Chapters Stella (the oldest mare of the group) was lying on a cloud, snoozing through the warm, beautiful evening. She was never a day pony, but now being a Thestral to top it off made her a litteral night pony. Stella was a dark navy blue bat pony, with a regular blue mane. He silver eyes remained still behind her closed eyelids. She was awake, of course, but she still wanted to sleep. She suddenly heard the sound of beating bat wings. Nocturn was up. Nocturn was Stella's "gal-pal," and closest friend. Soon, the beating wings were right next to Stella.
"The early bird gets the worm Stella." Nocturn's voice invaded the quiet. Stella (who was facing away from Nocturn) grinned and began to snore comically loud. Nocturn started laughing. "If you don't get up I'm gonna buck that cloud." She threatened.
"But the moon isn't up yet!" Stella whined, flailing one foreleg in the air. Nocturn rolled her eyes.
"Get up you," Nocturn said, nudging Stella. "You're the leader and you gotta lead us!"
"I'm not the leader," Stella said, moving out of the way so that Nocturns hooves shot past her, then Stella grabbed Nocturn (who was much smaller than her) and pulled her onto the cloud, trapping her in a nuggy. "Luna's the leader."
"Stop it!" Nocturn laughed. "let me go!"
"Not until you let me sleep!" Stella laughed back.
"Ok ok! You can sleep!" Nocturn finally gave in. Stella smiled in her victory and released Nocturn.
"Thank you." Stella grinned. Nocturn and Stella were as close as (good) sisters, and almost considered each other as such. The sun was just on the edge of the horizon now and was about to set. The moon was in the same position in the opposite side of the sky. Stella looked at the full moon on the rise. She sighed. "Well I might as well get up anyway," Stella said, standing up. "Come on, let's go." Stella said, unfolding her leathery bat wings. Nocturn (who was already airborne) smiled in her victory. Stella began to beat her wings, and she took flight. Flight was nothing new to her, but for some reason, it felt much more natural flapping her leathery bat wings than her feathery pegasus ones. Before the two started to descend, they soared for a moment, enjoying the best part of being a Thestral.
After their evening stretch, Stella and Nocturn landed by the camp. The "camp" was just a bunch of sleeping bags around camp fires. It wasn't that impressive.
The camps inhabitants weren't any more impressive. Most of them were small foals, a few were in their pre-teenage years. Stella was about ready to live on her own but was still young enough to be considered, "a child" so she was still taken up by Luna's spell, and was grateful. Before she was a pegasus living on her parents farm, only her parents were missing. Lots of ponies had vanished when Discord ruled. Stella and Nocturn approached the camp, where day ponies were going down, and Thestrals were getting up. But, standing in the exact center of the group, was princess Luna, leader of the new (and secret) Lunar Republic. Somehow, Luna knew all the citizens of the Lunar Republic, and their names. Luna looked up and noticed the fillies approach.
"Hello there, Stella and Nocturn." Luna smiled. "It is a treat to see you."
"The same to you," Nocturn replied, trying to sound regal.
"Yeah, hey Luna," Stella said to the princess in her casual way. Luna always was close, and friendly to the people of the Lunar Republic. Luna smiled a warm smile at the two fillies.
"I've been thinking," Luna began. "That the Lunar Republic should find a leader for when I'm not here." Stella knew what she was implying.
"Nooo thank you," Stella replied, firmly. "I am not cut out to be a leader." Luna looked surprised.
"Ok then," Luna said again. She was about to continue, but before she could a blue collum of light shot from the sky, and hit right between Luna, and the two fillies she was conversing with. It emitted a low humming noise.
"What the hay is that?!?!" Stella called out. If you looked up, you could see a ball of light fall to the ground at an alarming rate. It hit the ground with a thud and an "oof." Then, the beam vanished, leaving a strange lump, and a circle of burnt grass, behind.
Alex was settling down to watch TV before bed. He sat down on his couch bed and clicked on the clunky old tv. It was on an ad for some kind of toothpaste. Alex really didn't care, so he half paid attention. He was more thinking about what he was gonna do about money. He had been in his apartment for 2 months and was barely getting by with the starter money his parents had given him, but he needed a job... now . Alex sighed as the toothpaste commercial ended.
"I don't know how I'm gonna make ends meet." Alex sighed. He went to bed that night, worried about getting thrown onto the street in a month.
"It's not healthy to worry about... well, anything that much," Alex's friend Richard told him at lunch the next day. Richard was a tall muscular man, who was in college with Alex, and constantly went hunting with him. "After lunch, go talk a walk in Central Park, clear your head," Richard advised. Alex took a bite of his subway sandwich.
"You're right," Alex admitted after he swallowed his bite of sandwich. "And I do think I should take a walk in the park!" Alex said confidently, standing up.
"Maybe you should take more than one bite of your sandwich first." Richard laughed. Alex sat back down, embarrassed. He quietly ate another bite.
Alex took a taxi to the Central Park, where he decided to go on a walk. It had taken him a while to get to the park (partly because he lived on the other side of new york, and partly because of traffic). Alex then began his walk, thinking about his life. He had lived with him mom and dad for his whole life, up until a few years ago when he started college. He also had an older brother, who had shipped off to the military around the time Alex went to college. Alex and his brother had fought, but they loved each other none-the-less. Alex hadn't really thought about how much he missed his brother, he had been too busy working on graduating college.
30 minutes into Alex's walk, the sun was barely visible on the horizon, but only if you stood in the right place. In most places, a building was blocking the view. But, as Alex thought, his thoughts eventually drifted back to his problems.
'What am I gonna do about the rent?' Alex thought to himself. 'I wish I could just, fly away sometimes.' Alex looked at the night sky and thought he saw a star twinkle. Then, the twinkle began to twinkle brighter, and brighter, and brighter and- suddenly, a beam of light (around a yard and a half in diameter) struck Alex. Before he could respond, he was picked off the ground. The ground suddenly vanished, and Alex felt like he was flying.
"What the hell is going on!?!" Alex screamed as he flew through the tunnel of light. It became harder, and harder to keep his eyes open, and he blacked out.
4, Interpersonal Relations
"What is it?" Nocturn asked, looking at the sleeping creature that had appeared in a beam of light. Luna looked at it. It was a strange, bipedal creature with dull claws on it's arms. It had a tan flat face and a short black main, that was only on the top of the creature's head. Luna took a few steps back. She gulped.
"I think... it's a human." Luna answered, despite her dry mouth.
"What's a human?" Stella asked. Luna looked at Stella, with a firm stare.
"Tis' an extremely violent creature that kills its own species," Luna replied, whispering. All the ponies who could hear Luna's response gasped. "Tie it up, and put it in a tent," Luna commanded.
Alex woke with a splitting headache.
"I feel like I was hit with a lead baseball bat." Alex groaned. He tried to stretch his arms, but he found they were tied together. He was in a red sleeping bag inside an ugly, small green tent. "What happened to me?" He thought out loud. Alex sat up and looked around the tent to see if he could find anything useful to escape his binds. He found nothing. He suddenly heard the sound of a tent flap fluttering, followed by a voice calling "it's awake!" in a terrified tone. Alex was suddenly picked up off the ground by some unknown force (accompanied by a blue glow), and the same force floated him out of the tent. It was night, and a full moon was high in the sky. The sky was dotted with stars, more than Alex had ever seen at one time before. Alex looked around and saw some sort of campsite, it had a few tents, lots of campfires (each surrounded by a ring of sleeping bags), and a bunch of tiny miniature horses roaming around and sleeping. He swore a few had wings.
'Where the heck am I?' Alex thought. He floated up to a regular size horse, it was navy blue, with a (literally) flowing blue main and tail, (regular) blue things attached to it's hooves, and a black ring with a crescent moon engraved on it around her neck. Her flank looked as though someone spilled black ink on it and drew a crescent moon. The odd thing about it was, it had a horn ! It was glowing the same blue that enveloped him in its tela-kinetic hold. Alex also noted that it had a pair of wings on it's sides. It was glaring at Alex.
Standing next to the winged unicorn was two little horses, the one on her left was navy blue, was a bit bigger than the one on the left, and had bat eyes... Alex paid no attention to the second horse, this one had his full attention. He noted that this one also had wings, but these were leathery bat wings, unlike the first's feathery ones. The bat horse noticed Alex stairing, and shrunk away slightly, before takeing a step forward and trying to look brave. Alex realised something: the bat horse was scaired was scaired of him. It was adorable how she tried to look brave. Alex then thought about this for a moment.
'She's trying to look brave...' He thought to himself. Alex repeated this train of thought a few times. 'Horses are smart, but not that smart.'
After a moment more of scilence, something extraordinary happened: the large horse spoke.
"Who are you, human?" It said, sounding disguested to say the word "human." Alex's jaw dropped. It spoke in a feminan voice. Alex staired, awestruck for another moment, before the creature repeated her quetion. "Tell me who you are!" She demanded. Alex realised she might be just as scaired as the little one.
"I'm- I'm Alex." Alex stuttered. "Alex Aldetoro."
"I am Luna, princess of the night." The large horse replied, after a moment of consideration. "Why have you come here?" She asked, stern.
"What?" Alex asked, really confused. "A better question is, how have I come here, because I have no idea!" A look of surprise washed over Luna's face. She shook it off, and continued questioning.
"Where are the other humans?" Luna asked. Alex was about to say "all over the world," before he thought better of it.
"I have no clue." Alex said. He wasn't really "lieing" becasue Alex needed to know where he was, so he could tell where the anyone else was. Luna looked confused.
"Are you the only one?" She asked.
"As far as I know." Alex answered. Luna opened her mouth to ask another question, but Alex interrupted. "Look, if you want me to answer any ore of your questions, you need to answer some of mine . Who knows? it might even answer some of your questions in the process." Alex cleared his throught. "Where am I, what is this place, how can you talk, are there other's like you, and why are you so scared of me?" Alex asked in rapid sucsession. Luna thought for a moment, and answered in rapid succession:
"Equestria, Equestria, the same reason you can, yes, and because you're a human." Luna replied. Alex put the answers and the questions together in his head.
"One final question, why are you scared of humans?" Alex asked. Luna looked as though it was a silly question.
"Because humans are violent murderers! They kill each other for no reason and spend all their time coming up with new ways to wipe themselves out! They already did it once, or so I thought." Luna answered. Alex felt a wave of shame wash over him.
"Hey! That's not-" Alex began, starting to re-evaluate his own species. "Sadly, your not compleatly wrong there." Alex sighed. He then realised a counter argument (he was good a debate). "But not all humans are like that. Sure humans fight each other, but most of them are doing it to protect their families, and even more want peace! And humans do so much more than killing. We invent, new ways to communicate, new ways to travel, new ways to have fun, new ways to live. Humans strive to better themselves, and sometimes the world around him. I'm a prime example. I just got out of school, and I'm not going off to war, I'm just trying to start a life for myself." Alex explained. Luna looked awestruck , as if her world view had just gotten shattered like fine china. The smallest horse looked up at Luna.
"Is he telling the truth?" She asked. Alex felt the ropes around his arms untie itself.
"Yes," Luna replied absently. The glow on Luna's horn (and around Alex) faded, and Alex fell to the ground.
"Alex Aldetoro, welcome to the Luna Republic."
Author's Note
As of know, "bat-ponies" are thestrals.
5, Questions
Alex had been filled in on everything the Lunar Republic knew about humans... and had to constantly correct the misinformed ponies. The strange thing was, ponies thought humans were extinct for thousands of years. Luna had also explained that she was using a lie detector spell on Alex when she questioned him, wich also explained to Alex her facial expressions.
"So what is the Lunar Republic exactially ?" Alex asked.
"Tis my kingdom, for those who are unhappy under my sister's rule," Luna explained.
"So, all this ki- foals ," Alex corrected himself. "Are, what, your subjects?" Luna smiled.
"They are, my children of the night," Luna replied mischievously. Alex turned to Stella, who bared her bat fangs in a smile. Alex shivered, part from cold, and part from looking at a fanged bat-pony.
"Were they born Thestrals?" Alex asked, gesturing to the out-and-about bat ponies.
"We were actually born pegasi," Stella said to Alex. "But Luna turned us this way when we joined the republic." Alex was very inquisitive, and he decided to stop probing this new world and to start probing the ponies in it.
"Ok, now onto questions about you two." Alex began. He gestured to Stella and Luna, saying "What's your dynamic? Are you mother and daughter or something?" Luna laughed, shaking her head. Stella grinned.
"Do I look like an alicorn to you?" Stella asked, giggling.
"Kinda." Alex Joked. Alex looked at her for a moment. "How old are you? If you don't mind me asking." He asked trying to determine her age. He didn't have a reference for pony age to scale her to.
"I'm... 19," Stella said taking a brief moment think about it. "Will be 20 next month."
"Wow, I'm 18." Alex responded. They both looked at Luna.
"I've forgotten exactally how old I am," Luna said, tapping her chin with a hoof. "But it's somewhere over 3 thousand, give or take a thousand." Alex dropped a jaw.
"Ponies live for that long?!?" Alex exclaimed. Luna grinned at his awestruck face.
"Just alicorns."
"So why doesn't Luna stay here again?" Alex asked, filling a pail with water from the nearby river. Seeing as Alex was stuck in the Lunar Republic indefinitely, he had decided to pitch in, and do some chores around the camp.
"It's because she has to go to Canterlot to make sure nopony knows she leaves," Stella (who had chosen to accompany Alex to his chore) explained. Alex, being inquisitive and questioning, needed to ask another question.
"Why does she need to make sure nobody-" Alex was interrupted.
"Nopony ." Stella corrected. Alex shook his head and continued.
"-Knows she leaves?" Stella grinned at this.
"That's the best part!" Stella started. Alex pulled his pail from the river. He turned around to see Stella hovering inches from his face. He leapt back in surprise, and one foot ended in the shallow end of the river.
"Not much of a city yet, is it?" Alex commented, looked at the small cluster of tents, teepees, and sleeping bags around a handful campfires. Alex looked up at the night sky and yawned. It was hard to believe that, only a few short hours ago, he had been in new york city. His family would probably worry about him, Alex thought. He frowned and shoved the thought out of his mind. Alex re-dipped the bucket in the river, filling it up, and started to walk back to the camp.
"So you don't just look like bats, you act a bit like bats too." Alex said. It was reaching the end of the night, and the Thestrals were going to bed.
"Petty much," Stella said.
"Only we don't eat bugs," Nocturn added. Stella yawned.
"If you're gonna hang with us every night, then get as much sleep during the day as possible," Stella advised, grabbing the sleep mask from her tent. "You can sleep in here, I always sleep on clouds anyway." Stella groggily pointed to her tent. With that, Stella waved "goodbye" and flew off to find a comfortable cloud to sleep on. Alex looked turned to say something to Nocturn, but she had already walked off. So, Alex decided to go to sleep.
Surprisingly, Alex had slept remarkably well. Especially when you consider he was sleeping in a teepee built for a pony. He didn't dream that day, which was strange because his mind had been given SO much to dream about. Alex actually slept through the whole day, until the next night. It wasn't easy, he woke a few times and had to try hard to fall back asleep... however you "try" to fall asleep.
Alex woke up when the sun was starting to set. He exited his tent groggily.
"God, how long was I asleep for?" He asked nobody in particular. Alex decided to "freshen up" at the stream he visited the night prior. Alex walked to the river and splashed the cool water on his face. He dried himself off with his shirt and went back to the camp. There, poking her head in his tent, was Nocturn.
"Hey there!" Alex announced. Nocturn jumped, and spun around to see him.
"Oh hi there!" She said, shaken. "I wasn't expecting you to be out." Alex laughed slightly.
"I bet you weren't," Alex says. "Hey, where's Stella?" Alex asked. Nocturn eyed Alex for a moment.
"Why? Do you like her?" Nocturn spat out.
"What? No- well, In a platonic type way, if I got 'platonic' right." Alex replied, trying to sound un-phased. He succeeded.
"Well, Stella's up in the clouds," Nocturn said. Alex laughed when he realized she meant that literally. Nocturn didn't see what was so funny. "... I'll go get her." With that, Nocturn flew off to go find her friend.
"NOOOOO!!!" Stella groaned as Nocturn jumped on the particularly large cloud Stella bedded on. "Don't make me get up!"
"Come on Stella! Alex's waiting for you! You gotta show him around."
"Alex?" Stella repeated, unsure of what she meant. Then, it hit her. "Alex!"
"Yeah! You're gonna show him around camp." Nocturn said, tugging at Stella's hoof.
"I gotta show him around!" Stella cried, flying off.
Author's Note
Too short (sorry), too long! I've been working on other stories, and this one might go on hiatus for a while. I'll try not to, but if I can't work on two stories and an interactive fiction, scuba diving, and practicing for the anti-gravity Olympics (year 20206), then I'm sorry.
My first week was amazing in Equestria. Luna had eventually told me what she could find out about how I got here. A star-rift, or, a celestial alignment that happens once every... 1-2 trillion years. And it either needs to happen in your world, or the world you want to go to for travel to be possible. Lucky for me, the next one (here) will be in 2 hundred years... long after my death... yaaaaay... But back to my new life, it had been going good so far, great actually. The tribes-folk had accepted me early on, and I even have two friends here. Sure there was a lot of work, and sure my friends were really young (except Stella, who was older than me). But I still felt a little depressed that I'd never see my family again, they were just... ripped from me in an instant. No use dwelling on that now... anyways, I was sitting in my tent, laying down after chopping down a few trees for fire wood. Because I played minecraft back on earth, I have this habit of planting a tree after cutting one down, I did this in any and all sandbox games, so I decided to do it here as well. It would be very helpful in the long run. I laughed, thinking about how silly a habit it is to plant a tree after cutting one down.
"May I come in?" Luna's voice asked through the tent flap. I "stood up" (because these tents weren't tall enough for humans) and walked over to the flap and poked my head out. I bowed to her, then asked:
"Yes princess?" Luna smiled (she liked being shown respect... a lot ).
"We are having a meeting at the bonfire to discuss our... situation." Luna said. "And it is vital that you attend."
"Why, because you need something heavy lifted?" I asked. I was double the size of the biggest ponies, so there was a joke that I was "the muscle" of the tribe. It's ironic that all this work is making me just that!
"No," Luna giggled. "Because... it is a surprise."
"Oh?" I asked, intrigued. Luna smiled, beckoning me to "come along." I stepped out of the tent, and followed her. All the others... they were acting... different. It wasn't fear ... more like, respect. Did I do something without remembering it? ... Nah! That's just too far-fetched. We eventually reached the bonfire at the center of camp. Now I was getting excited. Bonfires meant that something important was happening. Luna turned to face me, and sat before the bonfire.
"ALEX ALDETORO!"
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm sorry to interrupt your story, but I just want to address Alex' name.completely forgot where I'd heard it before I wrote it... to the point where I thought it came from my own brain. Then a friend of mine started talking about Assassin's Creed, and I remembered.
"ALEX ALDETORO!" Luna exclaimed, in her royal Canterlot voice. "YOU HAVE PROVEN YOURSELF WORTHY, AND FOR THAT WE DUB THEE," She paused, as if for dramatic effect, then continued (as impossible as it seemed) louder than before. "... CHIEF OF POLARIS!" The whole tribe present began to stomp and cheer. I smiled, and put a hand to my heart.
"Luna, I'm touched!" I exclaimed in a mock dramatic voice. "I have no choice but to accept." They stomped and cheered more. I bowed. "I did take acting in middle school." They all laughed. "... And comedy. We can all see how that turned out." They laughed some more.
Author's Note: I'm changing this to First person. Also, I put this on hiatus for a while, and I've been writing little snippets every once and a while for when I decided to make this a priority again (which I think is going to happen right now.). And finally: I vow to make each chapter longer than what they have been thus far, by (at a word minimum of) a thousand words each... except this chapter because I ran out of ideas. That should satisfy you lot, the ones that actually read this thing.
Prolouge: The End is the begining
The Princess of the Night looked down at her small kingdom and began to sing.
"Come little children, I'll take thee away, into a land, of enchantment!" The Princess sung, stretching out the word "enchantment." "Hush now sweet children, for soon well away, into my garden of shadows..." (shadows was stretched out). Her ghostly voice fell upon the land, and the adults of the land fell into a deep sleep. But the song had the opposite effect on the orphaned, or otherwise unhappy children, they were awoken by the haunting melody! All the children walked over to the nearest window and looked out. What they saw was princess Luna flying. The windows opened, and the children were levitated out. All the kids were levitated together in a short trail, following the princess. All the while, the princess continued to sing.
"Come now sweet children, I'll show thee the way, through all the pain, and the sorrow!" Luna sung, stretching out "sorrow." She and the cloud of children, flew off into the night, leaving the settled land of Equestria behind.
"And now, I would like to welcome to the stand, Alex, Aldetoro!" Principal Rulesky announced. And with that, the student (now graduate) in question, stood up and went to receive his diploma. Alex had been able to pass his classes, barely. He had spent a lot of time practicing his gun skills. But, here he was, graduating college! He walked onstage and took the rolled up paper in his hand, shaking the principal's hand with his other. The Principal smiled warmly at Alex. Alex smiled back.
"You've done great kid," Rulesky whispered. Alex nodded,
"Thank you." Alex responded. He walked off stage, happy as could be. He was proud to have finally graduated college, sure his parents were gonna give him 3 months to find a house/condo/apartment to rent/buy, but today he was going to celebrate with his friends and family that he had done it.
A few months later...
"Are you sure I should buy... this ?" Alex asked his dad, gesturing at the apartment they had just entered.
"Yes, the deal was you had a few months to find a place, or we would find one for you." His dad replied. Alex sighed. The apartment his parents were going to force him to buy, was a small one bathroom room, with the kitchen, living room, and bedroom sharing the same space. The walls were a very unappealing lime green color.
"Still, can we get a place with more... room?" Alex pleaded.
"Well, this is all you can afford for the moment." His dad sighed. "Untill you get a better job, this is all you got." Alex groaned. He was so close to getting enough the raise he needed to rent the apartment he wanted. But, he was stuck with one of the rooms that new york city is known for. This was not what Alex had in mind when he graduated a few months ago.
Author's Note
Short, I know. But "I cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye" that the chapters will be longer... (can't believe I just did that)
