A Visit from a Lion and a Lamb
It was a beautiful morning in Ponyville on April 5th. The birds around Fluttershy’s cottage were chirping and the pegasus herself was waking up and beginning her morning routine. After getting up, Fluttershy took a shower, made herself breakfast, and woke up/fed the animals that lived inside her home. She greeted them with a smile and, after filling their food bowls, gathered the food for the animal friends that lived outside. Everything seemed normal until she walked outside.
The sight before her caused the pegasus to drop the food in shock. There, laying down and sleeping in the middle of her back yard was a lion about as big as Princess Celestia and a lamb. The initial fear was replaced by confusion. Why was a lamb sleeping next to a lion and why had the lion not devoured it? Walking closer, Fluttershy gently tried to get them up.
“Ummm…excuse me?” she said as she lightly prodded the lion with one of her hooves. The lion opened its eyes and raised its head to look her in the eye. Feeling the movement, the lamb also woke up and he too looked at her. “Mr. Lion? I hope I’m not being too much of a bother, but what exactly are you doing here. Also, please don’t eat any of my animals….or me.” she said with fear entering her voice.
The lion gave a small smile before speaking in a deep baritone. “Please forgive me if I’m being intrusive. We just arrived last night and thought that this was a good spot to sleep.”
“You can talk!?” said Fluttershy in surprise. Her attention was then drawn to the lamb who stood up.
“Indeed. I, er…we both can.” the lamb said in a softer, though still clearly male, voice. “And don’t worry about Him. He wouldn’t eat anything that clearly belonged to somebody else and especially not something with enough intelligence to speak.” The lion nodded in confirmation.
“Oh…well that’s good. What are your names. Mine is Fluttershy.” The yellow pegasus said with a hint of shyness.
The lion and lamb looked at each other before the big cat responded first. “Call me Judah.” he said with a smirk.
“And call me J.C.” said the lamb.
Though the names sounded weird, they seemed friendly enough. “Well, it’s very nice to meet you, Judah and J.C.” she said with a smile as she sat down. Now that she knew that the lion seemed friendly, the timid pegasus felt more comfortable to talk with him and the lamb.
“So, what brings you to Ponyville?” she asked.
Judah spoke first. “Today is a very special day for us and we were thinking of a place to spend it.”
J.C continued. “We heard that Equestria, specifically Ponyville, is famous amongst some of our followers. So, we decided to spend it here since it sounded delightful.”
“Followers?” asked a confused Fluttershy.
Judah answered again. “I am…we are teachers of sorts, among other things. Those who listen to and accept what we have to say about the world, how to conduct oneself, and other very important subject matters are considered our followers; though I prefer children since we love them as if they were our own.”
“Wow. You two sound very important. How come I haven’t heard of you?”
Judah and J.C looked at each other again before the lamb spoke. “I’m not surprised. We come from a very far off place. However, regardless of such, our followers have observed your country and talk very highly of it. From what we’ve seen so far, it’s lived up to the praise. It may not be perfect, but it’s better than most parts of where we come from.”
“How bad is it over there?” said Fluttershy with a frown and a bit of sadness. She felt sorry that these two animals came from a place that even they didn’t like.
Sensing what she was feeling, Judah responded “Don’t misunderstand, Fluttershy. We love our…country, but we wish that it wasn’t in such a sorry state with all of the wars, pestilence, and other afflictions.”
Fluttershy’s eyes widened at this news. Her frown deepened and the rest of her face turned into one of deep sadness at hearing this. “What could’ve happened?”
“Due to the disobedience of two…uh, beings a curse was cast upon the land. We were sent by somebody very important to help with the damages of this curse through the teaching of our ways. I wish that a lot of the land’s citizens would learn and help to make it a better place.”
Fluttershy’s face brightened. “You sound like very noble creatures. If what you have to say is good, I’m sure everypony will desire to learn from you.”
“You would think that, wouldn’t you.” J.C said to himself as he turned his head away, looking down in sadness.
Not hearing what the lamb said, but seeing his distressed face, Fluttershy became worried and tried to fix the situation. “Is something wrong, J.C?”
The lamb’s head shot back to facing her and the frown was quickly replaced with a smile. “It’s nothing, dear Fluttershy, just remembering something unpleasant. Don’t let that put a damper on today. We came here to see what Ponyville was like and maybe have some fun.”
Fluttershy seemed to buy it as evidenced by the worry on her face melting into joy. “Oh, wonderful! How about I take you two on a tour of the town and introduce both of you to my friends after I’m done with feeding my animals?”
Fluttershy, Judah, and J.C stood up before Judah responded. “We would be very thankful, Ms. Fluttershy.” he said as both he and J.C dipped their heads in a slight bow.
Fluttershy giggled at their politeness and spoke after they had risen their heads. “You’re very welcome.”
After that, Fluttershy finished up feeding the animals and lead the two new animals through town. Unsurprisingly, Pinkie Pie was the first pony to actually talk to them as she ran up and was understandably surprised to find that the new ponies she had sensed were not ponies at all. After she finished a strange tangent, something about nets and fisher ponies, Pinkie told them to meet her later for a party she would be hosting in honor of Judah and J.C’s visit. Judah liked her. She had a very positive spirit that he later remarked was something that the citizens of his homeland could do with a little more of.
They then met up with Rarity who found J.C to be positively adorable and greatly admired Judah’s mane. Both the lion and the lamb liked the generous nature she demonstrated by not charging Fluttershy a thing for the repairs on a sun hat she came to pick up. They had tea and talked. After a little while, they left, Rarity waving from the doorway.
Suddenly, Rainbow Dash crashed into Judah and leapt off of him to get into a fighting stance, thinking that this was a predator trying to devour her friend. After some explaining was done by Fluttershy, they walked along the road, Rainbow Dash going on about how awesome she was and how she would one day become a full-fledged member of the Wonderbolts. J.C didn't really care for attitude and told her that “Pride comes before the fall.” When she asked what he was talking about, the lamb explained that he was telling her not to be full of herself, lest she wind up making a huge mistake. Rainbow may have been brash and prone to act first and think later, but even she could see the wisdom in his words. She remembered the times when her own pride got her into trouble. Such as with her thinking that she was strong enough to take on that dragon and the time when Trixie baited her into showing off, resulting in her subsequent humiliation.
Getting off that subject, Rainbow Dash asked Judah what he liked to do for fun and he told her that he found chess to be quite interesting and also what he said others called, “Football” a game that barely consisted of using feet. At their confused expressions because of the ironic name, Judah waved a paw in dismissal, telling them not to ask.
Seeing what time it was, Rainbow decided that she needed to get back to work making sure that the weather was pleasant. J.C asked if there was anybody else to meet and that lead them to Sweet Apple Acres where the lion and lamb met Applejack. Apparently, a lot of weird things had happened in Ponyville, so the appearance of a talking lion and lamb didn’t surprise her any. When she said that she didn’t really have time to talk, Judah offered some help. Big Mac was surprised to see a lion pulling their second plow fast enough to cut the amount of time he needed to reach his quota in half. With the lion’s help, the red stallion had enough free time to help his sister with bucking the apple trees. After the work was done, Judah complimented Applejack’s love for a day of honest hard work and remarked how disgusted he was with how self-entitled unthankful some of the citizens of his homeland acted. Applejack was equally disgusted, citing that if anypony is given anything that they didn’t work for, they should be thankful since whoever gave them something didn’t have to, but they did it anyway out of the goodness of their heart.
Judah was surprised by this and complimented her for having wisdom beyond her years, causing her to blush in embarrassment. “Aw shucks, I ain’t that smart.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, Applejack. You really do seem quite virtuous.” said Judah. He then appeared to have gotten an idea. “Say, Applejack. Since we apparently see eye to eye on this subject, would you like to hear my views on other matters?”
“Shoot, we got some time to spare. I’d be pleased as punch to hear what you have to say.” So, that’s what he did. He told of some of the things he taught during a 33 year trip through various places in his country. Things such as the analogy of one not telling others about the specks of sawdust in their eyes until that being removes the plank from their own eye, then explaining what that meant and also what “turning the other cheek” meant. When asked about what happened at the end of the 33 year long tour, Judah gave a far off look before saying that he would tell her at another time. After that Applejack gave her opinion on what she was told.
“Land sakes! You certainly are wise, Mr. Judah. You say that both you and J.C went and taught this stuff to your people?” at their nods, she smiled. “Well, I’d certainly like to learn more and maybe Twilight would too. She’s still learnin things about friendship and even though this isn’t specifically about that, these morals sound right up her alley.”
Judah smirked. “I would enjoy that. I am a teacher after all. What is a teacher without students?”
“Heh, heh. Too true.” Applejack chuckled.
“He does sound very intelligent, maybe I should sit in on another one of these lessons.” thought Fluttershy.
When they looked at the time, the pegasus reminded Judah and J.C about Pinkie’s party. Deciding that they would all go together, Applejack lead them all to Sugar Cube Corner where Pinkie introduced the guests of honor. Sometime after the party really got going Judah got into a conversation with Twilight Sparkle while J.C regaled a bunch of small foals and Spike about various parts of his homeland’s history. The lion and alicorn’s conversation went from simple things like names and where they were from, to more interesting things such as science and, which Twilight was surprised to find that the lion could actually keep up with her when it came to this subject and even came up with convincing arguments for why she was wrong on a few aspects of non-magical sciences. They also talked about some philosophical ways of looking at particular situations that Twilight had never even thought of. After a bit more talking, the conversation concluded.
“Well, I’ll have to do some experiments to check whether you are right, but I’m surprised Judah. Nopony, or in your case, lion, in this town has ever been able to keep up with me whenever I start talking about science. Also, your philosophical wisdom is on par with Princess Celestia, if not more so! I’m impressed!” Twilight said with a smile.
“Thank you, Twilight. You impressed me as well with your wisdom on certain matters. Though you still have much to learn, you are well on your way.”
Twilight blushed at his compliment. “Thank you. It was a pleasure talking to you.”
“Likewise.” He then turned to some ponies that were looking at them. “If you would excuse me, some of the other guests would like to talk to me.”
Twilight held up a hoof for him to shake. “Could we continue some other time?”
While shaking her hoof, Judah responded with a smile. “Of course.”
After another hour or so, with the setting of the sun, the party started to wind down and the guests left. The mane 6 gathered outside the shop and waved off Judah and J.C as they left.
“Come back soon, darlings! I’ll have some excellent clothes for both of you to try on!” said Rarity.
“Next time, let’s race! I want to see how fast I am compared to a lion!” said Rainbow Dash with a flap of her wings.
“Y’all are welcome any time on the farm.” said AJ.
Pinkie bounced excitedly “I bet you two would just love the cake twins!”
“Come to my crystal palace next time. We could talk more about philosophy and I could maybe compare what I’ve learned from Princess Celestia to what you teach!” said Twilight with a big smile.
“If you could spare the time I’d like to introduce you to some of my animals next time you visit. They’re sure to like both of you. Especially you, J.C.” said Fluttershy with a sad smile, not wanting them to go.
J.C waved from atop Judah’s back. “Thanks for showing us a fun time, you six! Hopefully, we will be back to enjoy another great day.”
As the mares turned to go back to their homes, the lion and the lamb continued to walk out of town. Once they were a good distance, Judah and J.C glowed a bright white as they melded together and turned into a single human, one with pierced hands and feet and wearing a robe.
“This world truly is special. No wonder my brony and pegasister children like it so much.” the human thought as he walked. “I really should come back some time. Some of them already seem to want to learn. Of course, I should probably use this as a study guide.” He thought while pulling out a thick book with a golden cross printed on the cover.
The human continued to walk until suddenly, he began to fade from that world’s existence until, with a small twinkle, he was gone.
The End
Author's Note
Happy Easter! Or, if you're reading this after, Happy Belated Easter!
Please comment, telling me what you thought of the story!
