I blinked my eyes as everything cleared. It was immediately obvious I was not at home. Not only that, but there were these odd four-legged poly-chromatic horses everywhere. Some of them had wings, some had horns, and some had neither. It was then that I realized I was in a box of sorts. I knocked the blanket off me. Apparently, I was one of the four-legged things. My fur was a light ginger, as it had been. I was somewhat fluffy, and my 'hair' was a light brown. It took a few seconds before I registered all this properly in my head.
"MMMMMM!" I whimpered, curling up. I wasn't home. No, I should have been dead! This didn't make a lick of sense! My whimpering increased. As I freaked out, I noticed the bundle in the box next to me fidget. While I watched, a small, what I could call, bug peeked out from the blankets.
I almost wanted to freak out more, but something about the look it gave me, the look that said it knew how I felt, made me stop. This bug, a creature I had never seen before, trusted me? Why? I couldn't figure it out. Of all things, a bug? As I watched, it climbed up and sat down. Then, motioned to itself, repeating a strange word, before gesturing at me.
I gave it a look of confusion. "What? I don't understand"
It repeated the word and gestured to me. It took me a moment, but I realized it was giving its name and asking for mine. I shook my head before shrugging. The creature frowned and then nodded, before giving its name once more. It sounded odd, clearly not of my language. I attempted to mimic the word.
He, I'm guessing its a he, shook his head and repeated the name. I attempted again, trying to copy him. It took a few tries but I finally got it. Cocoon. Fitting. Cocoon gestured his hoof towards the street at a small cart before making an eating motion with his legs. I looked to the cart and nodded. It was time to see if cuteness held the same in this place.
As I approached the sales-tom, he smiled and mouthed something. I nodded. He held out a hoof and made a give it here motion. I shook my head and tilted it downwards, tears falling from my face. The sales-tom said something, but I didn't understand. I looked up, and the slaes-tom pulled back, eyes wide. I looked up at him and nearly broke.
In his eyes, I could see myself. A small, somewhat fluffy, creature like him, big eyes full of tears. In fact, it probably should've put him into a cuteness overload coma. Yes, I sound self-centered, but I'm completely serious. I'd seen less cute things put some of my species into a coma. The sales-tom's eyes teared up, and he lifted a piece of his produce, a spherical red object with a green leaf attached, with his leg before holding it down towards me. I took it and nodded gratefully before making my way back to the box, displaying my win to Cocoon.
He eagerly clapped his hooves together as I sat back down in the box, barely managing to keep it in on my legs. Cocoon made a chomping motion and moved his hands to his mouth. I nodded, before biting into the thing. It was nice. Sour, sweet, and crunchy. I moaned slightly, getting a laugh from Cocoon who I glared at. The bug snickered and stuck his tongue out, which I responded in kind.
After some begging, we managed to get a bit more food. My stuffed belly had me feeling mellow, so when Cocoon began to look like a few of my friends and family, I assumed it was the food talking. Thankfully, none of the 'officials' had come to move us, so I assumed we weren't doing anything wrong. That, and from what I could tell, Cocoon had been here for a long time.
"Where are we?" I asked him, only to get a response that still sounded foreign. This language barrier was going to be an issue, I can say that for a fact. So was learning to walk... Wait a minute... Hadn't I walked already? I stood up and moved around. OH! So it's like at home! As my previous species, we would either walk on all fours, like when we're in a hurry, or on two legs for formal occasions. Yes, walking like this was slightly different, I likely wouldn't be able to walk on two legs or jump like I had been able to, but my luck was fantastic!
I started dancing, getting a confused look from Cocoon. Well, its not like I can explain such a thing to him. My little jig went on for a minute before I sat down and grinned at him. He just rolled his eyes at me and looked back to the street in front of us. As I watched his eyes, I saw them follow two of the other creatures, which I gave confused stare.
He motioned towards them, only to stand up and follow them. Scrambling out of the box, I followed behind him as best I could. Surprisingly, the two made their way towards something I recognized. A train! So, there were some similarities after all! My eagerness was only matched by Cocoon who dove into the white one's luggage and I followed close behind.
The clothes smelled like there was more perfume on them than there was in the entire city. My head was already starting to hurt, not just that, but I could taste it! It tasted like soap. Ugh, terrible. I attempted to wipe off my tongue, but that made it worse. In the end, I ended up licking myself to get rid of the taste. Suffice to say, my mouth would not be opening for awhile.
Cocoon was peering out through a hole he made moving the clothes around. Who carries this much luggage? Anyway, he peered out and I watched in silence as we began moving. The cart was dragged across something bumpy and onto, likely, the train. I waited until it went dark and Cocoon poked me, gesturing out of the clothes and I nodded, dropping onto the floor to take a breath of fresh air. That perfume was awful.
After wiping my tongue off, several times, reality caught up with me. I'm no longer one of my kind... I'm not even on my world. I was trusting some bug-creature from another world. Then again, I was the scientist who had proved the existence of other dimensions to my world, so it wasn't far from my realm of belief.
I shook my head and looked at Cocoon again. He was meandering towards a large house near the station, practically devoid of people aside from the ponies with scraggly fur in front of it. They were all passed out on torn and ratty blankets. I frowned, homeless? That hadn't been a problem back home. We had long since increased employment and literacy to 100%. The last recorded suicide had been twenty years ago, even war itself was unlikely since diplomatic issues were decided through Virtual Realities so that we did not harm our world.
Cocoon led me into the house and up to a room full of children. They all gathered around murmuring their foreign words as he used an odd green mist and a book full of food landed next to him. He smiled and held up a hoof, 'VICTORY!' was the gist I got from him. They clapped their paws together excitedly. He waved towards the box and they dug in.
I looked around the room. Tattered blankets, sheets, and clothes covered the windows and floor. There were a few piles on the ground, likely for them to sleep on. I squinted, counting the beds. There was one extra, and it seemed that I was going to have to sleep here. I looked to Cocoon and he nodded. I jumped onto the pile. It was going to be a very different world.
My heart had twinged, these poor children. On my world, if a child’s parents died, abandoned them, or anything, they were taken in by the community. I myself had been brought up by my entire street and had a family, no matter where I went.
I did notice, however, that despite the looks Cocoon had received from the adults, he truly cared for the others, so I took a deep breath and headed downstairs. This may be an unfamiliar world, but I had no reason to doubt their hearts.
And that led to where I am now, a library of sorts. I began digging through their books working on figuring out the extent of their knowledge. So far, they had something they called magic which seemed to work like an inherent super energy, kind of like electricity on catnip.
All I could do was examine the diagrams, and get some new limited knowledge. It didn’t help that the librarian kept suggested children’s books that were clearly way too far below the average level on my world. I had finally found their science section, and… well, they were more backwards in that department than those deistical scientists on my world. ‘Pray and they will be healed.’ It was downright idiotic, but these horses at least had more logical understanding than that.
Health problems were allegedly caused by chaos in your own personal magic field, and it seemed that they had proven it to a degree. However, I had no reason to believe that these diseases weren’t caused by tiny parasites that actually influenced both one’s physical and magical bodies. It would make sense, considering that’s how it worked in my world, minus magic.
I tried telling the librarian I needed more information, but…
“I need higher level books,” I told her, waving the book around with my leg. A hard feat, since I just kind of held it slightly on it. The librarian looked at me like I was crazy, before I sighed and began a charades game of a sort.
“This,” I set the book on the floor, “is not,” I shook my head, “high,” I held up a foreleg, “enough.” I shook my head again. The librarian nodded and returned, AGAIN, with children’s books. I groaned and facepawed. I pointed my paw at the book she held and shook my head rapidly.
We repeated this a couple of times before I gave up, and began looking through the shelves. The librarian followed me, crazy queen, as I dug through each shelf. Agriculture… Spell-making…I grabbed the biggest and thickest of each. Astronomy… Meteorology… Biology… Physics… Psychology…
You name it, I likely grabbed the books. Even diagrams would work. I probably sat there for hours looking at the information in front of me. The more I dug, the more backwards these ponies seemed compared to what my species had accomplished. They seemed to at least accept the existence of other planets, but their comprehension of the universe was downright Stone Age.
They thought two horned-winged versions of themselves raised the sun and moon. I couldn’t help but crack up at that one. Even if they did move them, it didn’t work with their basic physics and astronomy. First, the star patterns had changed too gradually and logically for it to simply be the whim of the lunar one. Second, even the incident where both celestial bodies appeared in the sky could fit. If the lunar one actually moved the moon, I could understand.
But for one of them to move a star itself? That seemed idiotically powerful. My personal theory was that the planet was tidally locked, meaning she rotated the planet. That would fit with their past, after all. From their history, I had gathered that most of their kind had lived in an eternal twilight before they began rotating the planet. It would also fit, allowing these ice dog things to adapt to a colder environment, thus their natural magic would be attributed to colder habitats.
Theories are nice, and I would need the equipment to prove them later, but right now I needed to find a way to make money quickly so that I could help repair the house and make a home. If I was going to live there, as I was of course going to, then I needed to contribute.
The question was, what to make and how fast it could make money… I also needed to know what inventions they currently had. Basically, more research. It’s a little more knowledge, but most of their scientific knowledge wasn’t worth remembering, aside from little tidbits.
Several hours of research later, and, like I suspected, they needed a powered form of carriage or chariot. One capable of flight would likely be welcomed more openly. From what I could tell, they had basic combustion down, alongside motion, but properly powering it was impossible without magic.
Impossible, I smirked, we’ll have to see about that.
“Magic capacitors here… The internal combustion engine needs to be in the middle so as to properly balance it…” I muttered, drawing by lantern light. It had been about a day, and I already had a rough outline of the motorized flying chariot. Of course, as this was a prototype, I couldn’t amp up the speed yet. I’d say… 2 kilopaws a second? (Ten kilopaws- One mile).
Most of the children, as well as Cocoon, thought my drawings were utter gibberish. Too bad, they could’ve participated in quite the technological advancement. Too bad, so sad.
Right, sorry… Got a bit off topic, didn’t I? Anyways, the design wasn’t too complex… At least, for me. These horses were another story, I mean, look at their beliefs! As far as building, just the prototype itself would take ages to build, on my world. These horses had magic, so I guesstimated some extra speed.
Once I was done, I’d have to go and patent this. The idea frustrated me. Who would believe a child created this? I doubt they would. ‘Ok little one, that’s a pretty drawing. Where are your parents?’ That’d be what I would end up hearing.
It’s sad really, I mean, children could be quite intelligent. Once, a children had come up with a formula for rocket fuel that could take a ship to the moons, three times, on just one tank of… 20 liters. The other scientists scoffed, but when I took the kid to patent the formula and we successfully reached both moons, though one of them is actually our sister planet, and came back, they were a little… remorseful.
Lesson learned, never underestimate the brain of a child. Of course, here, it seemed children were normally focused on fun, their rear-leg marking, and magic. I was certainly the odd one out.
Back to the topic at hand, the airship would be powered by coal and steam. Of course, magic would play a part in holding her up, or so I hoped, so that more power could be put into the engines and add speed. I couldn’t make planes, they didn’t really have knowledge of their elements and magic energy didn’t quite work in that area so well.
The only thing left was the patent office, which would be SUCH a pain. Maybe I could find someone with enough knowledge and old enough to help me get it patented. Not only that, but I doubted my name would translate. They didn’t exactly relate to our language much.
So, that’s what I had to do next. Thankfully, it was daylight so I could make my way to the patent office and find SOMEONE to help me. It’d have to be a scientist, that’s for sure. I mean, scientists and inventors were crazy so I doubted one wouldn’t help me, but a normal horse would completely tail me off.
Of course, maybe that nice brown fellow at the table in front of the cafe with the strange hourglass marking might help me. He seemed odd enough, glancing down at a watch and doodling in a notebook of some sort. A lot of it seemed to do with clocks and other gear-type things from this angle, right beside him.
The horse looked at me and I looked at him. He blinked. I blinked. He tilted his head, I tilted my head. He neighed something, probably a greeting. I shook my head. “Not understand,” I said in their language. Two words Cocoon had taught me. They were very handy.
He neighed again, motioning towards his notebook, and I responded with another shake of my head. “Not understand,” I pointed at him and then at my muzzle. Sheesh, my days seem to be getting longer and longer…
