Rebirth

The rainbow hued pegasus gives me a very quick tour of Ponyville before the party. It’s kind of hard to concentrate, though. I’m still trying to get used to the fact that I’m now living in a world of talking colorful magical flying horses. It’s a bit of a culture shock, if you ask me. Actually, it’s not that different from Seattle. Just replace the people with horses and add in some magic. Some of the people in Fremont are… memorable, for lack of a better word.

The building that stands out the most would have to be the giant building that looks like a castle on top of a crystal tree trunk. “Damn.” I say out loud.

Rainbow Dash shrugs. “You’ll get used to it. There’s weirder and cooler buildings than this.”

The crystal tree house kind of reminds me of the Space Needle in a way. “There’s weirder and cooler buildings where I come from.” I say. The memory of my death flashes in my mind and I briefly lose my balance.

Rainbow notices. “Y’okay?”

“I’m fine.” I say. I can tell she doesn’t believe me, but she doesn’t say anything about it. “So, what’s next?” I ask.

She smiles. “Let’s go to Sugarcube Corner. I think we gave Pinkie enough time.”

“Who? And enough time for what?”

“You’ll see.” She replies. I ask for more information. She refuses to give me any.

I follow my guide to a large building that looks like a giant gingerbread house. So that’s what Rainbow Dash meant by weider buildings. We walk in the building.

The next thing to happen nearly gives me a heart attack. The massive group of ponies shouting “SURPRISE” would do the same to any sane person.

I instinctively reach for my knife. Since I put it in a different pocket than usual, I can’t use it. That’s a good thing. I don’t want to be known as someone that killed a pony on their first day in a new world. That would be bad.

Fortunately, nobody seems to notice or care. The Pepto Bismol pony I saw before walks up to me with a smile. She’s got a party hat on her head and one a party horn in her mouth. She blows the horn and somehow manages to say “Hi” through it. She takes the horn out and says “Hi” again.

I’ve only heard this pony say two words and she’s already put a smile on my face. She could easily be in a cartoon. “Hi.” I say. “Is this party for me?”

“Yep! I’m Pinkie Pie!” Her words are fast enough to put DragonForce to shame. “I throw aaaaall the parties in town! Not when Cheese Sandwich is around, though. Parties for every occasion! Holidays! Birthdays! Weddings! New ponies or whatever you are!” That last sentence kind of hurt. I guess it’s inevitable hearing stuff like that. I’ll have to get used to it, in that case. She senses my discomfort and puts on a pouty face. With her coat color, it’s a pretty cute face. “Did I say something bad?”

“Don’t worry about it, Pinkie.” I say, dismissing the subject with a wave of my hand. Pinkie stares at it. “I’m a human. Humans don’t have hooves. My name is Mark Cleveland.”

Pinkie drops her pout. “Ooooh… I know somepony who’d love to meet you! I think she’s at the party.”

“You sure about that, Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash asks. To be honest, I forgot she was there for a second. “I mean, if we’re talking about the same mare.”

Pinkie nods so fast that I think her head’s going to fly off. “Yep! She’ll love you, Mark.”

I follow Pinkie. I’m treated with some looks of either fear, confusion, or disgust. I’d rather be ignored, but it’s difficult to ignore something twice the size of you.

She leads me to a light green mare with green and white hair and a horn on her head talking to a beige mare with dark blue and pink hair. This one doesn’t have a horn or pair of wings, like Pinkie. “Lyyyyyraaaaa!” Pinkie says in a sing-song voice. The green pony turns around. I take it her name is Lyra? She stares at me in awe for a second. Then she faints. Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, the other mare, and I look at Lyra.

“Yo, Lyra.” I say after a second. “Y’alright?”

“She’ll be fine.” The mare I haven’t officially met yet says. “Probably. She’s a huge nerd for humans. You’re not exactly common around here. She’s actually practiced meeting humans before…”

“If I had to guess, you have too.”

She shrugs. “It’s like talking to just another pony.”

“Thanks.”

Before we can keep talking, we’re interrupted by a purple unicorn. No, alicorn. I notice her pair of wings. Whoever this is, she reminds me of Epona. The pony looks up at me. “So you’re the stallion I’ve been hearing so much about today.” She smiles. “My name is Twilight Sparkle. Element of Magic and Princess of Friendship.” This little pony doesn’t exactly strike me as royalty. Aren’t princesses supposed to live in castles only in large cities? Unless this restaurant has hidden guards, I doubt it’s a castle. I have no idea what the ‘Element of Magic’ is supposed to mean. She offers her hoof for me to shake, which I do. I notice that the pony I was just talking to disappeared, along with Lyra.

“I’m Mark Cleveland.” I say.

“Could I ask you a few questions? Since you’re new here, and the only human I’ve seen in my life, I’d like to let the princesses know about you.” She says with a smile.

Princesses? Plural? So there’s at least two other princesses in this country. As I previously thought, this country isn’t a monarchy. I don’t know what they call countries with two leaders. Diarchy? Biarchy? “Yeah, I’ll answer your questions.”

“Thank you, Mark Cleveland.”

“Mark is fine.” I say. I’ve never liked people, or in this case ponies, saying both of my names. For some reason, when Epona did it, I wasn’t bothered.

Twilight nods. “Could you follow me into a different room?” She asks.

“Yeah, sure.” I just hope she doesn’t try to murder me. I’ve seen enough movies to know that’s a possibility. Though her title of ‘Princess of Friendship’ kind of implies that I’ll survive this encounter.

I follow Twilight into another room. "It's just quieter in here." She says. "Not that there's anything wrong with noise. It's just easier for interviewing."

"That's true." I say. "Do you work for a newspaper or something?"

The alicorn shakes her head. "No. I'm a librarian, actually. I'm also the Element of Magic and Princess of Friendship, as I’ve said before." She quickly describes what those are. I didn't expect Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie to also be Elements. Partially because I had no idea what an Element of Harmony was until a minute ago.

"Didn't you have some questions for me?" I ask before she goes off on that subject. I've known enough people like that for one lifetime. And since I’m apparently in a new life…

Twilight blushes a bit. "Oh, right. Sorry about that. I'm like that sometimes. Why are you shaking so much?"

I didn’t notice that I was. "Before I got here, I was taking antidepressants. I guess my body got addicted to them. I'm probably going through a withdrawal. I’ve got a bit of a headache, too." I explain. I don’t mention the nausea I had this morning.

"There might be something to help with that at the pharmacy." She says, then starts to ask me a few questions about my past life. The first one being where I’m from.

"Well, I'm not actually from here. Not from Equestria, I mean. I'm from a different planet, I think, called Earth." I start to explain. Twilight hesitates to write that down, but quickly does. I stop to let her get caught up.

"That's what I thought... I didn't think I would be right, though. That you’re not from this planet, I mean. I’ve never seen or heard of anypony on this planet seeing a human." Twilight smiles. I'm not sure if it's because she was right or something else.

“You don’t seem shocked that I’m an alien.”

She shrugs. “I’ve seen some things similar to you, Mark. Besides, I’ve read enough to know a bit about humans. I always thought they were mythical, though. I guess I was wrong...” She sighs and looks at the ceiling. After a second, she looks back at me. “Can you tell me a bit more about your home? Before coming here, I mean.”

“I’m from a place called Seattle. It’s a large city in the state of Washington. Country is United States of America.” I start. “I was actually born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It’s about 120 miles north of Seattle. I moved to Seattle when I was 4 years old.”

Twilight nods and writes that down. She asks me the spelling of some of the words. "Anyway, I have some more questions about your homeworld." She asks questions from many different subjects, ranging from music and other forms of entertainment to religion and politics. I don't talk much about those last two, and she doesn't force anything out of me. We also talk a bit about Earth's technology, but not a lot. It's likely because she doesn't exactly understand. That makes sense, seeing as how I didn’t notice any telephone wires, cell phone towers, or airplanes in the sky.

"Huh... So movies are like paintings, but they move?"

"Hence the term 'movie'. They've also got sound, too. We’ve had movies with sound for almost 100 years. Movies themselves have been around for over 130."

"Wow. So, they're like plays?" She looks amazed.

I shrug. "Some are. Some movies are actually adaptations of plays. Others being adaptations of books or remakes of other movies. There’s also some influenced by things that actually happened or some with original plots." I say. Twilight looks... dizzy? Confused? "We can talk more about this some other time."

Twilight looks at a clock. "Celestia! Wow, it's already been an hour! I'm sorry I took so much time out of the party for you."

I hold up my hand. "No, don't be. It's okay. I'm not much of a partier."

Twilight lets out a sigh of relief. “We should still get you back to the party, as a sign of respect. Pinkie throws amazing parties, too. I’m sure you’ll love it.”