New Horizons
A Whole New World
Author: Draconis187
A nice, cool Saturday morning, perfect for going out and having fun with friends like playing a console game or maybe even some cricket if I could get enough of my friends together to play. My plans for days like these usually start off with me running down the street to one of my friends' house to play on his console because he always had the very latest in platforms. Made me a bit jealous I will admit but at least he never hoarded it over my head.
"Attention all passengers. Flight 206 from Johannesburg to Canterlot is now boarding. Please report to Gate 16," Came the most annoying, monotonous voice known to mankind and beyond. It pulled me out of my stupor and reminded me that I was not at home right now.
If you are assuming I am at an airport of some kind, you deserve a medal for stating the obvious. Do you expect that sentence to pop up in casual conversation in that tone that would be more at home at a morgue? If you answered that you should go sit into the corner and feel bad about yourself because it was rhetorical. Here I am with my mother, stepfather and two younger sisters, waiting to get on a transport zeppelin to move across the world into a whole new country.
My stepfather got this 'great opportunity' halfway across the planet and decided to uproot the rest of the family because otherwise he'd feel lonely as he put it. He never asked our opinion let alone mine since he tended to ignore my general presence, only talking to me when it suited him. I honestly didn't see why we had to move countries and go somewhere where we could be easily picked out of a crowd like some sort of game. Probably call it: 'Spot the human'.
Equestria has been around for many, many years but up until October of 2010, they allowed the immigration and visitation of the human race upon their soil. It all started when one of their rulers by the name of Princess Celestia arrived unannounced at a United Nations summit. Think they were going on about global warming again or nukes, I am not too sure since I do not watch much news but it was probably both unless they found a new problem to spend decades arguing about.
A friend of mine watched the whole thing and kept talking about it for about a week and a half. About how a white pony on two legs, wearing a long, yellow sundress with white lace and gold trim with a few gems sewn into the fabric appeared out of absolutely nowhere. Literally one moment the nations were going over the same boring topics that they can never agree on, the next there she was and with about four heavily armoured ponies armed with swords and shields. She on the other hand had no weapons or armour to speak of, save for some gold armbands and high heels with a well-designed tiara on her head.
She then went on about being the princess of the sun which everyone was understandably skeptical about. Then she did something that destroyed several human lifetimes worth of scientific research by moving the sun. Seriously, she set the sun up north just to prove her point. To make matters worse our own space program were made to reveal the world's largest cover-up since Roswell.
The first man on the moon encountered one of their kind, which was revealed to be Princess Celestia's sister: Princess Luna. Hell, it was confirmed that not only did they talk but he went up and bloody hugged her! Furry fetish much? Or would it be beastiality? Hard to tell since they have both human-like attributes as well as animal ones. Then again we are basically apes...
Regardless, Equestria was recognised as an independant nation as well as its subsidiaries and given a seat at the U.N. within the next hour and a half. After that I just tuned out because I got way too bored with the conversation. But seriously? An hour and a half is all it takes for them to go 'okay, welcome to the United Nations, have a seat and maybe a cookie.' What she did starts wars for Chri-
"Chris, hurry up!" I was thrown off my train of thought as my mother shouted, a tad bit irritated as she was not much of a waiting person and the lady at information pissed her off for some reason.
Now, I will never say anything bad about my mother because I love her too much to do that and she has done a lot for our family. She stands about five feet, four inches with me at around five feet, ten inches. I stand on par with my grandfather while the rest of the family are a bit shorter than us, mainly the women. My mother was wearing a long, navy blue fleece jersey because we were smack dab in the middle of winter. Although that said, she was wearing bellbottom jeans. My family is weird like that but I wouldn't change them for the world because of all the laughs we have whenever we get together.
My stepfather had his blue Manchester United jacket and some prescription glasses. He also wore a pair of black tracksuit pants and a pair of white and red running shoes because he is a very outdoors person. I was the eldest amongst my siblings with the youngest about three years old. She had a thick, pink jersey on and a pair of ordinary pants with multi coloured shoes. My other sister was eleven and wore a long, green, fleece jersey and blue denim jeans. She had black shoes because that was the only pair she had that did not flash or make noises.
We walked through customs and had our luggage taken up to the zeppelin by a conveyer belt, never to be seen again until we land in Equestria. We were shown out of the main terminal and to where the zeppelins had been moored. I could make out a small crowd of people boarding the machine as we walked up to it. Now I say moored because it was tethered to the ground with ropes, not too dissimilar from a ship or boat. The only time they ever truly land is when they go in for maintenance, repair or scuttling.
If there was one thing that ponies don't have that we do, it would be technology. Cellphones for long distance communication that utterly trumps their obsolete mailing system, the internal combustion engine which makes their rickshaws completely obsolete as well as a few other things like television, radio and the internet. Although they do have those old-fashioned arcade systems so they aren't exactly in the age of carving the wheel out of stone and using grunts to communicate with one another.
Although, to me at least, it all pales in comparison to the marvel, the pinnacle of aviation technology that we call the zeppelin. Building-sized transports of steel and good old human ingenuity that make the ponies' hot air balloons look like those ones you get at the carnival that get given to children. Our machines could sneeze at them and blow them away without even noticing their presence. These things could be anything: mobile emergency medical centres, platforms of war, mass transit on a large scale as well as a few more. They were one of the most versatile creations to come out of a human's mind.
We walked up a large, wide, steel-grey, metal ramp attached to the zeppelin's lower midsection, in the front was a large, glass and wireframe, geometric bubble that made up the observation deck. I smiled since all we needed to do was relax and wait when the pegasi, I was told this was the accepted plural, had to fly everywhere. I am quite sure that any pegasus flying this far would be on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion. I heard they had endurance races similar to our Two Oceans and Comrades marathons so I'm sure one or two would try to cover the distance and actually stand a chance of surviving it.
We boarded and the entrance opened up into a reception lobby that you would find in a hotel instead of a flying behemoth. Red velvet carpeting ran along the pathways to the back of the room and on the steps, which were made of some well-varnished, lacquered wood. Could have been teak or something, I am not an expert on the subject. The wood panel walls surrounded us as I continued to look at the zeppelin, getting utterly lost in the detailing and various intricate finishings.
There was a hostess to greet us and I got my first up-close look at an Equestrian. More specifically she was a red-coated griffon with very pale orange feathers, her beak shone a little as if she polished it. She also had light lilac eyes that seemed to pierce through you, as if looking into your very soul. She wore a sky-blue blazer and a luminous green ascot around her neck, neatly tucked in. She wore sky-blue dress pants that stopped by where her ankles should be. I say should be because I had no clue where her ankles would be since I have never met a griffon but I have seen a lion so I gather their ankles are in the exact same place.
I say should be because she had these large white shoes on. They were probably big enough for me to put both my feet in them. Her claws were a golden yellow, same as her beak but lacked its shine. Her blazer was buttoned up so it was near impossible to see the white shirt she wore under it. She smiled at us in a friendly manner, which I think is quite the feat for a creature with a beak.
"Welcome to Equestrian Air. Please just head down the hall behind me to my right, up the stairs and you will find the main observation deck. If you walk to the left, you will find yourselves heading to the cabins which we will direct you to your specific cabins once night sets in or you wish to hunker down now." She said all this while keeping the smile and in a clear, precise tone of voice.
We all nodded our heads in understanding and my youngest sister decided to try run off. The hostess got in the way and knelt down, placing a claw gently on her chest. This turned out to be a major mistake as my sister decided to pull out a feather from her head. The next second we were covering our ears as the griffon shrieked and roared in tandem, her large wings flaring open in reflex. My sister was reduced to tears while my mother picked her up, apologising up and down for my sister's behaviour and acquisition of her souvenir.
The griffon shook her head as she folded her wings, "It's alright. I got plenty more where that came from. It just stung a little, more of a shock really to her and I. I've had it happen before so really there's no need to concern yourselves."
Well, kudos to whoever trains the staff to be this cool-headed and relaxed. I half-expected cursing and clawing to happen when her wings flared like that. Sure the last bit would have been terrible since my sister would have been very badly injured because those claws of hers looked very sharp. Yet there she stood, smiling as if it never happened.
She gestured to the staircase that lead to the main section of the zeppelin. "Go on ahead. There are a few more stewards throughout the zeppelin to assist you should you need anything."
We all gave her a thank you and another apology for the feather-plucking before walking up there. The moment we walked in, I thought we just got sent into the ballroom area of Beauty and the Beast. There was a huge, crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling in the centre of the room, mother-of-pearl pillars along the sides of the room that were more than likely just for decoration. Between them, attached to the walls, were smaller two-pronged candlesticks with round globes attached to where the candle normally went. Seemed simple but they helped give the room more illumination.
The ceiling itself was a giant canvas, with a massive painting of the clear blue sky, fluffy-looking white clouds and a few birds which I could not recognise but were in a variety of colours. Maybe it was done by a pony and the birds came from Equestria? It was entirely possible since the flight employed Equestrians. The floor sported several large, round, wooden tables all arranged like some five-star restaurant. There were chairs of the same type of wood as the tables, made in a similar style with red cushions on the back-rest and seat.
If you did not remind yourself that you were in a flying machine, you could easily mistake this place for some six or seven star hotel from Dubai or something. They even had waiters walking around the floor, in black tuxedos and red bowties, complete with white shirts and black shoes. And here we are, in normal, everyday clothes like commoners or something. I felt like a Chelsea supporter at Old Trafford, the Manchester United home stadium, during a match. Again I'd have to commend the training the staff gets because not one looked at us funny or our choice in clothes. The human passengers were another story though. Some rolled their eyes at us or simply scoffed and proceeded to ignore us completely.
We proceeded to walk over to one of the tables and sit down, looking around some more. My youngest sister decided, yet again, to wander off into the middle of the room. She looked utterly fascinated by the sheer grandeur of everything around her and none of us could blame her. The eldest of my younger sisters got told by my dad to keep watch over her but with the eagle eyes of some of the griffons here, I doubted she really needed to. It may have sounded stereotypical to think that but it was a very high possibility, given the fact they had the heads of eagles.
~~*****~~
Two hours passed with me walking around the main floor, going up to the observation deck and finding the more restricted sections of the zeppelin, only to be stopped by some very burly minotaurs. No joke, a big, light red minotaur in a black suit and sunglasses, complete with those little earpieces, picked me up by my my shoulder with one hand and gave me the death glare through his glasses. No bouncer anywhere else on Earth could hold a candle to these guys at all. He made Swarchenegger look small.
He dropped me a little hard and told me to beat it unless I wanted to get beaten. And given the fact he had tree trunks for arms, I scarpered as fast as I could. These guys were some scary stuff, with those horns on their heads and enormous bodies that could make them the poster boys for workout videos.
So I returned to the main floor and just in time as three small chimes followed by one long one rang through the whole zeppelin to get everyone's attention as the captain or co-captain spoke. I was expecting one of those calm, slow and professional-sounding voices to come on over the intercom like in those airline commercials. What we got just about made me leap three feet in the air.
"This is your captain Bulk Biceps speaking!" I had my hands firmly clasped over my ears to try and block out the verbal assault coming from the intercom. "We've just been given clearance to take off so sit down and relax! We'll be in Canterlot before you can say YEAAAH!"
I was pretty sure my ears were bleeding when the intercom chimed in reverse order, the long one starting with the three short ones afterwards. Sweet lords above where did they get a captain like that guy and how did he even make captain? He sounded more like a drill sergeant or a personal trainer with anger issues.
So I rejoined my folks, sitting down as the zeppelin's engines began to make some noise. I could see a little of one of the vertical propellers from where I sat, turning slowly as it built up some speed. You could faintly hear the metal groan a little as if in protest as the zeppelin began to fight against gravity, slowly rising into the air like some majestic beast from a fairytale.
Soon enough though, the ground steadily got further and further away as the zeppelin's forward propellers began to turn. I know I couldn't see them but you could tell they were working as we started moving forward. I do not understand why that Bulk Biceps character told us to sit down. There was no lurching, no abrupt movement. It was all as gentle and subtle as a summer breeze.
I sat back in my seat and watched the clouds roll by as we passed them slowly. As great as zeppelins were, they were still kind of slow. There was only so much thrust a propeller could give until it could give no more. That was what every human being thought, until unicorns came in and showed us the wonders of teleportation. The downside to this though was that it was very taxing on the unicorn casting the spell because it caused extreme fatigue as the distance and the people involved in the teleport increased.
So we were stuck at the same old speeds that we were able to get out of our engines. Until some smart griffon engineers showed us something that still baffles me to this day: combining technology with magic. Rather unstable when doing more than one job but they managed to get our engines a bit of a boost to their maximum speed. All without the blades going supersonic. When that happens, the noise becomes unbearable and then efficiency plummets. Then there is the possibility of stalling in which we would end up in the headlines as the biggest airline accident in recorded history.
Although that may not happen as zepplin have two sets of propellers, one set for vertical movement and the other for horizontal.Trips that last days now only last a few hours to a maximum of a day due to refueling. They don't run on magic just yet so we still use conventional fossil fuels to keep the engines going since steam took up too much space and was too inefficient.
We decided to try the lunch they served on the zeppelin. The tables had a menu in front of every chair for the passengers to just look through or to order from when they felt peckish. I opened the menu and I was a bit overwhelmed as what I saw was not your standard fare but Equestrian delicacies, some with names I couldn't pronounce and in combinations that I thought could never work together. I initially thought we were going to be going pure vegetarian because ponies seemed to be vegetarians themselves but the menu contained meat as well. I gathered it was probably due to the griffons since they were predators.
~~*****~~
It must have been eight or so when I went up to the observation deck to see how much further we were from Equestria. A stupid thing to do I guess until you pause to consider my stepfather's horrid, loud snoring. I had ample reason to not be in our cabin. The view was staggering, breathtaking even if that sounds cliché. The zeppelin was already somewhere above the ocean that separated Africa and Equus continent. You could hear the sounds of the propellers rotating dimly in the background.
"Amazing view is it not?" I turned around and saw the voice belonged to another hostess but it was a blue-coated mare. Her mane and tail were two-toned: periwinkle and a darker shade of blue. The style reminded me of those toothpaste adverts on the television.
"It is quite nice despite there's nothing out here save for clouds, stars and the water." I replied, looking back.
"Exactly. It's peaceful, quiet and relaxing. We spend so much time chasing our own tails, doing whatever their talents are, that some forget to just stop and relax, take in the sights that the Ancients forged for us all to enjoy, pony, griffon, minotaur and human alike." She said, looking past me, way into the horizon as if hoping something would emerge from it.
I shrugged, "I guess... But we don't get the time because we are trying to make money to be able to enjoy ourselves. Talk about irony."
The mare gave a small giggle, "True. We will be arriving in Canterlot by early morning so I would recommend you get some sleep. Or not, that's your choice, sir."
I nodded my head, "Alright. I will, thanks. If I can since my stepfather snores louder than the engines."
"So that's what the noise was. The engineer thought one of the engines were falling apart," She joked as she laughed a bit.
I merely chuckled and walked past, reading her nametag: Minuette. "Nice to have met you, Minuette."
She waved a little as I walked towards the stairs, "To you as well, sir."
~~*****~~
I walked down to our cabin and found one of the bunks empty. The room itself wasn't much, just some beds arranged like bunk beds to save space in the zeppelin. Mom and my stepfather shared the one bunk with the eldest of my younger sisters on the top one. That left the next bunk for my youngest sister and myself, the former laying on the bottom bunk. The sounds of the engines were extremely quiet in this section of the zeppelin for obvious reasons with the loudest noise coming out of my stepfather's mouth. Damn he snored loud....
I climbed into the bed once I changed into my pajamas and looked out the window by my bed. I didn't have much of a view, save for the ocean below us but the night sky was clear, once I looked past the bulk of the zeppelin. The bed wasn't unpleasant but it did feel off, most likely because I was too used to my own bed back at home. I soon laid back, under the sheets and closed my eyes. Tomorrow we start our new lives in Equestria. Can only hope the ponies I meet in the new school there are as friendly as that Minuette mare.
