creature can look, where Nightmare Moon had once stood. "It has been a thousand years since I've seen you like this." The Alicorn continued, kneeling down in front of the small pony. "It's time to put our differences behind us. We were meant to rule together little sister."

"Sister?" We all asked in unison.

The Alicorn ignored us, "Will you accept my friendship?" she asked, standing back up.

There was total silence as we all waited to hear what the little pony would say. Suddenly she jumped up and embraced the Alicorn crying, "We're so sorry! For all the things we said, the things we did. We've missed thou so big sister."

"It's okay. I've missed you too."  The Alicorn said crying a little bit herself.

"Hey! You know what this calls for? A party!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed happily. And have a party is exactly what we did. Or at least they did.

~~~~~

000 June 20th Afternoon - Ponyville

Apparently, a party had already been planned. When we arrived in Ponyville, ponies filled the streets and there was music, streamers, balloons, cake, all assortments of other foods, games, and even a parade! Twilight and the rest of them had run off and were probably having a great time. The Alicorn and her sister were off near the buffet being princessy. Which left me leaning up against a building feeling all alone. It was weird because I hadn't felt like this before in the forest. Something about seeing so many creatures, even if they aren't human, having fun and partying made me feel left out, insignificant. I probably would have shied away from the ponies if any of them had come and talked to me anyway. Even though I still wasn't comfortable around them, I couldn't help but wonder though if no one cared about me. "They have no reason to like or even trust me. To them I am nothing more than a odd being that came out of a dark forest." I told myself, but it didn't make me feel any better.

"Umm. . . Excuse me, but do you mind if I sit here?" I jumped slightly not having heard Fluttershy fly up behind me.

"Not at all." I said looking back towards the party.

"So, why are you sitting over here all by yourself? She asked.

I chuckled lightly, "I'm not anymore now that you're here."

"Well, yes. But why were you?" She persisted.

I glanced down at her, "I like peace and quiet to think about things." I lied. I didn't exactly lie, because what I had said was true, but that wasn't why I was standing there alone.

"I'm sorry. It must be very hard." She said sadly.

"How do you mean?" I asked. For a moment I had thought she was saying that thinking must have been hard, but she soon explained what she had meant.

"Being here. This is probably all so foreign to you. You can't even remember your own name. I can't even begin to imagine what that must be like. I just want to let you know, if you ever need somepony to talk to, I'm right here for you." She said softly putting her hoof on my leg. While it was nice of her to offer, the last thing I wanted was for her to try to get inside my head. Before I had a chance to respond though, a white pony wearing gold armor walked up to us.

"Both of you, please follow me." He said in a fairly gruff tone. "The Princess would speak with you two."

My and Fluttershy shared a glance before doing as instructed. As we made our way through the crowds, I wondered if the others would be there as well or if it was just me and Fluttershy. I didn't have to wait long to find out. As we approached the buffet I could see Twilight along with the others talking to the Princesses.

"Oh! Here they come now." Twilight exclaimed as she saw us walking up. The guard that had been leading us gave a quick salute before leaving.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Fluttershy. Twilight has been telling me all about you." The Princess said.

"Oh um. .  S-she has Y-your Majesty?" Fluttershy stammered in almost a whisper that was certainly much to quiet for the Princess to hear. However, the Princess didn't seem to be bothered at all by the low volume of Fluttershy's voice.

"Yes, she tells me you have quite the way with animals. It's a unique gift indeed." The Princess said.

Fluttershy mumbled something that was inaudible even for me. So I nudged her slightly. "You need to speak up, we can barely hear you." I said trying to be as nice about it as I could. Unfortunately, all she did was let out a high pitched squeak.

"I'm sorry, she gets like this when meeting new ponies. She's a little bit. . . Shy." Twilight said taking up for her friend.

"It's quite alright. How are you Coal?" The Princess asked turning to me.

I don't really know why, but I was taken aback by the question. "I'm fine. As fine as I can be." I said somewhat unsure of myself.

"That's good.  I must say though, you are something of an enigma to me. In all my years I can't say I've seen something quite like you." The Princess said tilting her head to one side.

"Well, I'm afraid I don't know much more than you do. Other than this last night, I hardly remember anything at all Princess. . ."

"Sorry, that was rude of me not to introduce myself. I am Princess Celestia, supr-" She started but corrected herself. "Co-ruler of Equestria. My sister, Princess Luna, who I assume you saw before will be ruling along side me once more."

"But wasn't she Nightmare Moon?" I asked confused as to how someone could go from a evil tyrant who was feared by all to co-ruler in just a matter of hours.

"You need not worry, that part of her is long gone." Princess Celestia answered. I didn't question it though, I had stopped questioning things by that point. "But back to the matter at hoof. You don't remember anything about who or what you are? Or where you're from?" She asked.

"I'm human, but for your other two questions, I don't know."

Celestia let out a sigh. "Very well, I will look into where humans come from and how to get your memory back. I will let you know if I find anything. In the mean time however, I would like you to stay here in Ponyville. I would like to keep you out of the public eye as best as possible for now, I mean no offence, but odd beings in Equestria often get unwanted publicity. I will provide you with a place to stay as well as an allowance. I want your stay to be as comfortable as possible until we can sort this all out. Are you fine with that?"

"That works for me, it's not like I had anything else planned. But thank you for trying to help me find out who I am." I said bowing slightly.

The Princess smiled softly, "There's no need to thank me until you find out who you truly are. Ink Note." She called.

"Yes Your Majesty?" A near by solid black Unicorn with violet eyes answered.

"Ah there you are! Would please send someone to get the house on thirty-sixth street ready for our guest?"

"Right away Your Majesty." The Unicorn said with a bow.

"The house won't be ready for some time, but just ask and I'll make sure you know where it is before we leave." Celestia said.

"It's a whole house?" I asked somewhat surprised.

The Princess chuckled lightly, "Yes, it's a small house, but it is a house."

I wasn't sure how I felt about such kindness that the Princess had shown or living in a house in a town full of small ponies, but I had a feeling that things were going to be alright. For now at least.