And Then the Rain Began to Fall
And Then the Rain Began to Fall
A My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic fiction
by Wil_I_Zin
Flying, or perhaps falling, through the stars. That would be the earliest memory I can think of. Followed by feeling cold, and afraid. The world felt grey, dirty, and dark. It was wet too: the air, the ground, all of it wet and cold. And the noise, there was so much of it. Loud noises, shrill noises, screeches and hollers all around me. I remember crying out for someone… or, er, somepony. You say one thing your whole life, it becomes a hard habit to- Right, sorry. Someone, but I can’t remember who. Maybe my mother, my father? My throat became sore, my body shivering and weak. I wanted to get away, from the noises, from the darkness. Something bright sped by me, a noise louder than any other blared from it, I ran and the wind of the object running past caused me to tumble-
Gah! … Was I supposed to feel that? … Spells that help you remember, huh? … Thank you, princess, that’s somewhat comforting… Just say what I see and hear right? … Okay, so, I fell.
And I fell hard. I was hurt, and cold… and terrified. I just wanted to hide, to have it go away. I couldn’t cry out, my voice too sore. That’s when I found it, that box. It was large and worn, but it was dry. I crawled into it and slid to the back. I bunched up, shivering from the gale outside. And I laid there crying into my hooves. I was there for a long time... or a short time, it’s all blurry. I moved around a little, my body sore from the raw ground and my horn hurt too. The noises had slowly gone away, and all I could hear was the wind. The air felt wet and heavy. My sobbing stopped when I heard a new noise: it was smooth and precise, and coming closer.
I wiped my eyes and cleared my nose as the noise came close. I stood as still as I could, hoping it would pass by and go away. But something made my nose tingle, and I let out a quiet sneeze. And then the noise stopped. I gasped: Had the noise heard me? I leaned into the farthest corner of my hiding spot and tried not to breath. Then the noise changed direction, it came closer to me and I heard it stop right in front of me. I closed my eyes, and bunched into a ball, wishing it wouldn’t see me.
“Hello there?”
I heard a new noise. It sounded familiar, but strange. It was a deep and solid noise. But it only made me squeeze into my corner even tighter. It was silent for a time, and I wondered if the noise had left, but then it returned, slower and softer than before. I could feel it waiting above me. My breath became louder. I was scared. I wanted it to go away.
“Hello? Kitty?”
It was the deep noise again only this time it was softer than before. I heard something touch the top of the box, and then it slid over the side. I felt the air again as the top was opened up. I heard a soft noise, a gasp.
“N- no way…”
The deep voice was soft again, and it didn’t feel as scary as it was a moment ago. I opened my eyes and looked up. What I saw... was weird. It was some thing, like a tall bear but not as fuzzy. I remember looking at its weird colored fur, and then I saw its face. And it looked so silly. Its nose was tiny and it only had a little bit of fuzz right on its chin and on top of its head. It was the funniest thing I had ever seen. I giggled a little at it, and it made an even sillier face back at me, making me giggle harder.
“This… this can’t be real.”
The deep noise came back, but this time I saw it came from the silly thing. Which was even sillier than before as well. Nothing that weird looking could ever sound like that, but it did, and… it made me laugh. But then hurt shot through me, I stopped laughing, it hurt to laugh. It felt like my side was bad, and I couldn’t see why. I tried to move to make the hurt go away, but it only stung more when I tried. I felt something close to me, I turned to see the silly thing, making a face and it was trying to touch me. I tried to pull away but the hurt stopped me.
“No, no, it’s alright. I’m not going to hurt you.”
The deep voice quietly said to me. I didn’t know what it was saying, but it again felt familiar, good. The silly thing reached out to touch me again, slowly. It had these weird pink pointy things, and it reached them out to my side that hurt. I pulled back one last time before I closed my eyes, too afraid to look. I felt the pointy things touch my side and the hurt came back, but then the pointy things slide up to my ears, and it felt nice. I felt warmer, and it was good, safe. I stopped shaking and leaned into the nice pointy things and they continued to make me feel safe.
“How did you even get here?”
The deep voice sounded different, like it was distant. The pointy things stopped and pulled away. I didn’t like that, and I looked up at the silly creature not happy that it stopped. It made a face, a different one, and it brought up its pointy things to its middle.
“Oh jeeze, don’t give me that face.”
I didn’t laugh at its new silly face, but pointed with a hoof at its pointy things. I wanted them. It hesitated, but soon its pointy things came back and were rubbing my ears and head again. I didn’t want this to change, it made me feel better then I had been. Suddenly, I felt a different pair of pointy things reach from behind me. I was scared as I was lifted off the ground and brought to the silly things middle. My fear melted away as it wrapped some of its weird fur around me and I felt how warm it was. The pointy things continued to stroke my head as another pair held me from beneath my belly. I sat in the crook of the silly thing’s front legs, and slowly my fear was soon gone. I felt a drop of water fall on my nose and I looked up. The silly thing was looking up as well, but then it looked at me.
“Come on, let’s get you out of the cold, little one.”
I felt the silly creature move with me in tow, its legs rocking me while its pointy things held me tight. I looked up at it and wondered what it was. Such a good silly thing. It looked back at me and made another new face, but I knew what it was: it was a smile. I was warm, safe, and not scared anymore. I smiled back and touched its weird nose with one of my hooves. Even its nose felt funny. The silly thing held me close as it moved and the wind began to pick up. But I didn’t even hear the noise anymore. And then the rain began to fall as he carried me away.
It wasn’t too long after that a lot happened. The silly thing had taken me to a place that was nice, warm, and dry. It brought out this bottle, and it poured some of the liquid on the place where it hurt; it hurt even more for a moment and I cried. The silly thing spoke again and it didn’t hurt as bad. It took some long stretchy thing and wrapped it around me, covering my hurt spot. Afterwards it helped me drink some water and tried to feed me something, it was red and round, but it was too hard to eat. The silly thing left and then came back this time with something that smelled the same, but was much softer and it was very tasty.
The place I was in was very big to me, but to the silly thing it looked small. A few things I saw I recognised. I was laying on a bed, and there was a sink and a stove just a bit away from where I was. And next to the wall was a table where a bright glowing square was. The silly thing had been in front of that glowing thing for awhile, and it was saying things to it as well.
“Yeah listen, I know it sounds crazy Mom, but you have to believe me on this one, I’m not making it up.”
The silly thing was being very silly talking to a wall. Even I knew walls don’t talk... they’re walls. Unless the wall was the silly thing’s mom? It kept saying that it was; I didn’t know walls could be moms. I tried to think of my mom, but it was too fuzzy. I remembered her being warm and nice, and holding me in her wings. I missed her. Maybe she was just hiding? I thought. My voice wasn’t hurting as much anymore so I called out for her.
“...what the?”
The silly thing had spun around from its seat and looked at me with yet another silly face. I think it was scared? I looked around and my mom hadn’t come back. Maybe she was in the wall like the silly thing’s mom? I looked at the silly thing and “Where’s Mommy?” The silly thing looked… scared.
“I-I-I… I’m not quite s-sure little one, d-... do you know her name?”
Silly thing was being stupid, I just said her name. I frowned and repeated back at it that, “Name is Mommy.” The silly thing stared at me for awhile and then turned back to the glowing square.
“Okay, she can also talk too… of course she can... Mom, as soon as you get this, call me.”
The silly thing touched the glowing square and turned it into just a regular square. I wondered how the silly thing did that. The silly thing turned around and walked over to the bed. It walked weird too, like a bird with really long legs. It sat down on the floor and it looked at me.
“So, uh. Do you have a name?”
The silly thing wasn’t very smart, I already told it mommy’s name. I’d have to show it, so I said, “Mommy.”
“Um. Yes, I know you want your Mom, but in order for me to find her I need your name?”
“Mommy!” I didn’t know why silly thing was being dumb. I said Mommy’s name a bunch of times.
“Gah, no no no… wait, I got it.”
The silly thing put its pointy things on its tummy and spoke. “Erin,” he said. And then it pointed at me saying nothing, before doing the same thing again. I had never heard of an Enin. Was it something you could eat?
“Enin.” I repeated back to the silly thing. It smiled when I said it, maybe it was going to make us some Enin? That tasty mushy stuff wasn’t as filling as I thought.
“Yes, yes. Erin is my name.”
But silly thing got confused again. Mommy wasn’t a food... well sometimes she was, but she wasn’t here. “Mommy.”
“Annnnnd we’re back to square one.”
Silly thing looked like it was confused again. It must have been hard being a silly thing not knowing what Mommy was. Then I realised, I didn’t know who Mommy was. I couldn’t remember what Mommy looked like! How would I find Mommy?! I started to cry for Mommy. She always came when I did.
“Oh no! Nononono. It’s okay, it’s okay.” The silly thing said things, but it wasn’t Mommy. Where was she? “No, please don’t cry, please?” I was really sad, Mommy wasn’t coming. Mommy was gone. “Please don’t cry. Plea- Oh…. jeeze.” Then I felt silly thing’s pointy things wrap around me and it picked me up. Still crying, it laid me against its shoulder and held me with one leg. The other leg rubbed my mane and silly thing began to rock back and forth.
“Shhhhhhh. Shhhhhhh. It will be okay. It’ll be okay. I will find your Mommy.”
I felt bad, but silly thing, it felt warm and nice. It wasn’t Mommy, but it was close. Slowly my sadness went away, and then silly thing began to hum something. And then it began to sing.
“Mmmmmm, Alegria, come un lampo di vita, Alegria…” Silly thing kept on singing. Mommy sang to me too, but Silly thing had a much bigger and deeper voice. It was like the rumble of a train. The song was weird, I didn’t understand any of it. But it felt nice and kind of happy. I leaned into silly thing’s shoulder. The funny looking fur on silly thing turned out to be clothes. They weren’t as soft as Mommy’s, but they were nice smelling. I just wanted to stay like this, it felt good. Soon the song ended, but I didn’t notice, I started to feel funny.
“Heh, that song always calmed me down too. It’ll be alright little guy.” Silly thing kept talking, but I was feeling bad. Not hurt bad, just full. I relaxed and slowly I didn’t feel as bad. But suddenly silly thing pulled me away from its shoulder and began to panic. “NO! Oh nonono! Not on the carpet!” Silly thing ran carrying me into a different room, it was all white and shiny. It then put me in a big bowl, but then I realised that it had water thingies, it was a tub! I looked back at silly thing, and its expression was the silliest yet. It looked both sad and confused at the same time, it made me giggle.
“Oh yeah sure, run out the moment I get you in here…” Silly thing sighed. “Okay, since you're here. I think somebody needs a bath.” Silly thing just had to say the one thing I didn’t like.
Wow, oh jeeze I can’t believe I just- I’m sorry Princess, that’s so embarrassing! … Well yes, I’m sure everyo- pony has embarassing foal stories. … You don’t say? … Oh wow, your brother did that? … He he, that is so adorable, but yes, let’s get back to business.
Not much was different for awhile. Silly thing had talked into his glowing rectangle some more, something about “vacation pay” and “family emergency”. They sounded weird. That was something that confused me, silly thing said a lot of familiar words, but a lot of weird ones too. Then again it was a silly thing. Sometimes it left out a big door for a bit, but it always came back, usually with food or what it said was ‘unicorn supplies’ so I wouldn’t have any more accidents. I was sad a lot though. But silly thing was always with me to cheer me up. It read me stories from some books, but they didn’t have nice pictures like the ones Mommy read. Silly thing liked making silly voices too when it read.
“And then Dresden went up to the big bad vampire and was like, ‘I’m gonna stop you.’ but the evil vampire was like ‘noooooooooooo!’ “
Silly thing also let me look at his glowing square and it had moving pictures on it! He let me watch these silly animals, and they ran around and tried to catch one another. Silly thing also taught me some of its silly words, like coffee, tablet, wizard, and shit. He doesn’t like it when I say the last one though. But most of the time I fell asleep on silly thing.
Silly thing then said that we were going somewhere today. It took a large bag that held a lot of silly things clothes and ‘unicorn supplies’. He took me outside into a big metal thing with windows. If it was another house this one was even more tiny. He put me in the back and put this weird thing over me, and surrounded me with pillows. It was kinda itchy, but the fluffy pillows were nice to nap in. Silly thing got in the front and looked back at me.
“Okay little pony, now this thing is going to make a lot of noise, it’s going to sound like rvrrrrrrroom!”
The silly thing was making a lot of weird noise like a roar, but it was a weird roar. I could roar better than that. So I did, “Vraaaaammmm.”
“Yeah! Vrrrrrrreaooommmmmm!” Suddenly the entire house shook and a loud noise just like we were doing came from the house! Even the house thought it was a silly noise, I had never seen a house that could make noise like that. But then the house started to move too! A moving talking house, it was amazing! Outside the windows the very buildings and trees moved past us and soon I saw nothing but trees. Silly thing looked back at me a few times. He even got the house to sing!
It was a while later when the house stopped in front of a different tall house. I could see only grass in every direction, with trees far away. Silly thing helped me get out and carried me over to the tall house where I saw even more silly things waiting. One of them had a long wavy mane and a pretty blue dress, and the other had a lot more fuzzy fur on his face than silly thing. The one in the dress had to be a girl like me and mommy as only girls wore pretty dresses like that.
“Hi Mom… Steve. This is… well, I don’t know yet, she hasn’t been quite forthcoming on her name.”
“Mommy!” I said to silly thing. Sooner or later it was finally going to get it. Both of the other silly things looked surprised. Silly thing in a pretty dress looked very happy too. She waved her pointy things at silly thing and it slowly gave me to her.
“Hi there, cutie. I’m Erin’s Mommy, Sarah,” said the silly thing with the pretty dress as she held me. I didn’t understand, Mommy wasn’t here either, but she was?
“No Mommy.” I poked silly thing with a nice dress on her nose.
“That’s right, I’m Sarah. Can you say Saaaar-raaah?” She started speaking just like how Mommy did when she wanted me to say something.
“Sarrrrah,” I answered back.
“Yes! That’s right, I’m Sarah. And who are youuuuu?” asked Sarah rubbing her nose on my belly. It tickled and made me laugh.
“Eeeeehehehe! Cerite!”
“Cerite? What an adorable name,” Sarah said as she scratched my ears. She was much softer than silly thing was.
“How… how in the world? I did the same thing! How did you-!?” asked silly thing.
“Sorry Erin, but I have 26 more years on you in these matters thanks to you and your sister,” said Sarah happily. Silly thing looked so silly with its mouth open like that. It looked like a weird fish. “Cerite?” asked Sarah. I looked at her and she pointed to silly thing. “That’s Erin. Can you say Erin?”
“Erin!” I shouted. So silly thing was Erin? I was hoping it was food. But I supposed that even silly thing had a name. Why it didn’t say it earlier? I had no idea. Erin was still a silly thing after all.
“Great, so it can parrot things. Did you call the Feds yet?” said the other fuzzy silly thing. I didn’t really see what was going on, Sarah was scratching my ears and it felt so nice.
“Great idea Steve, let’s call the alien hating government and get an innocent girl shipped out to a research facility,” said Erin. He sounded angry. I hoped he wasn’t angry with me playing with Sarah... I could play with him too! I reached out for him, but Sarah walked away with me.
“Wanna see your new room Cerite?” Sarah asked. I nodded, I loved new things. Even more when they are mine. The tall house was very big, unlike Erin’s. Sarah carried me into a room that had a small bed and stuffed animals everywhere! The ceiling was way above my head, it was like a huge cave, and the stuffed animals were stacked almost that tall. “This was Katie’s old room. But now, it’s yours.”
“Kitty!” I shouted when I saw that one of the animals was a big orange kitty. It was so cute, I just had to hug it. Sarah set me down and I ran over to it and grabbed it. I fell into the large pile of animals and was buried in soft fluff. It kind of tickled too. Outside, however, I heard shouting, and it looked like Sarah heard it too.
“Cerite, stay here and play, I’ll be right back,” she said and walked out of the room. I couldn’t wait to play with all these new toys, I had never seen so many! I had to name them, or else I would get confused as to who was who. I sorted them out by the prettiest, to the cutiest, and then the silliest, because those would be for Erin. I only heard a little bit more shouting before it stopped. A knock on the door to my room startled me, and I turned around to see Erin looking not so happy. But I knew how to fix that, I held up one of the silly looking animals, a wolf with an eyepatch, and held it out for Erin.
“Erin, be Wolfie!” I said. Erin stood still. I didn't know if he heard me, but then he came over and sat down. He took Wolfie and I grabbed the pretty unicorn with the long sparkly mane. I tried to get Erin to play along, but he was being sad.
“Cerite. I’m-” he said, but stopped. I looked at him and he looked confused, which made me confused. “I couldn’t find your mommy where I found you.” I was shocked, and it hurt. Where was she, why couldn’t Erin find her? Before I could think more on it, he gave me a hug and held me close. “Cerite, I swear, I will find your Mommy, no matter what, I will find her.”
“Promise?” I asked. When Mommy made a promise, she always did it. I remembered her saying that a promise is the most important thing ever. Erin pulled back and looked me in the eyes with a smile.
“I promise I will find her. And until I do, you can stay here with me, Mom… and Steve. We’ll take care of you till I find her.” I really missed Mommy, but if Erin promised, I knew he’d find her. Erin picked up Wolfie again and did a horribly silly growl. I remember us playing all that night until I fell asleep.
It had been a long time since I started living with Erin’s family. Erin would usually wake me up, help me get clean and make breakfast. Sarah usually helped him. He wasn’t the best cook, but he did make great peanut butter and honey toast. He would go out for some time ‘searching for my Mommy’ or he’d work on his tablet. Sarah would usually watch me when he wasn’t around. She also liked making clothes for me. I didn’t really mind, I thought they were nice. Though sometimes they were a little itchy against my coat. And Steve at first was very grouchy... I don’t think he liked me much. But sometimes he would be very nice and would help me. He also loved talking about ‘cars’ or working in the mine.
The house had a very big yard. Almost like a farm, but with no cows or corn. I loved running around outside. Whenever Erin tried chasing me, I could always outrun him for a bit, but he always caught me. He just never stopped, but it was fun. Sometimes at night he would take me out to a hill and we’d watch the stars come out. There were so many in the sky it was like a jillion tiny lights. And then we’d run back inside because the mosquitoes would attack. Poor Erin had so many bumps on him after one night we stayed out too long... he looked like a raspberry it, was so funny!
One day while Erin was out, Sarah had to go somewhere on emergency. She told me to stay inside till she got back. But as time passed I got sooooooo bored. I tried reading some of the story books, but it wasn’t anything I hadn’t already read, and Erin makes them sound so much better with his silly voices. I tried to get the ‘TV’ to work, but the thing wouldn’t listen to me telling it to show me the ‘cartoons’. It was a very rude ‘TV’ like that. That’s when I saw something outside that I only saw as a stuffed animal: a deer!
I jumped up on the stool next to the back door and eventually was able to open the stupid door with its stupid handles. I called out to Mr. Deer and caught his attention. I had never met a deer before, and I hoped it would play with me because I was so bored. As I ran up to him, however, Mr. Deer started running away. I yelled at him to wait, but he continued to run away from me. I tried to chase after him, but he was so fast. He ran into the treeline that surrounded the field and I stopped at the edge of it. Erin told me to never ever cross that line and go into the woods. I tried calling out to Mr. Deer, telling him to come back, but I heard no reply.
I sat down sad. I read books about how others made friends with animals. Why couldn’t I? Was I just a bad unicorn who didn’t get friends? I decided to go back inside, maybe I could just play with Wolfie and Princess Raindrop who did like being my friends. But behind me I heard a gasp. I turned around and I saw a small girl! I had seen pictures of Erin’s sister, but this girl had a red mane and didn’t have glasses. She was a bit taller than me and had blue clothes with straps on them. She had her mouth wide open like how Erin looks when I say something he said after he hurts himself.
“Are you… real?” asked the girl.
“No. I’m Cerite. Did you see Mr. Deer?” I asked her. Maybe she knew him and could ask why he ran away?
“No. I heard yelling. Was that you?” she took a few steps closer to me.
“Yeah, Mr. Deer wouldn’t stop and ran away,” I explained.
“We’ll of course they would, my Dad says deer are skittish this time of year.”
“Oh… I was hoping he would play with me.”
“Could I play with you? I’ve always wanted a unicorn!” exclaimed the girl. I backed away as she was kinda scary. But at the same time, I didn’t have many friends.
“Well I can be a unicorn. But…” I said holding off.
“But what?” she asked.
“You gotta catch me first!” I squealed as I galloped away from her. The girl laughed too and gave chase. She was pretty fast too, but she wasn’t as fast as Erin or Sarah was. She nearly caught me a couple of times, once even jumping out of some bushes. That was so scary. I tried hiding behind the hanging laundry curtains outside, but that’s when she caught me, jumping right under the fabric. It scared me so much that I fell back, causing the curtain to be pulled from the line and fall down on the both of us. We scrambled to get out of the trap, but both of us got tangled up in the process.
Falling to the ground, we just looked at each other. Tired and messy and completely bundled up like a ghost. We both started laughing at how silly we both looked. There was a sudden cough, and both me and the girl turned to see Erin standing over the two of us with the face he makes when I do something I’m not supposed to.
“Well hello there, and just who are you, Miss?” he asked the girl.
“I’m Emily!” she said. “And this is my unicorn. I caught her!”
“Oh really now?” he asked with an eyebrow raised. “Is this true, Cerite?” I shuffled my hooves and didn’t want to look at him.
“Yeah,” I replied. “I was going to be her friend.”
“Well, we can’t have that now,” he said. I felt so bad... I shouldn’t have gone outside. “Not without meeting her parents first. Emily Johnson, right?”
“Yeah!” Emily shouted. “How did you know?” I was surprised too, I knew Erin was smart, but apparently he knew everyone!
“Your dad works with my stepdad at the mine. Let’s go say hi.” Erin got us both untangled from the mess of laundry, and we both went over to meet Emily’s parents. When they answered the door, the looks on their faces were so silly! It was like every human had a new and funny face each time I met one. Erin introduced himself and me to them and wanted to talk with them. Emily and I instead ran off to her room, and she showed me all the neat toys she had. She even had her own ‘TV’! Outside the room I heard Erin talking to Emily’s parents.
“So that’s how I found them. And it seems they’ve become friends. Or at least, Cerite is now ‘Emily’s unicorn’.”
Emily asked if I had ever seen something called ‘Aladdin’. I told her I never heard of it and she began talking really fast, saying how cool it was and that it had this really cool genie.
“It’s… not dangerous, is it?”
I asked her what a genie was and she gasped. She said a genie was this magical creature that could grant any wish you could want. A mountain of ice cream, a mountain of toys, or even a mountain of… mountains. Genies could get anything you wanted. But it could only be three wishes.
“She. No, she is not dangerous. She’s just a little girl. Albeit one with hooves and a bone sticking out of her skull. But an adorable one all the same.”
Emily then went over to a shelf and pulled out one of those ‘movies’ Sarah would sometimes let me watch. Emily put it into her own TV and sat down on her bed. I joined her and she asked if she could brush my mane. Erin and Sarah were the only ones who had ever done that, but if it’s what friends did then I thought it was a great idea. As the movie started, Emily began to brush, although I had to tell her a few times she was going the wrong way.
“So, you’ve been raising a Unicorn? That’s… well, it’s just unbelievable.”
“And I’d like to keep it that way. Listen, I don’t know what would happen if word about this got out, can we please keep this a secret between our families?”
The movie started off with some nice music and talked about how hot deserts were. I couldn’t imagine such a place as it was always so nice where we lived. Other than the thunderstorms that came every now and then.
“Why would you want to keep this is secret, this is huge, like-”
“I know it could be huge, but think about what you're talking about. In that room is just a normal little girl who is lost and has no idea how she got here or where her parents are. I don’t want a media circus harassing her for the rest of her life just because she’s different. I mean, would you want the same thing to happen to your daughter?”
Emily wasn’t bad at brushing manes. She was a little bit rough, but she learned quickly. She asked if she could braid it, and I asked her what that was. She decided to show me and she slowly started tying my mane into knots. The movie, however, turned scary with a giant sand lion popping out of the ground. Emily said this was her favorite part and tried to make the same deep voice, saying, “Who disturbs my slumberrrrrrrr.” She was way off but it was still funny.
“We- we can understand that. And it sounds like they’ve become fast friends.”
“Yeah, well you know what they say, every girl wants a pony. I guess the reverse is true too.”
We watched the whole movie, and Emily and her family joined us for dinner at Erin’s house. It was pasta night! And that was how I met my best friend Emily.
There wasn’t a day where I didn’t see Emily. We would either watch some movies that she had, or go exploring around the woods near our houses. There was a creek behind her house that was deep enough that if you stood in the water you could see the tiny fishes as they swam past. Sometimes they tickled a little. Emily would talk about how she wanted to grow up and be a police officer just like her mom, going around stopping robbers and catching bad guys. Once she even dressed up as a sheriff of the west and I carried her around doing justice and saving ‘stolen goods’. Which somehow always involved me giving her a boost to reach the cookie jar and us running out of the house and down to the creek shouting ‘Justice!’ all the way.
I said I wanted to be a knight when I grew up. They were always running into battle saving the day. Emily told me that it was the riders of the horses who were knights, but I insisted it was the other way around. After all it was the horse who did all the work running around everywhere carrying a heavy metal man. She thought about it and agreed in the end, but said it would be hard to find a person with that kind of armor nowadays. “The only knights I’ve heard of are way over in England. And that’s really really far away.” Emily said.
I was sad. It would be really hard to be a knight if you had to go that far away to be one. I wondered if there was anything I could be without having to go far. I could be a miner like Emily and Erin’s dads, but they always came home super dirty. It didn’t sound fun. Emily then said she knew what I could be. She knew of a unicorn that was a super powerful wizard and that she even became a princess. I was shocked that Emily knew other unicorns before me, but Emily said she only knew of her through one of her movies. I really wanted to see it, so she pulled out this HUGE amount of discs and tried to find the right one.
“It’s from this show that lasted super, SUPER long. My Mom was a big fan of the show.” She found the right disc and popped it into her TV. We both sat down to watch it as the screen showed a large book.
“Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria…”
It was many episodes later that I was called back home. We had spent the entire time watching the show. It was so cool! There were a whole bunch of other unicorns just like me! And the one named Twilight Sparkle was so cool and pretty. She was a lot like Erin, both of them acted pretty silly sometimes. And-
Yes Princess? … Ah, well, yes, the show. I think it followed most of the exploits of the Elements of Harmony. … He he, yes it does sound impossible, but that’s how it was. … Oh nothing much, just some tales about mares saving the world from big bad evil monsters while also fretting about how to host a proper slumber party, he he he. … How about we save this subject for later? … Right, as I was saying.
But Emily was right, I wanted to be just like Twilight Sparkle! I had a horn, but I couldn’t do all the amazing magic she could. I tried for awhile to do simple things like make a pen float or teleport, but no matter how much I concentrated all I ended up with was a headache. One day I was trying to lift a cup off the table when Erin came by and asked me what I was doing. I told him I was trying to be like Twilight Sparkle and he looked shocked at what I said. He asked where I heard that name from, so I told him about the show and how I could do magic too and be just like her.
Erin softly told me that it might be hard. He’d never seen magic before and that it probably didn’t exist. But then he said, “But when it comes to you Cerite, who knows. Have you been able to do any magic yet?” I sadly said no. Erin picked me up and set me on his knee. He told me that even if I couldn’t do magic, that didn’t make me any less of a unicorn. He said that maybe magic existed and maybe it didn’t, but that I might be able to discover the truth in time. I really didn’t understand much of what he was saying. He told me I’d understand it when I was older.
Many days passed, and while I loved watching the show with Emily, I didn’t like that I just couldn’t figure out how to do magic. Emily, Erin, and I tried all sorts of ways to help. Horn exercises, meditation—which I just fell asleep doing—and even chanting. I was trying my hardest each time, but nothing happened. Erin said that humans once did magic according to stories, but that one day magic just disappeared. So maybe magic couldn’t be done. I refused to give up though.
Steve even tried to help me. He was around more often,something about him not feeling too good in the mine anymore. Whether it was tossing a ball to try and catch with magic, trying to move something heavy with magic, or even play the piano with my magic, he was always helping me try to learn magic. Though mostly I just learned how to play catch, remove stumps, and play chopsticks really well.
One day we were cleaning up after supper, which was fried fish. I loved fried fish, which for some reason confused the others at first, but I didn’t get why. Either way, when we had fish I loved it. Especially with carrots! As Erin was taking the dishes back to the sink, he slipped on a wet spot on the floor. It had been raining outside and Erin and Steve hadn’t taken off their boots. He fell down hard, and suddenly the whole world went slow. I could see the plates about to fall down and land right on Erin. He’d be hurt if that happened! I cried out to him and wished those plates wouldn't fall. I clenched my eyes shut scared of what was happening.
For a moment there was nothing but the sound of a running sink. Then I heard Erin speak. “Cerite. Open your eyes, Cerite.” And I did. And I was amazed. Everyone was staring at the plates, still in the air with an orange glow around them. Steve walked over to one and grabbed it. It was weird because I could feel Steve touching it. Then I saw that there was another orange glow, only this one was coming from me. It was my horn! I was doing magic! “Cerite, ha, you’re levitating the plates! That’s… wow!” Erin said as he got up. I was so excited... I was doing magic! It felt like I was holding everything with my hooves, only they were invisible and really long.
“Do you think you can move them over to the counter?” Erin asked, very excited. I nodded my head and tried to float them over to the sink. At first nothing happened, so I concentrated harder, unfortunately one of the plates went too fast and crashed into the wall. I yelped in surprise and all the other plates dropped. Luckily, Steve and Erin caught the rest before they fell. Erin just laughed and said to me, “Maybe we should practice with something a little less dangerous.”
It was much later that Erin tucked me in that night. We had spent the rest of the day having me practice floating around stuffed animals and other soft things. As the sound of a storm rolling in and the clock striking eleven, Erin told me it was time for bed. I was so happy, I almost couldn’t sleep. Erin kissed me on the horn goodnight and turned out the lights.
“So does this mean Twilight Sparkle is real?” I asked. Erin stopped in the doorway and turned around.
“It’s possible.”
“Then that means Equestria is real too!”
“That is also possible.”
“Do… do you think we could go there?” I asked. If I could find Twilight Sparkle, maybe she could teach me about magic! I really wanted to do all those cool spells.
“Sweetie… I don’t know if that’s possible. Equestria is just a story,” Erin said, sounding sad.
“But so was magic, and Emily told me a story about England and thats a real place too!” I said. It had to be real. I just had to!
“... You really want to go huh?” he asked. I nodded yes. “Well, I’ll try to find a way there Cerite.”
“Can we go tomorrow?” I asked. He just softly laughed.
“It’s going to take a little bit longer then that to find Equestria.” I was a little disappointed, but Erin came up to me and gave me a big soft hug. He always was there to make me feel better. Slowly I became tired and began to drift off to sleep. “Sleep tight, sweetie.” He got up headed for the door.
“Goodnight, Daddy,” I said as I turned over and snuggled into my covers. I heard him pause at the door, before he let out a small chuckle and a sniff, and softly shut the door. And then the rain began to softly fall against my window.
It was many years later, and a lot had changed. While me and Emily still were the best of friends, I saw her less as she went off to school. I wanted to go with her, but Dad and Sarah insisted that it would be a bad idea. Sure I’d seen plenty of movies, and I didn’t want to be a local E.T., but home schooling was so dull. Especially math. God, I hated math. Dad insisted that it was an important part of life, but I didn’t see how. I mean sure I needed to add and subtract things now and then, but when would I ever need to know ‘algebra’. It was so lame.
Most of the time I would just run outside and daydream by the creek. Stories were much more fascinating than any old math. Emily and I still hung out when she got home. I loved learning about history and reading the stories she got from the library. The ones about swords and sorcery were my favorites. Though Emily loved romance instead. I never got it: what was so cool about kissing? I mean, my Dad and Sarah kissed me sometimes. But a whole book about it and all these ‘feelings of love’? Just sounded blah.
One day I found out that Emily was invited to a school friend of her’s birthday party. I asked Dad if I could go too, but he firmly said no. He could be such a cool guy one minute, but such a grump the next. What was a few more friends? I mean Emily could keep a secret, and I’m sure her school friend wouldn’t mind having me for a friend; I’m amazing, after all. Still he said no, and that was final. I just stomped over to my room and buried myself into my stuffed animal collection.
Emily came by to meet me before she left and was wondering why I was so grumpy. I told her how my Dad was being a jerk and she agreed. But then she pulled something from her pocket. It was a map to the party! Turns out it was just past her house a bit and I could just sneak through the forest to find it. I’d have to sneak out though... if Sarah knew I was gone they’d come looking for me, and I didn’t need another lecture on ‘playing it safe’ and ‘staying out of sight’. Not like he would care anyway. He had done nothing but sit in his study room with his books all day, reading this and that about some weird crap involving metaphysics or something. Every day he spent in there for the past few months, but that also meant that he rarely came out as well. So that is when we hatched the perfect plan.
I ate lunch with Sarah, but halfway through complained of a stomach ache and said I was going to go sleep. In my room, I propped a bunch of stuffed animals under the bed and put a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on the door. I opened my window and jumped out into the bushes below. Aside from a slightly scraped pastern, I was just fine. I used my magic and shut my window quietly. Now with a proper alabi, I ran across the field and into the forest. I followed the map that Emily gave me, but soon realised that Emily was no mapmaker. I was able to understand the gist of it, though. The same river that ran through her backyard ran through where the party was being held. After a bit of walking I heard a lot of voices in the distance.
I burst through the brush to come across more humans than I had ever seen in my life. I just stood there amazed for a bit and slowly the noise of the party died down. Then I realised it was because everyone was staring at me. I hear a laugh, and then Emily was suddenly at my side.
“I’m so glad you could make it! Come on let me introduce you to everyone,” she said guiding me into the crowd over to a group of girls. Everyone around me was whispering or pulling out their tablets and pointing them at me. The group of girls were both shocked and looking kind of baffled by me showing up. “Girls, this is my friend Cerite.” Most of them just waved softly, except for one who had bright blonde pigtails. She practically bounced over to meet me and shook my hoof excitedly.
“Oh my goooooosh! A real unicorn! Emily when you said you knew one, I thought you were just joking!” she said.
“I told you Marissa, she’s real.” Emily smugly reminded her. Suddenly everyone was clamoring to get a picture of me with them. It was almost overwhelming. Marisa was just eating up all the attention she was getting by having a unicorn at her party, while I was just happy that a bunch of people were so excited to meet me. I was asked a lot of things: questions from where I was from, to what I liked to eat… even if I farted rainbows! The latter of which I firmly denied, with no help from Emily’s teasing. However, there suddenly was a loud yell as a deep voice boomed from the house.
“What the hell are you girls doing, get the hell away from that thing!” shouted a bearded man wielding a shotgun in one hand. The group scattered from around me in fear, all except Emily. The man stopped a distance from me and leveled the gun at me, with Emily blocking the way. “Move! That creature aint natural! Get away from it before it hurts you.”
“Cerite isn’t unnatural you idiot!” shouted Emily.
“Frank what’s going on out- EMILY?!” asked an alarmed voice coming from the house. It turned out to be Emily’s dad, who looked furious. “Frank what in the hell are you doing pointing a gun at my DAUGHTER?!”
“She’s protecting the demon! It’s got her under its control!” shouted the gun wielding nut named Frank.
“Cerite isn’t a demon either you dumbass!” shouted Emily. I was frozen still. I wanted to run as fast as I could, but I was locked in place no matter how much I told myself to move. The sky itself seemed to darken as things got worse. Thunder boomed in the distance like the oncoming storm was created to match the air of tension .
“Get out of the way before I-” began Frank, but not before Emily’s dad grabbed the gun barrel from him and tried to force it out of his hands. That distraction was enough for me to bolt the hell away as fast as I could. I galloped for the treeline, and from behind me I heard Emily shout “No!” before a loud boom rang out and something whizzed by my ear, nicking it. My heart was beating like a drum and my head was pounding just as hard. Small droplets of water fell into my mane and trees branches tore by me as I burst through the underbrush. I ran full tilt all the way back home and ran inside through the back door.
I saw Sarah and Dad sitting at the table, and both stared at me with wide eyes. Then Dad exclaimed I was bleeding and ran up to hold me. I was shaking so hard, like I was ice cold, but I felt burning hot and my heart was about to burst. Then I felt a drop of something fall on my nose. It was blood. Before I could panic further, Sarah came back with a first aid kit and began to spray my ear with a stinging spray. As she began to wipe my ear with a piece of cloth, I could feel that something wasn’t right. It was like I couldn’t feel all my ear anymore. That’s when it hit me, that bastard shot off my ear!
“How bad is it!?” I asked, my voice sore from my panicked run. Sarah hesitated, but held up a small mirror to show me. The entire tip of my ear was gone and a pink mess was all that was left. I almost wanted to puke, but nothing would have come up. Dad turned to me and softly asked what happened. I stuttered and couldn’t get the words out, but then it all just burst forth. I told him the entire thing: how I snuck out, about the party, and about the crazy shotgun guy, all with me sobbing the entire time.
Dad just hugged me tight and said I would be alright. That everything was alright. I wished I could have believed him. I wished that I never went to that stupid party. But genies were just stories, nothing more. And then the rain began to fall as I cried into his arms.
It didn’t take long for the whole incident to be posted to the Internet. I don’t know how many times I watched over twelve different videos showing the whole disaster, each from a different angle. Dad told me I should stop watching those, but I didn’t. Maybe I just wanted to see the one moment where everything in my life was going great. I was making a bunch of new friends. Apparently the comments section of every one was pretty much the same. Some people calling it fake. Others calling the ‘gun totting jackass’ a ‘fucking idiot’. And a few cheering on that same jackass. The latter group should be happy I couldn’t find them and teleport them to the freaking sun… yet.
Outside the house wasn’t much better. While they didn’t come onto the property line technically, we could see a whole bunch of news crews and professional photographers hiding in the treeline. Probably waiting to nab the scoop of the century, I bet. Not like they would get it, I hadn’t moved from my room the moment I got home. Sarah and Steve had come by every so often to ask if I needed anything. I said no. Even Emily and her parents came by, and I was happy to see her. She was bawling even harder than I was earlier. She said she never should have invited me and that she was so sorry and it was all her fault. We just hugged it out till she let it all out. She almost got me tearing up again too, except I was too tired to cry.
There was a knock at the door and I could hear Steve answer it. What I heard wasn’t good.
“Excuse me sir, we are with the FBI. We heard there was a disturbance and we came to investigate.”
“You don’t say,” I heard Steve say. “Well the only problems we’ve had lately are the deer jumping through our garden lately... so unless the FBI now handles the DNR’s cases, I think we’re just fine, thank you.”
“Sir, we have reason to believe that you are housing a dangerous element to the United States, I suggest you comply or-”
“And I suggest you get off my goddamned property,” Steve said with the calmestangriest voice I’d ever heard him use. “Unless you have a warrant, sir... or have something stronger in your grip than a nine iron, like I have in mine, I’d suggest you leave. Now.”
“Sir you are threatening a federal agent which is a-” I heard the sound of a fist hitting wood and a yelp.
“Get. The fuck. Off. My. Lawn,” seethed Steve. There was a pause and I heard the door close. After another pause I heard Steve again cursing quite a few creative phrases I had never heard before. I heard Sarah take him aside and told him to hold still and let her clean his hand before it became infected.
Emily just turned to me and said, “Damn, I didn’t know Steve could be so-”
“Crazy?” I finished for her.
“Cool,” she corrected. Emily did always have a weird taste of what was ‘cool’.
It was then that Dad walked down from upstairs. He looked even worse than I did. His eyes were bloodshot and his hair was incredibly greasy. Had he not left his study since I came home last night?
“Jeeze, Dad. You look like shit,” I quipped. He just stared at me for a moment, not even with any emotion just a dead stare.
He turned to Emily’s dad and handed him a list. “I need you to get me these items.” Emily’s dad was confused for a moment as he read the list. “You can find most of these at the health food store in town, and the rest at the Home Improvement store downtown. Please hurry.” He grabbed Emily’s dad’s hands. “I figured it out, we need to do it now.” He looked at the list again and nodded before grabbing his keys and heading outside. As I heard his car start and pull away, I turned to Dad, who hadn’t stopped looking at me.
“Dad, what’s going on?” I asked, worried. I had never seen him like this. He was almost like a zombie walking around. Slowly he walked over to me and sat down on my bed. At this distance I could easily tell he had not showered in a loooooong time. He looked me in the eyes, and it looked like he was about to cry as well. That hurt a little, the fact that I was making everyone cry, and that I was causing so much trouble. Before those thoughts could build though, Dad wrapped his arms around me and embraced me in a soft hug. He pulled away and took a deep breath before speaking.
“Cerite… ever since I found you, I’ve made a lot of promises. Far too many.”
“Yeah, you still owe me my own car,” I interrupted. He just paused and chuckled before continuing.
“That too… but I want you to know I’ve always been a man of my word. I know I’ve been aloof for practically the past year, but I didn’t want to get your hopes up.”
“Dad, what are you talking about?” I was confused,: I know Dad was a little kooky, even silly at times, but this was almost the exact opposite. I’d never seen him this serious.
“I’m talking about promises and keeping them Cerite.” he explained. “I did it... it took a long time, and a lot of sweat and tears,but I solved it. I found them. Both of them. They were in the same place afterall.”
“What, Dad? What did you find?”
“I found your Mom, Cerite. I found Equestria.”
Dad led me and the others up to his study. Aside from Emily and I, everyone else had already seen the inside of his workplace. Though mad scientist lair would be a better term. Books were stacked all the way to the ceiling. Diagrams and hundreds of notes littered the ground and the walls. And in the center of the room, etched into the ground with chalk, was a circle. It was surrounded in letters and words from some weird language, and covered in symbols and crossing lines. And sitting to the side of this circle was a bowl that contained a glowing red substance.
“Wow Dad, this is… pretty messed up,” I quipped. Even for all his weirdness, this was like a whole ‘nother level of crazy. He just laughed, and then laughed a bit harder, before coughing and straightening up. He walked over to the circle and began to gesture as he explained.
“Well yes, I know its quite a mess, but I had a lot to sift through. So many books have been written on magic or the arcane, but most of it is complete hogwash, gibberish, or fiction. It took me forever to find something that was close enough to how to do magic, until I came across that one sliver of truth that led me in the right direction.” He gestured to the bowl with the glowing substance inside.
“What, is that?” asked Emily.
Dad began to pace around, his speech was becoming more dramatic; he was really getting into the spirit of his speech. “Your blood... well not your blood, Emily, but yours, Cerite.” I balked at that and everyone else made the same face. “That... incident yesterday was the breakthrough that let all the other pieces fall into place. The reason I couldn't find a straight way for you to go back to Equestria was that it was like spinning around blind and walking in a random direction, hoping you wind up in the right place. But with this, it’s like a compass pointing you home!”
“But Dad… I am home.”
“Cerite…” Dad started but trailed off. He stood still for a moment before softly asking, “Could I please speak to her alone for a moment?” Slowly everyone shuffled out of the room, Emily giving me one last look before shutting the door behind them. Dad stood there for what felt like the longest time before he walked over to me, and sat down on the ground.
“Dad-” I started, but he put his fingers to my lips saying, “Shh”.
“I know what you're going to say sweetie. I’ve… I’ve always known this would happen,” he looked me in the eyes and I could see tears starting to form in his. “Ever since I brought you home, I knew that I couldn’t keep you. I’m just a… crazy guy with a weird sense of humor and a below average set of skills,” he put both of his hands on my shoulders and continued, “but you, Cerite, you helped me be something better, a- a father, and you were the best thing to ever happen to me. But I knew, I knew something like this would eventually happen. It’s not your fault. It could have happened ages ago or years from now. I couldn’t hide you from the world, but I knew I could save you from it.”
Dad got up and walked over the the other side of the room. He grabbed something off the shelves: it was one of my stuffed animals, Wolfie. “This world has many wonderful things, Cerite. I would love nothing more than to share them with you. But I know doing so would put you at great risk. Mankind is not needlessly cruel, but it is scared easily, and what we don’t know scares us more than anything.” He turned to me and placed the plushie in the crook of my front leg. “I want you to be safe, and Equestria, your home, is the safest place possible.”
“I don’t want to go. I want to stay with you and Steve and Sarah and Emily!” I started to rant back at Dad.
“I know!” he responded dejectedly. “I know, I know, I know! And I would do anything to have that happen, but there is no possible way it could happen. This is the only way.”
“Why?” I asked, beginning to sob. “Why do you say it has to happen? This is just you saying you think you know what’s best, but what if Equestria isn’t all that great? What if it’s worse?!” I started beating my hooves into his chest in anger, but he just stood there and smiled. I stopped and just stood there weeping, sniffling back the tears.
“It can’t be all bad. After all, it made you,” said Dad as he tussled my hair and embraced me in another hug. We just sat there for awhile, him holding me, and me sniffling into his shoulder. Why did I have to go? This, right here, was right. I was where I was supposed to be: It felt warm; safe; nice. For the longest time, the only sound was the ticking of the clock in the corner. The two of us together, knowing it would be for probably the last time.
The sound of a vehicle pulling up ended our reprieve as Dad pulled away to look out the window. He motioned for me to stay and ran downstairs and out to meet Emily’s dad, who just got back. They both grabbed armfuls of bags and hauled them inside and upstairs into the study. Dad began directing Emily’s dad to start opening certain bags and pouring the contents into jars, while Dad took one bucket and mixed a whole bunch of the different substances together. He added some water and began to draw more lines on the ground in the circle.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw something happening outside, and what I saw wasn’t good. A whole bunch of black vans were pulling up along the house and surrounding it. Out of them stepped a bunch of guys in combat armor and SWAT equipment.
“Dad!” I called out to him. He came over to the window and cursed when he saw it. Grabbing a nearby crowbar he gave it to Emily’s dad.
“Bar the doors downstairs, tear up the stairs, and get you and your family out of here. I don’t want you guys getting caught in this.,” he said. Emily’s dad just laughed and grabbed the crowbar.
“Too late there Erin. You’re stuck with us.” He turned to me and gave me a thumbs up. “Good luck, Cerite,” he said, then he left out the door before shutting it and hearing him bar the door from the other side with a dresser. Dad moved back to drawing more lines on the ground and I went back to the window. Outside a storm was brewing, both on the ground and in the sky. Dad soon finished with the circle and had me help him apply the other substances to the circle. The jars of things (I’d rather not know what is in them) were placed on a different section of the circle and it was finally complete. There was a flash, and then a loud bang. Thunder and lightning, very close. Dad gave me one last hug and told me to stand in the center of the circle.
“Above all else, no matter what happens: Don’t move,” he said for the tenth time.
“I get it Dad.”
“Seriously I don’t want to have done all this work only for half of you to stay here and the other half to get to Equestria.”
“Well if it does, just be sure to save my good side.” He just laughed in response.
“That’s my girl!”
Our banter was interrupted by another bang, on this one was the sound of splintering wood. I could hear both Emily’s dad and Steve, as well as Sarah, yelling downstairs; a whole bunch of other men were yelling as well. Dad just turned to me and gave a short nod before he began reading from his notes. Slowly the room began to feel prickly, my mane and coat began to puff out, and I could smell ozone. Downstairs there were more loud noises and screaming. Dad continued reading louder than before, trying to drown out the sounds. The room began to feel energized and the circle began to glow.
The sounds of glass breaking and someone being thrown against a wall resounded up through the wall. The jars on the floor began to bubble and gurgle out steam and a very bad odor. Footsteps could be heard marching up the stairs, and Dad ran to the door and braced himself against it all while continuing to shout his chant. Lightning was flaring up outside, and inside the circle was lightning arcing from each of the jars. The dresser outside the door was shoved aside and men started to break down the door. Dad pushed back and continued to yell even louder. Suddenly the whole circle lit up like a firework, and I felt tingly all over.
Dad was knocked forward as men broke down the door. He fell to the ground at the edge of the circle as SWAT started pouring in, pointing their guns at both him and me. Time came to a crawl, I could see everything move, I could only hear my own heartbeat.... and I saw my Dad pull out a knife. Before they could stop him, he cut the palm of his hand and slammed it down on the circle.
“I love you sweetie.”
And then existence exploded into brilliance. Stars poured past me; colors I had never seen; sounds I had never heard. I was flying through everything and nothing all at once. I felt every part of me stretched and pulled to its farthest limits. It felt as if I was shown all of creation before my very eyes in the span of a second.
Then I remember flying, or perhaps falling, through the stars. Followed by feeling cold, and afraid. The world felt grey, dirty, and dark. It was wet too: the air, the ground, all of it wet and cold. And the noise, there was so much of it. Loud noises, shrill noises, screeches and hollers all around me. I remember crying out for someone… and then someone responded.
“Miss? Miss, are you alright?” came a voice. I retched on the ground, my stomach not able to handle the vertigo I was feeling. “Oh jeeze! Miss, do you need me to get a doctor? Somepony! Call an ambulance!”
“Wha-?” was all I could say in my addled mind. I looked up, and the swirling images around me began to form into place. What was a figure in front of me changed into… a pony. A unicorn.
“Miss it’s going to be alright, the ambulance is on its way.”
I sat back on the ground and looked to the sky. There, on a mountaintop not to far from where I was, stood a familiar sight: a castle,. Canterlot castle. Around me stood white brick buildings with golden topped roofs. Ponies had started to gather around me, wondering just what was going on.
“Did you see where she came from?”
“What was that giant flash? Did she cause that?”
“What’s that giant circle she standing on? I’ve never seen anything like that.”
The voices were too much for my head and I clutched it in agony. I heard another pony, the first one, start barking at the others to back off and clear some room. Thankfully they did and my headache lessened. Then the pony turned to me, worried.
“Miss are you alright? Is there anything I can get you?” I just sat there while his question echoed in my mind.
I laid down on the ground and softly curled into my hooves. “I just want my Daddy.”
Cerite came out of her trance, her mind feeling much less buzzed than it had a moment before. Across the table from her, a quill and scroll were floating in the air writing down a series of notes. After a moment the objects stopped moving and were set back on the table between them.
“Whew… is that all you’ll be needing?” asked Cerite, her tone tired and weary from recalling her life’s story.
“I’m afraid not Ms. Glowstone. There’s still the matter of you explaining why you broke into the Canterlot Archives.,” said the feminine voice across from her.
“Right. Well, you know how when I came into Equestria, the circle my Dad drew also burned itself into the ground?”
“Yes, I recall that. The tile’s themselves had to be replaced, and then they were shipped to the university for study.”
“Well the reports on those studies aren’t exactly public…”
“And for good reason: The magic behind them is wild, dangerous... in the wrong or inexpierenced hooves, it could be disastrous,” the feminine voice explained, its tone like a teacher lecturing a student.
“Yeah well, turns out I’m neither.”
“What you did was extremely reckless, Ms. Glowstone. You put yourself and everypony in the city of Canterlot at risk!”
“And surprisingly… I’m still here,” snarked Cerite at her interrogator. “Besides, nothing good came of it anyway.”
“Do you care to elaborate on that, Ms. Glowstone?” asked the feminine voice. Cerite took a deep breath before leaning into the table and looking around the darkened room. She looked at her interrogator, who waited patiently for her to continue.
“It worked,” Cerite recalled. “It actually worked. I was guessing half the formula, and educated guessing the rest. It took me five years to find a solution. I figured that if he could send me here, I could use the same method to go back. I wasn’t too far off either. I actually landed a few miles away in another field, and thanks to a simple clairvoyance spell I found my way back… back home.
Everything was almost exactly how I remembered it: a few new trees, a different coat of paint, some new windows. But it was the house I grew up in. Unfortunately, no one was living there anymore, a “For Sale” sign in the driveway explained as much. I wandered around the back yard, smelling the grass and the wind, remembering how things used to be. In the distance I heard laughter... a little girl’s laughter..., from next door: Emily’s house!
I ran through my old field and into the treeline separating our houses, through the trees and up Emily’s field into her bark yard. That’s when I saw her. A little red headed girl playing on the swings, a much younger blonde haired boy with her. Slowly I walked up to her and it took a moment for her to notice me, but when she did, she could only stare in shock.
“Emily, it’s… it's me, Ceri-”
“Mommy!” shouted Emily as she ran for the back door, the little boy following her.
“Wait, Emily I-”
“Mommy, mommy!” she cried and the back door swung open. Out stepped an older looking woman, way into her late forties. She looked at her child and then out in her yard where I stood. She stared at me… brushing her greying red hair out of her eyes.
“No… it can’t be,” she said barely above a whisper. “Cerite?” My ears perked up at her mentioning my name. “Is that really you?” My mind went spinning at what this could mean, but only one thing came to my mind and out of my lips.
“Emily?” I asked hesitantly. The woman burst into joyous laughter and ran to meet me. I ran up to her as well and she picked me up off the ground both of us laughing the entire time. She set me back down and had to pause a moment to catch her breath, and then continued to laugh heartily when she did.
“Oh Cerite, you’ve grown so big!”
“Speak for yourself!” I responded, “You’re much taller than you were before, and older. Did you go prematurely grey or something?”
“Cerite, it's rude to talk about a lady’s hair like that,” she admonished.
“Oh please, the things you would say about Jonny Davis were anything but ladylike,” I teased her. She had the decency to at least give me a few good moments of sputtering confusion before she could speak correctly.
“Even so, that’s probably even worse to speak of,” she said, laughing it off. “But look at you, you’ve grown! Maybe not as much as I expected but you certainly still look youthful. You even got your Cutie Mark!” She exclaimed pointing to the book and quill adorning my flanks.
“Well what did you expect?” I asked her. “It’s only been five years.” Emily was taken aback by my statement. At that moment I should have realised something was wrong. Emily knelt down beside me and put her arm on my shoulder.
“Cerite, it’s been over thirty years since I saw you,” she lamented.
I couldn’t believe her. That was impossible! Thirty years? Did I get the spell wrong? Was there a different flow of time between our worlds? Did I, instead of traveling through space, travel through time as well? All these questions ran through my head before I silenced them. Whatever the reason I was, here now... that’s all that mattered. I looked behind her to see the two children peeking out from the back door.
“Wow… thirty years… those your kids I take it?” I said pointing at the kids. They both ducked back inside, worried that they’re spying habits were noticed.
Emily just chuckled and answered, “Oh yes, they are mine. Got the stretch marks to prove it too!”
I laughed along with her at her small joke. The Emily I knew hadn’t changed one bit; she’d just gotten a little older and greyer. This made me wonder where everyone else was. Steve with a full grey beard would be hilarious to see.
“What happened to Dad, Sarah, and Steve? Their house is empty” I inquired. Emily’s face went blank, and then became sad. She looked back to the house and then to me.
“Cerite, can you wait out front for me?” she asked.
“Sure? Why?”
“I-... I need to get my keys. We need to drive for a bit.”
It was a few minutes later we were driving down the road and into town. It was all new for me, and I took in all the sights I had never seen before. Bakeries, hardware stores, pet shops, all lined the main street through town.
“Steve and Sarah moved away not long after you… left.” Sarah said, turning onto a different road. “They were married for another twenty years before Steve died of lung cancer.” It hit rather hard. Steve was gone? “All those years working the mine took their toll on him. He went out fighting though... last thing he did was he saved a group of people from a wreck on the highway. Saved a whole family. Passed in his sleep a day later. Doctor said it was the stress.” I knew Steve was always a bit gruff around the edges, but he always did care about me, Erin, and Sarah. Even when he and Erin argued, he was still looking out for everyone.
“Sarah, well, she never remarried. Last I heard she was over in Europe doing relief efforts for the malaria outbreak.” That was so like Sarah: Even when she doesn’t have any children around her, she goes off and decides to be a mother to a whole group of people. Emily stayed quiet for a moment, I was wondering why she was holding off for so long on continuing. But then I saw where the car pulled into and my heart sank.
“Emily… what… what happened to my Dad?” I hesitantly asked.
“...I’m so sorry Cerite.”
A sob got caught in my throat as I held it back. I looked out the window and read the cement arch that stood to our side.
‘Elmwood Cemetery.’
I stood looking at his grave for awhile. It was a simple flat plaque in the ground. Erin… well the rest was covered in moss. I knew what it was anyway. A single simple vase with a rose in it stood as a lone guardian over his marker. I felt like crying, but every time I was about to I just took a deep breath and let it raggedly out.
“What happened?” I asked not even taking my eyes off the slab.
“No one really knows. When everyone was taken to the hospital after the upstairs exploded in a light show, the doctors couldn’t resuscitate him. They couldn’t even find a cause of death… I’m so sorry Cerite,” Emily explained as she squatted down beside me and put her arms around me. I shuddered as I breathed. I knew. I knew why.
“It was me.”
“...what?” asked Emily.
“The spell he used... I used the same one to get back here, but I had to change a lot of things about it. It demanded so much magical energy to use. Something that powerful only comes from a magical phenomenon or an artifact of power. I didn’t have either, so I had to juryrig the whole thing, and even then it wasn’t until recently I realised there was another thing that could have powered it.”
“What was that Cerite?” she asked hesitantly.
“A life,” I answered. “He- … he gave up his life. Why? WHY!? I was just some stupid filly who fell into his history. Why did- why did he throw it away for me?”
Emily turned to me and turned my head to look at her. “He didn’t throw it away. He gave you a chance to live free.”
“I don’t care about being free! I just wanted him- I just wanted him to be alive. To see him again…”
“I’m sure he’s very proud of you Cerite,” Emily said while rubbing my ears, her fingers sliding over the scar tissue.
“I...I-I… I know,” I sobbed. “I just miss him so much.”
“I do too, Cerite,” Emily said as the rain began to fall. Though strangely enough, it only felt silently on the grave of a loved one long since lost.
There was a long pause between Cerite’s last words and the time it took for her interrogator to respond. Maybe Cerite had given something for the other one to think about? Maybe she was just trying to figure out if Cerite’s whole story was true or one big fake? Whatever the reason, the interrogator stepped out of her shadows and pressed a button on the wall.
Behind Cerite a door opened as a guard stepped in from the rain outside and stood at her side. “I thank you for your cooperation, Ms. Glowstone,” said the feminine voice. “Sergeant Blade will escort you home.” Cerite got up from her seat and headed for the door. She hesitated in front of the rain before the guard opened up an umbrella for her with his magic and handed it to her. Taking it in her telekinetic grip she nodded a thanks to him before turning to her interrogator.
“What happens now, Princess?”
“As I see it, you are only responsible for seeking out someone near and dear to you to the best of your abilities. And that you shouldn’t be punished for following your heart.”
Cerite raised an eyebrow in response. “Really? Completely off the hook?”
“Well not completely. You did do some damage to the archives themselves. I’m thinking light community service, with a sliver of time served off it,” the voice answered.
“Sounds scandalous.”
The feminine voice just sighed. “Most things are. Thank you for your time, Ms. Glowstone.”
Cerite turned for the door, and breathed once more before saying, “Thank you as well, Princess Twilight.” She then walked out the door with the sergeant following soon after. The door softly shut behind them, briefly bathing the room in near darkness again, but then the shades were opened and daylight was allowed to stream into the room again.
Princess Twilight stood at the table looking over her notes. She had taken a personal interest in this case because of its unique situation. Though it was highly unorthodox for a princess to conduct an investigation like this, Celestia and Luna had given it their approval. Twilight looked at the amounts of notes she had taken over the course of the interview, nearly twelve scrolls completely filled. She piled them into her saddlebags and cleaned off the table of any remaining ink splatters.
She thought back on the whole experience. She knew that Cerite had lived a life completely foreign to ponies, but just how different and the same it was at the same time was astounding. She looked out the window which gave a scenic view of Canterlot below and the fields surrounding Canterlot in the distance below that. Even as far away from her own kind as possible, there were still beings out there so much like them. Ones that laughed, loved, and wept just like any other pony. And there were ones so selfless that they would give anything, and everything, just to protect a foal. For as different and strange as these ‘humans’ sounded, they sounded almost as familiar as her neighbors and friends.
Twilight gathered her belongings and opened the door and looked up. And then the rain began to leave, the sun streaming through the parting clouds.
End.
Author's Note
I posted this right under the wire for the deadline. So hopefully they accepted it. Did a lot of editing with my editor on my heels with this one folks, so thanks again to Brad the Brony for all his wonderful help.
