The Midnight Alicorn

I swear, I waited twenty minutes for them to respond... for any of them to respond. But nope, they just stood there. No murmurs, no whispers, No "this is all a joke, right?" They just stood there and stared at me (all except Twilight, who was staring at the ground, obviously trying to process what I had just said).

"Uhhhhhh..." I made an attempt to break the torturous silence, but Pinkie beat me to it.

"Why is everypony so quiet? I thought it was a great story!" The crowd of ponies suddenly shifted their stares from me to Pinkie, who instantly lost the blatant smile that dominated her face. "What, was it something I said?"

Twilight finally spoke up. "The place that you were talking about, the place you came from... It sounds similar to a place I've been to... but, why are you here? And the way you came down... it just doesn't make any sense..."

"I don't know! How am I supposed to know? I don't even know how I got here! What do you mean came down?"

"Ooooooooh, I know!" Pinkie began skipping towards me gleefully. "You were a meteor, and you crashed down right in the middle of Ponyville! Nearly gave the entire town a heart attack!" As she said the last words, she suddenly took a great bound towards me, putting her face less than an inch away from mine. But a second later, she suddenly became encased by a pink aura, and soon she floated back to her starting place. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.

"Pinkie Pie, you really need to learn when to shut up." If I wasn't so distraught at the moment I probably would've laughed.

"Wait, I was a meteor? But then how did I-... look, I need to find out what happened. What I'm doing here. I don't know how but... I just have to."

Twilight nodded. "It's okay. Hopefully the Princesses will be able to help you."

My heart skipped a beat. "The Princesses?"

Applejack spoke up for the first time. "Well, you did cause a giant crater in the middle of Ponyville. Seems kinda' obvious to me that the Princesses would take interest."

Spike spoke up, too. "That and Twilight sent a letter to them telling them what happened."

My stomach started turning over on itself. I could feel sweat beginning to drip down my face. The Princesses. Oh dear Celestia, no. I mean sure, I'd always wanted to meet them, especially Luna, but not like this. I was a pseudo-deity that fell from the freaking sky. Something like that is hard to not perceive as a threat. Sure, they were nice and gentle in the show (for the most part), but this was real. (well, at least it felt real). Equestria's criminal justice system had never really been exploited in the show, at least to my knowledge, except for maybe banishment to the Everfree Forest or, absolute worst-case scenario, Tartarus. Was I going to end up being Tirek's cellmate? Existing as a criminal under constant guard by a giant three-headed dog?

No, no way. The Princesses would probably be suspicious, maybe even spiteful, sure, but they wouldn't lock me up in the pony equivalent of hell, would they? Of course not. I tried to calm down, but the thought of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna traveling to Ponyville to see me kept my blood pressure far above what I was sure it was supposed to be.

"Darling? Are you... alright?" I was kind of thankful that Rarity cared that I was possibly about to have a stroke, but I didn't look at her, I looked at Twilight.

"What... what do you think they'll say?"

She just looked at the ground and shrugged. "I don't know."

After that the talking was pretty much over. Some of the ponies from the crowd dissipated,  but a grand majority stayed. I could only assume they looked forward to watching the Princesses visit their hometown to check out the mysterious, supposedly all-powerful dork that had crash-landed in their front yard. Even though I was obviously an alicorn, I didn't feel powerful. I just felt sick to my stomach.

After a few more minutes of staring at the sky in the direction of Canterlot (which was just barely visible in the distance, latched onto the side of a mountain), I finally began to make something out in the distance. I decided to not even try and kid myself. I could've tried to tell myself that it was a bird or some magical flying creature, but I knew it was a royal chariot, likely pulled by a team of muscular pegasus guard ponies. And sitting in the chariot would be the unchallenged rulers of Equestria themselves. And they would be arriving in mere moments.

When the chariot finally touched down, I could see it was made of gold and painted wood, pulled by a team of six burly pegasi, all with light brown coats, blue hair, and decorated with royal guard armor. But I was much more focused on the Princesses themselves, and they were a lot to take in.

They both stretched out their wings and hovered out of the chariot in perfect sync, and then proceeded to land gracefully in the ground in front of me.

Celestia was just as tall as I was, maybe even taller, and the daylight radiated over every inch of her cream colored coat. Her hair a pulsating rainbow of blue, green, and pink. Her eyes were a friendly shade of pink, but radiated wisdom and power. She had been alive for thousands of years, and it definitely felt like it. Her grand wings graced either side of her body, and her prominent horn stretched proudly into the sky. Her cutie mark was a brilliant sun that seemingly emanated warmth around her. But what shocked me the most was that her face showed no emotion, no surprise. Twilight hadn't known I was an alicorn when she had sent Celestia that message because I was covered in charred dirt. There was no way Celestia knew before now, but if she was the least bit surprised, she didn't show it.

Luna was a completely different story from her sister. Her expression sent me a crystal-clear message: don't test me. She wasn't quite as tall as her sister, but at that moment it felt like she was taking up half the universe all by herself. Her coat was a sleek, dark indigo color that contrasted shockingly from the bright daylight, and her hair was a pulsating mass of dark blue, twinkling like the night sky. A prominent crescent moon cutie mark graced her flank, and the fur around it was just as dark as my pitch-black LED-powered hair. She radiated mystery and power, and, even with the unnerving glare she was hammering me with, was easily the most beautiful thing I had ever laid eyes on.

They were both decorated in regalia, and were as grand as life itself. I stared at them until Celestia finally spoke.

"Who are you?"

"I-Ivan..."

Celestia paused for a moment, then a small smile appeared on her lips. "Well, Ivan. We-"

"Why are you here," Luna interjected. Her tone was full of authority. I gulped.

"Your guess is as good as mine..." She glared at me venomously. I could feel myself shrinking back. "Well, what I meant to say is... I don't know. Apparently I fell as a meteor or something and then... here I am?"

My answer sounded lame even to me. I could hear the still-gathered crowd murmuring in the background. I just watched the two sisters. They exchanged a look with each other and nodded. Then they proceeded to look back at me and Celestia spoke again. "We need you to come to Canterlot with us."

My jaw fell slack. I couldn't believe what was happening. Luna raised an eyebrow. "well?"

"...Alright," was all I could manage. Man, was I a smoothtalker, or what?

Celestia and Luna both turned around and began walking back towards the chariot. I followed, being sure to keep a good ten feet between us. They stopped right as they reached it and turned back to eyeball me. It took me a few moments to realize they wanted me to get on first. I turned to Twilight unwittingly, not knowing how to react. She just gave me a reassuring look and nodded. I nodded back, then proceeded to hover up off the ground and get into the back of the chariot. Celestia and Luna followed after, signaled the guards, and we took off.

Soon we were out of Ponyville and soaring freely towards Canterlot. The guards were flying surprisingly fast, and I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy the ride. The wind rippled my mane and streamed against my horn. If the rulers of Equestria weren't sitting three feet in front of me, I probably would've thrown my front legs up and wooped for joy.

Although I enjoyed the ride, I couldn't help but notice that Luna would look back at me every few minutes. The only reason I probably noticed this was because of the fact that I kept staring at her like an idiot (what, she was hot!), but it didn't exactly make me feel more comfortable.

After about twenty minutes in the air, we finally began closing in on Canterlot. And wow, was it something. It was literally a city-sized castle chilling on the side of a cliff. Castle spires rose up out the ground, and a river flowed the length of it and fell off the side as a majestic waterfall. It was even better looking in real life than it was on the show, and we were heading straight for it.

We landed in front of what was easily the largest tower in the city. The royal chambers, maybe? Celestia and Luna stepped out of the chariot and turned to me.

"My sister and I have something to do. Wait here," Celestia commanded. I nodded.

They both turned their backs to me and began walking towards two large ornate statues; one of the sun and one of a crescent moon. They took their positions underneath said statues as their horns began to glow. They unfurled their wings and began rising up towards the sky.

My heartbeat accelerated. Was I actually getting to see the transition between day and night? Like clockwork, the sun began to lower itself, turning the sky from bright blue to orange to red, until the sun eventually  slipped below the horizon. At the exact same time, the moon began to rise, and stars began to dot the darkening sky. Although the moon rising was beyond beautiful, the stars were what really took my breath away. I was even able to make out constellations (most of them ponies, if you can believe it). But then I froze. My eyes were locked on a clumsy, seemingly meaningless patch of stars. I don't know what it was about them. They seemed... almost right, but not quite. Maybe if I could fix them...

It was about that time that I felt a previously unknown muscle flexed somewhere inside of me. A sound that reminded me somewhat of a pipe flute droned in my ears. Then, before my eyes, the stars within my sight began to move. Groggily, slowly, but they did. I told them where to go, willed them to their new positions in the sky. Then, right as that mysterious muscle began to ache, it was done. I looked back down to see that the Princesses had finished their jobs, and that they were both staring at me, completely dumbfounded. Uh, oh. Unbelievably, inconceivably, I had messed up again. Or had I?

Luna stepped forward and walked towards me until she was only three feet away. I realized that I was now standing on the ground instead of in the chariot. How did that happen? Luna stared at me for a moment, her expression no longer judgmental, just awestruck. She looked up, as did I, to a brand-new constellation; a constellation of Luna herself. We looked back down at each other, and Luna finally said something.

"How?"

I felt a huge idiotic smile cross my face.

"What, you're not going to thank me?"