I had opened the doors to the hearing chamber, only to find the white face of Celestia just inches from the door with a manic grin. She took notice of me when I stepped around the door enough for her to see, and the grin faltered slightly in what I could only guess to be disappointment. By now I’m for sure that Twilight sent a letter ahead of me, but I suppose that she didn’t mention my original form, only my name. Celestia expected my pony form, I suppose?

“I see you have made good time today, Samuel.” She started.

“Yes, I found out I could scale mountains with a jump on the way. I used to not be able to do anything close to that.” I replied in self amusement.

“It must be an effect of the alicorn magic that I can sense within you. But I do not recognize the body or any magical extremities. In fact, I am only able to tell that you are the recently discovered alicorn is by the magical signature. Could you explain this?” Celestia wanderd aloud.

“I’m not entirely sure how this works myself, but it has something to do with another soul or something within me that I’ve come to know by the name of Samantha. This is the body that I had before any of this stuff happened. I experimented with the dimensional thing more recently, specifically seeing if I could bring items back with me, and it seems I brought my body with me too when I did that. Now, why are you so eager to meet me?” I explained.

“You’re not alone.” She stated. As she let time sink it in, she nudged me to a seat. “You see, nearly twenty years ago, a young boy had died in your would, only to be bound by unfortunate coincidence and be revived momentarily after in the body of Nightmare Moon, and raised as a daughter of Luna. I feel that you are following a similar, yet more fortunate path.”

“So you’re trying to claim me to be your son? Or... daughter? Or whatever?”

“No, what I am saying is that so far, you haven’t died, been consumed by the hatred of another’s past, or been tortured physically by those who despise that past.”

“And that’s worse than living ten years being nearly constantly bullied in school, as well as living with my grandparents of whom one is a con artist and the other is a child abuser only held back by the threats of my father,and living another three in severe depression after finding out several things that said grandparents had retained from my finding out for those first ten years of my life, then forcing myself to forget about that depression using distractions for another three years?”

“I didn’t know this. I am not an omniscient being, and therefore I cannot know everything. But I am sorry.”

“No need for apologies, you cannot know someone’s past unless you lived it with them. And my past has shown that while ignorance is most definitely bliss, as signified by those first ten years, knowledge can allow an easier grasp on the real situation. Where I’m from, the real situation has been devastating wars and death several too many times.”

Celestia’s face paled at the mention of war and death. “Well, I guess it’s easy to presume that your kind has a thing for fighting themselves? Not unlike the violent Minotaurs of Tauria.”

“That’s only half of the truth. Where I’m from, we are also highly innovative and have caused technology to advance extremely quickly. Give me an example of the best non-magical technology that you have around here. I guarantee that my native technology can outmatch it or outperform it easily.”

Celestia considered my challenge. After a moment,she replied “We have motorized ground carriages as a high priced luxury item.”

My grin faltered, but only slightly. If they had motorized carriages, they were somewhere in the late 1800’s era on technology at best, it seemed. “Our motorized carriages are fairly cheap and most can reach speeds of 100 Miles per hour, and the more expensive ones fare even better. We even have a racing league setup where several of some of the highest end vehicles, which can reach speeds higher than 300 Miles per hour I think, race on a smooth track.”

“Airships?” Celestia challenged.

“Stunt planes, MACH Jets, and Public air transit.”

“Crossbows?”

“Pistols, Rifles, Sniping Rifles, SMG’s...”

“Telecommunication?”

“Wireless Phones, Internet, Video Chat, Computers.”

“I do not have a clue what most of those are, but I feel like I’ve lost.”

“Well, I can show you most of them in due time, and a version of one of them right now. Specifically one of the things I mentioned to combat telecommunications.”

“Show me.” She almost demanded.

I pulled out my shield, and yanked the headphone plug, sticking the extra wire back in my pocket. I opened it to the home screen and showed it to her. “This is an example of a portable version of a computer. We aren’t in the other world, so I can’t show you things like the internet, or some of the services it provides, but I can show you some of the offline functionality.”

“Show me.” She stared at the small device with intensely curious eyes. Almost creepy.

“Let’s start with some sort of music.”

“You mean to be able to play music from that measly small item?”

“Yes. Now hold on while I find something good. I want to impress you.”

I turned around to stand next to Celestia, adjusting my grip on my Shield as I turned so as to keep the screen in her view. I started tapping around the screen to find some music, and I settled with...

Celestia stayed silent through the entire song, swaying to the beat of the song playing on the treble-y speakers. When it finished, she turned to me with a dreamy look in her eyes.

“What?”

“That music was wonderful, what else could this thing achieve?”

“If we had internet here, I could access a worldwide database of practically infinite information by the search of a keyword or two and the press of a button. Or I could play several types of games on it ranging from classic board games to games only made possible by the existence of technology close to this level.”

“I think Twilight would never get over such a possibility. I hope that you haven’t told her much about that thing yet.”

“I played a song or two for her before I left for here, I definitely disturbed her with the last song. Of course that song would probably freak anyone with a peaceful mindset if they listened to the lyrics.” I gave a some sort of wicked grin.

‘Yeah, and it was fuckin’ hilarious.’ Samantha butted in. She always finds the best time to butt in on my life, doesn’t she?

“Oh dear, I hope you don’t have her looking for a mental hospital to apply you into.” Celestia replied with an amused grin.

“If she does, there’s no way I’d allow myself to even get pulled there. Anyway, when I first came in, you mentioned something about a Nightmare Moon daughter of Luna something before we spun off topic?”

“Ahh, yes. I am sure you would enjoy her company, as well as she yours. Shall I take you to meet her?”

I shrugged, “Why not?”

“Very well, just follow me and we shall arrive shortly.”

Celestia walked down a nearby hallway, and I followed suit.

I broke the near silence with a question. “Celestia, why have I been able to learn unicorn magic so easily? I thought it would be harder to learn than it has been for me.”

“Regular unicorn magic is limited by power, of which builds up with growth and training. The alicorn variation, however, is limited only by imagination. So, if an alicorn wills their imagination, they can cause nearly anything to happen due to magic.” She explained.

“I suppose that explains the reason why my first levitation made the book I levitated grew eyes and bit Twilight.”

“We usually classify that function of alicorn magic as chaos magic. In Discord’s case, he grew addicted to the chaos element of alicorn magic and his body twisted as a side effect. Then we had to petrify him for a while. But with the help of Fluttershy, we’ve helped him tame his addiction fairly well.”

‘That explains alot about the origins of Discord before the show, I guess.’ I replied mentally.

“Well, you should be able to trust I won’t do anything like that intentionally.” I assured.

“I hope not. Anyway, we’re here.”

We were standing in front of a black door with a crescent moon engraved in the middle. Her personal living quarter, if I had to guess.

“So... I knock?” I questioned.

“Go ahead.” Celestia assured me.

I knocked.

“Who in Tartarus is trying to wake me at this hour?” a muffled voice from the inside responded.

“Someone new, Stellar. Come out and meet them.” Celestia replied in kind.

“Ok, whatever.” I heard some ruffling inside before the door swung open.

The black face of what was undoubtably Nightmare Moon poked out and stared at me a second before they widened and her jaw loosened and let her mouth hang open.

She stayed like that for several seconds, before I turned to Celestia. “Did my appearance break her?”

She was still staring. “I’m not sure... Let’s give her a moment.”

She stayed like that for a few more seconds before shaking her head and turning to Celestia. “Is he real?”

“As real as you or Celestia. Why wouldn’t I be? Stellar, was it?” I replied in Celestia’s place.

“Stellar Nova, yes. But how? Dimensional travel is only possible under certain circumstances, such as my circumstances with when I died at coincidental timing seventeen years ago.”

“For me, I fell asleep after an unusual day and got pulled here in a different body, and have since found myself able to do several new things as well as find out numerous things about myself I never knew. And the way it happened for me I never died, instead I have two bodies that I can switch between and use for dimensional travel. Don’t ask me for specific details, I still haven’t entirely figured it out yet.”

“Umm... ok? Sounds more confusing than the story of how I got here.”

“Trust me, I’m confused as all hell, all I’m doing is working with what I’ve been given, and I’m not entirely sure how I’m managing that.” I deadpanned.

“As long as it works, I suppose. But how did you manage... well, bringing your Earth form here?”

“Some kind of side effect that happened when I tried to bring Earthen technology back here with me.” I replied, still in a deadpan.

Damn, I’m on a deadpan roll today. If I keep this up, I might be able to make a new username on the internet based off of the word emotionless and have a legit reason to use it.

“Oh, and what may you have brought back with you that caused it?”

“A small form of computer.”

“Hmm? you mean one of those huge box things that I remember from my life as a human?”

“When did you leave?”

“I think that it was 1998 or something in Earth years.” Stellar answered.

A sudden connection pieced in my head.

“Wait, that can’t be right...that’s my birth year.” I wandered aloud.

“What?”

“Huh?”

“Ok, you two, I’m sure we’ll figure out everything in due time.” Celestia interrupted.

“Yeah, sure. I need to shower and wash these clothes anyway, that hike pulled a lot of sweat out of me.” I finalized.

“Ok, I guess we’ll see each other again later?” Stellar questioned?

“Oh, definitely. We have a coincidental year to discuss at least.”

“Maybe some other things too, but we won’t know until we get to them, I suppose? Also, I want to know more about the functions of this... small computer you said you brought with you.”

“I suppose I could arrange that.” I replied, “Celestia, could you lead me to a shower?”

“Sure,” Celestia replied, “I know I didn’t mention it before, but you do smell fairly... what word could I use for it? Ripe. Yes, you smell ripe. Now, follow me.”

I followed silently the whole way. We arrived at what I supposed was a guest bedroom, and she opened the door for me. “Please, make yourself at home. And clean yourself as well, of course. You are welcome to stay as long as you like.”

“Thank you, and while I would normally take you up on that offer, I’m not sure if my human self will catch your bed on fire like my alicorn self would. Or whatever you would call this two body arrangement thing.”

Celestia gave a light chuckle, “I’m sure that it you weren’t running around with your hair on fire back in your home dimension that you won’t be doing the same here in that form.”

I gave a grin. “Ok, but if you find this room on fire in the middle of the night or something, that’s on you.”

“Deal.”

As Celestia left me to my business, I went into the fairly sized bathroom that was included in the offer and took a good look at myself. Something I hadn’t done in this form since my last “normal” morning.

What I saw surprised me. Instead of the overload of acne and uneven sideburns, I saw a smooth face with an even sideburn mustache beard combo. As well as perfectly shaped hair- altough it was all shiny with sweat and grease. I suppose that saves a lot of future combing. I turned to the shower and started to organize it, to notice that my fingers looked different. I brought them in for close inspection, and found that the knuckle creases had seemed to tile and stretch into someting not unlike the twist design on a unicorn’s horn. Well, that explains how I’m doing magic, I guess. Alicorn magic is changing my body apparently. Hey, at least it’s making me look good, rather than the acne covered anorexic geek I used to look like. Hell, now I can kick ass and look good doing it if I wanted. Maybe I can go back and help America win the war against Isis or whichever war they’re fighting right now. Hell, I don’t know, maybe Russia’s rebooted the Cold War or something. I don’t keep track of this stuff.

Anyway, I took a shower. What of it? I’m sure there’s nothing to say about that. All I know is I got out and found all my clothes folded on the bed... I could swear that they were actually sparkling, where they were so clean, I guess. Even my jacket, which usually never gets close to clean, had the white thermal material inside turned actually WHITE and the red wasn’t stained and uneven like it’s always been. Damn, I need to learn how ponies wash their clothing so quickly and thoroughly.

Not much to be said, I dried, applied my boxers, placed my other clothes on the floor next to the bed, sat my shield on top of them, and I snuggled into the bed a little and fell asleep moments later. Wierd, I never fell asleep anything near that easily back home. Oh well, I should enjoy it since it happened.

Author's Note

Yes, I'm a Gramatik Fanatik, if you haven't figured that out from me using mostly his music for most of the music referencing parts. I have been ever since I found out about him. Why not have the fictional version of me be a Gramatik Fanatik as well? I did start writing him during the time not too long after I became one, and he's written into the same time period, so why not? Also, yes. Yes, I finally updated this story. I'm sure that some of my readers (of the few that exist) have wandered whether my story had died yet or not. Nope, yackaro's not a dead writer yet, just a very distractable one. Like, seriously, who wouldn't want to distract themselves with a new-old self-assembled budget gaming computer? I sure would, and did. Also, I've sort of moved into my father's living room for the summer, so I had some trouble with getting that set up. The bedrooms are highpile messes, so for now they're out of the question. Anyway, I found myself suffering an insomnia spell with nothing to really do, so I pulled out my gateway and started thinking. And managed this. And when I managed this, I went to save it, and I found another attempt to start out chapter 12 that I didn't finish. I read over it and... I don't know what I was doing when I wrote that, but I swear I wasn't thinking straight. What I had typed in there confused the hell outta me. But whatever, as long as I can type up something that works in the end in some form or fashion, I'm ok with it.