The Sun and The Moon's Set - An Autobiography of Alan Hasset

“Look! Look! New!” Shouted a small unicorn colt before he bounded off towards the exhibit.

“Gold Coin! Come back here!” His mother, Silver Voice, commanded. As she approached her colt she took a look at the new exhibit and suddenly froze with fear and curiosity. The creature in the cage reminded her of an old monster that her mother told her of to keep her in bed as a filly. In the background, she started to overhear a conversation from an odd mismatched group consisting of a Zebra, a Griffon, and a Minotaur.

“-of the Chasers in old tales from my home.” Said the zebra, “The creatures were an abomination of nature, legs of an ostrich, arms of a dragon, joined by a Minotaur’s body, and topped with a head that had the shape of a Habili and the predatory expression of a hyena. They were horrible monsters in Zebra Tales. They didn't outrun you, they outlasted you. You could have thought that you had run far enough ahead, that they had lost your trail, and that you had time to lay down to rest only find yourself getting torn apart in your sleep. The worst part is that many stories tell that they flay you alive and then wear your skin.” The zebra shuddered but continued, “Obviously these animals don’t fit the description exactly, but you can see how they are reminiscent of the monsters, the long legs, and dragon like arms.”

As the zebra ended, the minotaur started to shout, “Minotaurs too have such grand tales of monsters! This animal reminds me of the tiny, busy Maze Dwellers!” The minotaur emphasized the last two words. “Indeed! A famous tale from the Great Herd of Redhoof! Chief Stone Crush! The holder of Freeflow River! The Defend-“

“As much as I respect your great historical leader, I would kindly ask you to refrain from listing all his accomplishments. I’m sure you understand that with so many titles it may take a long time to finish.” The zebra interrupted.

“Hahaha! Very right zebra! Very well then! In the interest of time that you zebras love so much with your hearts! I will make this brief! In a time before the terrifying Night Mare nigh caused unending night, Chief Stone Crush disappeared on a night when The Great Luna graced us with a full moon! Many days passed by with no sign of him! Not on the tallest mountain nor in the deepest ravine! So Spell Horn the Wise decided to spy through Stone Crush’s own eyes! He found that Stone Crush had ended up in a Grand Labyrinth! No one knows how or where such a labyrinth was built, nor why the chieftain began acting as a monster! Somehow the Maze Dwellers had contained Stone Crush and drove him into insanity in mere days! The plan seems to have backfired! The great Stone Crush, even when turned into a monstrous creature, was fighting against anything trying to control him! He turned into the hunter! He would hunt down the Maze Dwellers and eat them! He met a warrior’s end at the hands of a Maze Dweller with a large iron knife! The last thing Spell Horn said he saw was the Maze Dweller cutting into Stone Crush’s head! An unfortunate tale, but a widely known one as it explains the sudden disappearance of Stone Crush!”

Silver Voice had heard of minotaur bards but never had the pleasure of hearing a tale from one. This one certainly had a flair for the dramatic. His story punctuated by an increase in the minotaur's already loud voice. Heroic poses to accentuate the hero's deeds. But, even if the story was interesting, she did not care for how gruesome it was. Hunters? Large knives? Beheadings?! Are all minotaur tales so violent? At least the zebra's legend appeared to be meant to scare you, the minotaur appeared to revel in the violence of his words.

As Silver Voice pondered in her thoughts, the griffon unexpectedly inserted itself in the conversation. Silver Voice was rather surprised by this. Conversations weren’t typically engaged in by griffons, especially not by one that looked so feral. “I’ve only been civil for a few years. Griffons do tell stories of creature like this. They are not regarded as monsters. They are held up as examples. Intelligent predators that work in herds. Like the ponies of this land or the zebras in yours. I do not know much about details. They have inspired me to work with other griffons. I know my race can succeed just as well as yours.” The griffons speech was made mostly of simple sentences, Silver Voice could tell he was not used to speaking.

“…Wow.” Silver Voice commented fascinated by the griffon. “I have never seen any of you speak so much, especially if you have only been part of the new griffon civilization for a few years. You speak so well and politely too.” To be honest, the griffon’s description of the creatures as something for them to look forward to made her sick. She had heard the zebra and minotaur speak their stories of monsters so similar to the monster she had been told of as a filly, but yet the griffon looked at the monster with admiration. But never the matter, she thought she should at least be polite to a griffon who came from the feral life.

“Many thanks. Many times it is challenging to work with others. When I learned of civilized griffons. I wished to be a part of it. It’s why I traveled here. To see how the ponies did it. I've learned etiquette on my travels. This being is interesting. This being is real. Something that exists as proof that predators can create on our own.” The griffon explained. Silver Voice was astounded. Never had she seen a griffon so dedicated to the idea of making a lasting civilization. The griffon did another unexpected thing, it interrupted her thoughts.

“How about ponies? Do you have stories of creatures like this?”

“Uhhh… yes.” Silver voice responded. “As a filly living in one of the many towns that border the Everfree I was told the story of the Everfree Flesh Drake. Monstrous creatures that rival the height of the Princesses. They kinda looked like a young dragon without scales or a tail and would sneak around the streets and steal the skin of little colts and fillies to cover their own scale less bodies. They terrified me as a kid, but these animals aren’t nearly as scary.”

“Indeed,” The griffon said distantly.

The zebra then interjected. “It’s intriguing that all of our cultures seem to have these two legged monsters in our respective cultures. My story and the pony’s story both talk of the skin stealing and every one of them deals with a two legged creature. I wonder why none of us can name these animals. All of us can only recall these creatures from stories. Is this a mythical creature that the Equestrians have discovered after years of living in the shadow? If so, why is it in the zoo? The griffon and the minotaur both describe intelligent creatures. If this is the case, wouldn't it be morally wrong to lock up intelligent creatures in such a cage.”

“Like you said zebra! They would flay you alive! Perhaps these creatures are enemies to all of us!” The minotaur shouted.

The griffon answered. “I will disagree. Feral griffons attack when caged. If these creatures are feral. They would not be studying us without aggression.”

-_-_-_-_-

I listened to a group of a zebra, minotaur, griffon, and a unicorn were all talking and occasionally looked in our direction. I had no idea what they were discussing. In the TV show everyone spoke English, but here the ponies have their own language. It struck me as odd that of all the things that could have been different about the world My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, language happens to be the most noticeable and aggravating. I mean come on! Granny Smith sings the ABCs around watering cans and Zecora rhymes her sentences, both very hard to do when you’re not speaking English. I don’t know if there are other inconsistencies on account of us being trapped in this godforsaken cage.

When I read a normal Human in Equestria story, things go so much better than this. Yes, the hero generally encounters a manticore or Rainbow Dash/Applejack knocks him out, but they aren’t thrown into a zoo without any clothes with four others. In fact, in many HiEs there is only one human, there are five here. I guess much of those fan fictions are just wish fulfillment… in other new fire is hot….

I took a good look around our caged area. Our cage was relatively small, only about the size of a classroom. I saw my four friends covering up as best as possible from the prying eyes of the visitor ponies. It was understandable that the ponies didn’t quite know about the role clothes play in our society. It didn't make them stripping us of clothes any more comforting. I don't know why they have thrown us into a zoo like we were animals. You would think that with the technologies we had that were suited for our bodies, they could have at least deduced our sapience. Then again, we rode into Appleloosa on horses that were wearing the treated skin of cow. Perhaps this was payback for them? I don’t know…. The accounts the Buffalo gave them probably didn’t help our case either.

Upon me thinking of the buffalo, guilt came crashing upon me again. It called up images of the greatest misunderstanding that my friends and I will ever encounter in our lives. One side of myself assures me that I couldn’t have possibly known what was going on, that I was in Equestria. The other side of me berates me for not seeing the signs all around during the two weeks in the desert. This argument with myself has be going on repeatedly throughout the week I spent in this zoo, the only thing that calms me down is to go through the events that led up to this moment to assure myself that I was acting completely rationally, I might even figure out a clue on why we’re here in the first place.

Ok let’s start again. Let me begin the day right before I arrived in Equestria once again….