First Contact
"Mmmmmm. What's the time? Oh just great. 3 am. Thanks a lot brain. It's a good thing I don't have work tomorrow.", I think as I wake up and take quick look at my clock. I try too fall asleep again but my efforts prove fruitless. "Now I won't be able to fall asleep for hours again.". I get up slowly. " Who knows, maybe drinking something will help me.", I think making way my kitchen. I open the refrigator and take out some ornge juicce. I start to drink when I notice some kind of purple purple shimmer to my left. I stop drinking an take a closer look at it. Then from one second to the other it widens and a purple something appears out of it. "The heck?!?", is all I can say before it lands right in my face and sends me about 4 feet flying, spilling orange juice everywhere. The next thing I realise is that there's fur in my mouth, from what I'm seeing purple fur.
" Oh Celestia, I'm so sorry. Are you okay?", the thing asks as it gets off of me.
"Well besides the fact that there's orange juice spilled everywhere, yeah I'm okay.", I say while getting up. Then I looked at what hit me.
"I'm on crack. Definitly. Or on some other hardcore drug. That's the only possible explenation for you.", I say to the purple thing standing in my kitchen.
" No you're not. I just ran a quick spell too see if you're really okay. And I can say that your body is free of any substances that would cause hallucinations. So yes, I'm real. Also, it's not nice to say that someone does't exist, you know.", the unicorn says. " My name's Twilight Sparkle and I'm a female unicorn by the way. Whats your name?"
"Why would I listen to you? You're a hallucination! A project of my drugged mind! Why in the heavens should I believe you? It's already bad enough that I'm talking to you!" I say, interrupting her.
"What can I do to make you believe that I'm real?", she sighs.
"I'll go back to sleep now. If you're still there in the morning I'll believe you.", I tell her.
"Nothing easier than that. I can actually help you fall asleep again. Would you like that?", she asks.
"Well why not." I tell her, going back to my room. As I lie down in my bed, she enters my room and her horn starts glowing.
"Sleep well.", is the last thing i hear before drifting away.
When I woke up again it's a more normal time to get up. Well, it's 10 am. But that's still better than 3 am. I decide to get breakfast before planning out the day. As I enter the kitchen she's already in there, looking throug each and every drawer there is. "Okay. You win. Since I doubt that crack would survive several hours of sleep, I'm going to believe you exist. I still have no Idea how you got here tough. Oh and sorry for being so rude to you tonight. My name's Alex, by the way." I tell her.
"Oh there's no need for you to apologise for that. Judging by your reaction there aren't any other ponys in this world?" she asks.
"Well ponys DO exist, but without any horns. And they can't talk. Also they're not so brightly coloured. Usually they're brown or black or white. So where do you come from?" I ask her while making myself some coffe and sitting down at the table.
"I'm from the land Equestria. It's a place inhabited by Earth Ponys, Unicorns like me and Pegasi. It's ruled by the Alicorn sisters Celestia and Luna which have both wings and a horn. They raise the sun and the moon. I live in ponyville, a small town. The main city where Celestia and Luna live is called Canterlot. Most ponys are friendly too each other, of course there are some expections, but it's a really nice place all in all. And I know you said you'd believe, but you're very calm for someone who just met a new species." she says, looking up.
"Well what am I supposed to do, freak out again? I think I did that good enough seven hours ago. Now I'm just curious about you and the place you're from. So, why did you come here?" I ask slowly waking up.
"Well, I experimented around with a new type of teleportation spell I invented and ended up here"
"Wait. Teleportation spell? You can use magic?", I say, raising an eyebrow in disbelieve.
"Well, yeah. As I already told you, that's how the sun and the moon get raised. We can also control the weather with it. You mean you don't have magic?", she asks, her eyes widening.
"No we don't. All of the things you just mentioned happen naturally. We can't control the weather and the sun and the moon come up by themself. Well, technically our planet just turns and different places are getting sunlight. The moon rotates around Earth."
"Huh. That's certainly interesting. Well if I'm here already,why not learn more about this place. So in which country are we at the moment?", she asks, her eyes sparkling.
" Well at the moment we are in the United States of America, U.S.A. for short. The continent we're on is called America, which is mainly divided into North, South and Middle America. The other continents on the planet are Eurasia, Africa, Australia and Antarctica. Expect for the last one there are lots of people living on each one. I could go into detail, but i think an atlas will do better work than I can. I'll go get one. You just wait here.", I said as I got up. I went to my room and started looking for one. When I finally found it, I went back to the kitchen but Twilight wasn't there any more. "Twilght?", I called out. Then I heard her call me from the balcony: "I'm over here! This view is amazing!". In the beginning, I didn't care but then a thougt hit me. I rushed there as fast as I could.
"Twilight! Get back inside, now!"
"Why?"
"NOW!". She lowered her head and trottet back inside.
"Sorry for yelling at you. But it's really not the best idea for you to go out.", I told after I closed the balcony door.
"Why? What's so bad about going outside?", she asked.
I sighed. "You do remember how I reacted when I first saw you?". She nodded. "Well, if a lot of people saw you, they'd probably react differently. If it got out that there's a unicorn in my flat, it probably wouldn't have taken too long before someone showed up who would want to catch you and probably experiment on you. You'd probably be put into some small cage and held captive there. Also, I would probably get into trouble as well."
She smiled slightly. " thanks for caring about me. But I'm a magical unicorn. If they don't have anything to surpress my magic, then I could just teleport away. And if they would go after you, I'd just take you with me."
"You can do that?", I asked with my mouth open.
"Probably."
"Can you take me too Equestria as well?".
"Why not? Would you like to go there?".
"Yes, very much actually.".
"Then let's go. I can show you around and we can compare some things from our worlds maybe?", she said, her horn beginning to glow.
"Sure.", I said as I stood next to her.
We disappeared in flash of light.
Into Equestria
The teleport took less than a second. When we reappeared I took a look around. We seemed to be in a library, judging by by all the books in the shelves. Then again, there was also a pretty big table on the left side of the room, full of what appeared to be notes but they were written in some other language. When my eyes met Twilight, I was a little surprised. She was laying on the floor, panting. "Are you okay?", I asked while helping her getting back up.
"Yeah, just a little bit exhausted. Seems like taking two persons through time and space takes up a lot more energy. I'll have to write that down at some point.", she answered, her breathing already normal again. " So, welcome to my home. As you can see I live in this library and I work here as well. My personal rooms are upstairs. Sorry for the mess, I made these notes while creating the spell I just used. Since it seems to work perfectly, I can put these in the basement.", she said, her horn started to glow and the papers disappeared. When I returned to looking at the room she suddenly started squeeling like a little girl.
"Huh?", I said, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh-it's-just-that-this-is-the-first-spell-that-I-ever-created-and-it-works-so-good-and-Ooohh-Celestia-will-be-so-proud-of-me-and-I-just-got-closer-to-my-Idol-Star-Swirl-The-Bearded-who-was-one-of-the-most-talented-mages-in-all-of-Equestria-"
"Twilight! You're back! Where have you been? You just disappeared in the middle of the night without telling anyone. We were pretty worried about you.", said the small purple... lizard? I was not exactly sure what it was. Then it saw me. "Uhm Twilight, what is standing behind you?", he (his voice was definitly male) asked.
"Oh, that's Alex. He's a human. I met him while I was gone and he wanted to come to Equestria, so I took him here. Alex, that's Spike, my number one assistant. He's a dragon."
"Hi", I said and waved at the dragon.
He looked at me and was obviously trying to find out if I was nice or not. Afetr some time of awkward silenc he said:"Well if Twilight trusts you, then I'll do the same. Nice too meet you."
"Thanks. Nice too meet you as well.", I said, shaking the pawn he had raised.
"Spike, I'll go and show Alex the town. Please keep an eye on the library while I'm gone, okay?", she said, walking to the door.
"Will do. See you later Twi.", Spike said waving as we walked out.
My first impression of Equestria was pretty much this: "So. Many. Coulors.". I mean I should've probably expected the ponys to be wildly coulored but this went beyond my epectations. There were some ponys that could've been from Earth with brown or black coutes and manes. But there were pink ponys, blue ponys, yellow ponys, heck some of them even had two coulors in their mane.
The landscape was slooking better than at home. Everything looked way brighter, probably how Earth looked before humans came and polluted everything. And it even felt better. Fresher in a kind of way. I could literally feel how the fatigue, stress and boredom of working almost every day were lifted off of my shoulders. Suddenly I was full of energy and very eager too meet as many ponys as I could. That stopped almost immeadiatly again though, due to the fact that everyone had stopped dead in their tracks to stare at me. An orange mare stepped out of the crowd.
"Uuhh, Twilight? Care ta explain?", she asked.
"Since we got everybody's attention, that seems like a good idea AJ. Hrmhrm. Everypony! I'd like to introduce Alex to you. He's a human from a planet called earth. I met him on a research trip yesterday and since he wanted too see Equestria, I brought him here. He probably won't be here for too long, but please be nice to him while he's here okay? Thanks."
Appearantly, if Twilight trusted someone around here, that meant that person was perfectly fine. Not that I would complain. Shortly after the explanation the crowd vanished and everypony, what was appearantly the correct term went back to everyday life. The onliest one that stayed was the orange mare who had spoken up earlier.
"Ah, yes I think I should introduce you to her. Alex this is Applejack, one of my closest friends and the bearer of the Element Of Honesty.", she explained.
"Nice too meet'cha Alex. Me and ma family run the apple farm on the other side of town, so feel free to drop by whenever you want.", Applejack said, smiling.
"Nice too meet you as well. And uh, what's the Element Of Honesty, if I may ask?"
"It's one of the six Elements Of Harmony, the greatest magical power in Equestria. There's honesty, loyalty, generosity, kindness, laughter and magic. All of these Elements are represented by a bearer whose most important character trait resembles the Element he or she bears. I'm the bearer of the Element Of Magic and Applejack's the bearer of the Element Of Honesty. We only had to use them once against an Alicorn named Nightmare Moon who too kcontrol over Luna because she was sad and angry about the fact that-"
"Your trailing off again Twilight. I'd like to learn about that at some point but for now I just wanna take a look around, okay? Also, you said that tere are six Elemnts and six bearers. Who are the other four bearers?"
"They're my best friends. Do want to meet them?"
"Sure, why not? So which Element are we going to see first?"
"Rarity probably. It's likely that we meet Pinkie on the way, Rainbow could be anywhere and Flutters is probably feeding her animals rightnow. So Carousel Boutique it is.", Twilight said as she turned around and started walking.
"A have to go back to the farm. I'll see you two around.", Applejack said as she started walking into the opposite direction.
I waved after her. Then I turned around and followed Twilight. Somehow I could feel that it was going to be a good day.
Pink, White, Cyan, Yellow and streamers.
Pink, White, Cyan, Yellow and streamers.
It didn't take long until we found the next element. Or rather, before she found us. After we went around two corners and were walking through a quiet little street, I suddenly found myself lying on the ground with a pink pony on top of me. That came very surprising to me because just the second before, there had been absolutely no one except for me and Twilight in the street. The mare simply gasped loudly and then she was gone again, disappearing as quick as she came. As I got up again I turned to Twilight and asked: "Who was that?".
"Oh, that was Pinkie Pie. She's the Element Of Laughter and also Ponyville's best party hoster. You'll probably get to know her this evening.", she said, a sly grin on her lips.
"Now what's that supposed to mean? How could you now that?", I said, rather frightened by her smile.
"Everypony who isn't born here gets to now Pinkie on their first evening in Ponyville. I doubt it'll be any different for you. You should probably just forget that you saw her at all.". The answer did not exactly help but I doubted that I could get any more information about this evening from Twilight.
"Okay. Just one more question. How did she appear and disappear within a second and leave no traces that she was here at all? I mean, she didn't teleport or something like that, right?".
"Oh no, that was just Pinkie being Pinkie. You see, Earth Ponys and Pegasi can't actually use magic. They have special magic that helps them but they can't teleport or levitate things like Unicorns. Pegasi can stand on clouds and manipulite them, controlling the weather. Earth Ponys get extra stamina and everything they plant will grow much quicker than something planted by a Unicorn or a Pegasus. That's the reason why most Earth Ponys work as farmers and there are many Pegasi in the weather team, it just fits their abylities..", she said. I personally expected her to trail off again, but she kept herself under control.
"Huh. So what exactly does Rarity work as? Applejack's a farmer and you just said that Pinkie hosts parties. So what's Raritys job?"
"She's a designer and a tailor. Also her element is generosity."
That dumbfouned me somewhat. " I have jet too anyone of you wear any actual clothes. And Applejacks hat does not go under actual clothes in my opinion. How does she make a living by being a tailor when nobody wears clothes?."
"We do wear clothes. We just don't wear tthem on everday occasions. If you're meeting someone important or going to a noble festival you should be wearing clothes. She actaully makes quite some money. She doesn't get paid everyday but when she gets paid, she gets a lot of bits. That's Equestria's currency by the way.", she said, answering the question I was about to ask.
We continued to walk for a while after that and she continued to explain things about Equestria in general and about Ponyville to me. I had learned that there were several other creatures living here that were fiction on earth, such as Minotaurs and gryphons, which were the most important places to avoid in ponyville and the short version of how Equestria was founded by the time we arrived in front of a two-floor house with a mannequin in an an unfinished dress painted above the door.
"This is where Rarity lives and works, Carousel Boutique. Let's just hope she's here.", Twilight said, opening the door and making the little bell on the inside ring. Then a very lady-like voice came from behind the counter.
"I'll be there for you in a second!Just got to cut this here really quick, aaaand done. Oh yes, it's simply fabulous. Now, welcome to Carousel Boutique. How can I help you, oh Twilight hello. How can I help yooouuuu... are you aware of the creature behind you?", she asked, her expression somewhere between disgusted and terrified.
"My name's Alex. I'm a human and Twilight brought me here. It's nice to meet you.", I said, trying to ignore her expression and extended offering her my hand to shake.
"My name's Rarity and the pleasure is mine. You don't get to meet a new intelligent species all day. But if I might say so, you should do something about your wardrobe. If you have time, maybe I can even help you with it?". So that's where her expression came from.
"I'd be very nice of you to help but I doubt that I'll stay in Equestria for long. I have work to attend back home.". At that Twilight turned to me.
"You've got to stay at least until tomorrow. Please! I bet the princesses would love to meet you. And if you leave before today's evening, I don't want to imagine what would happen to Pinkie.". She shivered while saying the last part.
"Fine then. I'll see if I can come around at some point Rarity but I doubt it."
"It was nice seeing you Rarity but I'd like to show Alex the other bearers as well, so we got to go. I'll see you tonight, I hope."
"Yes, I'll certainly be there. Goodbye.", she said as we left the shop.
"So who's next?"
"Fluttershy. It's around midday so she should definitly be at her cottage. And we're probably going to find Rainbow Dash sleeping on some cloud sooner or later.". We started moving towards the edge of Ponyville, not talking much this time.
"Watch Out!!".
Once again, I found myself lying on my back with a pony on top of me, though this time, the impact was painfull.
"Ohmygosh, I'm sorry! You okay?" The mare said while getting off of me.
"No, not exactly. I think you may just have rebroken one of my ribs. Ahh, shit that hurts. Is there a hospital anywhere arounnd here Twilight?", I said, trying to get up without making the injury any worse.
"Yes, I'll take you there! Rainbow, you come after us!", Twilight said, and then we teleported. When we reappeared, we wre in the typical hospital reception room: white walls, lots of chairs and a big door through which the patients went.
"We could use a doctor with healing spells, my friend here has a broken rib.".
The mare at the reception looked up. " Very sorry Twilight but I've never seen anything like that creature. I think you should go to the vet."
"Come on now, that's not exactly nice. I'm just as intelligent as you are. And if you're wondering about where my ribs or anything are located, I can tell you that perfectly."
"Oh. Very sorry Mister. I'll get you a doctor right away." She turned around to some kind of communictor and started talking: "Hello? I have a patient with a broken rib over here. Okay. Uhu. Thanks." She turned to us again. "Room 215. Down the hallway 8. door on the right side. Doctor Quickstich will be there.", he said, pointing toward the door.
"Thanks Miss..." "Redheart." "Well then, thanks Miss Redheart.". We made way through the door and quickly arrived at room 215. As we entered, the doctor turned around.
"I suppose it's Alex with the broken rib?"
"Yeah that would be me. How do you know who I am?", Iasked laying down on the operation table as he gestured for me to do so.
"I was in the crowd this morning. Now, where is your broken rib located exactly?", he asked, lighting up his horn.
"Right around here.", I said pointing to a point directly under my heart. He touched the spot with his horn and the pain lessened really quick.
"There, it's healing. You'll have to stay here for some hours though."
"Damn. Now what?"
"I can make you fall asleep if you want that."
"Yes please. Rather that then staring at the ceiling for hours. You okay with that Twilight?"
"It's your decision and also it gives me some time to help preparing so... yes, that's actually a very good idea."
"Okay then.". Quickstich lighted his horn up once again and touched my head this time. I quickly drifted off into sleep.
When I woke up Twilight and the Cyan mare that had crashed into me were standing beside me.
The Cyan mare realized that I was awake before Twilight.
"Hey you're awake! I'm really sorry man. My name's Rainbow Dash, fastest being alive and the Element of Loyalty. Who and what are you?", she said, extending a hoof.
"Rainbow!" "What? Am I not allowed to ask direct questions anymore?"
"It's okay Twilight. My name's Alex and I'm a human. Nice too meet you Rainbow.", I said, shaking the hoof. "And about the rib, it's no big deal. Especially with the healing spells you guys got around here. It's nice not having to wait for day sto get out of ahospital for once."
"How can you just push off a broken rib as no big deal? You could've been hurt seriously!", Twilight said, disbelief filling her voice.
"I've got quite the history with bad injurys Twilight. A broken rib has simply come down to a not so big deal to me by now."
Quickstich came into the room. " You're awake already? The spell should keep you asleep until the rib is healed. Let me check that really quick.". A third time, his horn came to life and he touched my chest again. After he got back up he said: "Your rib is healed completely. That was the quickest recovery I've ever seen.". I got up and started to walk around. No pain at all. Healing spells are awesome! "Since this was your first time here it's free but next time you have to pay."
"Got it. Thanks Doc. Come on Twilight, Rainbow, let's get going." We left the hospital and stopped outside. "So where do we go next Twilight?". I was full of energy and felt even better then when I first came here.
"Hmm. I don't think we can make it to Fluttershy's place before nightfall anymore, so let's go back to the library. Fluttershy will probably be there as well."
"I'll go ahead. See you at the library Alex!". And with that, Rainbow left off in a blast.
We started walking to the library ourselfs. When we arrived on Ponyville's main square it was almost empty. The onliest pony that was there except us was a yellow-coated pegasus, heading for the library as well. Suddenly Twilight shouted next to me: "Fluttershy! Over here!". The pegasus flinched and then turned around. When she saw who had called her she began flying towards us.
"H-hello Twilight. Oh and you must be Alex. I've heard about you. I'm Fluttershy."
"Nice to meet you Fluttershy.". When I tried to offer her my hand, she flinched again. "Is everything okay?"
"Y-yes, it's just that I'm not so good at meeting new persons. Are you heading for the library as well?"
"Who isn't headed to library at the moment. We should get a move on as well.", Twilight said, starting to walk again.
"Would anybody please be so kind to tell me what is going on? I'm starting to get creeped out.", I said as we stopped in front of the library, which was completely silent and dark.
"Open the door and you'll see."
Hesitantly i pulled the door open. When I stepped in, suddenly the lights came on, a cannon was shot, I was suddenly covered in streamers and somebody yelled: "SURPRISE!" Then I realized that the room was full of ponys and there was a giant banner hanging from the ceiling which read: "WELCOME TO PONYVILLE, ALEX!"
I turned back to Twilight. "That's what was so special about this evening?! You prepared a surprise party?!"
"Yes of course! Everypony who comes to Ponyville gets one." That was the same voice that had shouted surprise before. When I turned around I saw Pinkie standing there. "Could've guessed that. Twilight told me that you were the best party hoster around. How did you now my name though?"
"Twilight told me when she came hear at midday. She was also the one who brought up the idea to have the party here. But come on now, you're the guest of honor we got to introduce you to the town!"
"Erm, Pinkie, sorry to tell you but I won't stay for long."
"Nahh. My Pinkie Sense told me there was someone new around who was going to stay in town and my Pinkie Sense never fails." Before I got to ask her what the Pinkie Sense was I was dragged into the crowd. I met many ponies that evening, but I'm not exactly the best at names. There ewre exactly four names that I could keep: Vinyl Scratch, the local Dj, Octavia her marefriend, cellist and the person who made sure that Vinyl wouldn't get too drunk, Lyra, a lyrist, who I only remembered because she seemed very interested in the human race and finally Bon-Bon, sweets manufacturer, Lyras marefriend and the biggest scaredy-cat I've ever met. The party all in all was pretty awesome, with some music provided by Vinyl. It went on until late in the night and when finally everypony was gone it was around half past three, so Twilight and I decided to go to bed as well. I simply slept on the couch.
Meanwhile, in certain house on earth: "So this is where we got a signal from?"
"Yes. It's pretty fresh and very strong. Whatever caused it will be a good refill of our storage. It's actaully the strongest signal we've ever picked up. Let's just hope it returns soon."