A Measure of History

“So, this is your home?”

James Volker raised an eyebrow, a slight frown furrowing his brow. He swirled his gaze around the inside of the unusually large tree, his eyes catching sight of the interior’s particulars.

The home, Twilight’s home, had the peculiar detail of being, well… a tree. At first, James had been curious with, as well as unnerved by, the oddity of the house. Upon entering, however, they had been greeted by a mixture of scents; the smell of parchment and ink dominating his senses, along with the homely atmosphere of books, both old and new.

As his eyes took in the interior of Twilight’s home, James could not help but think academia. Books, quills, bottles of ink, scrolls upon scrolls, some tools of a scientific nature that James could not understand upon first sight—yes, Twilight was obviously a scholarly sort.

“Yes!” Twilight replied, trotting easily into the center of the room. “Welcome to Golden Oak Library! Besides being my home, it’s also the town’s library.”

James's eyebrows rose and the proclamation, his accompanied frown giving off an expression of approval. “Oh, that’s nice,” he said, following Twilight in. Behind him, Rarity joined them, the only one of Twilight’s friends to have accompanied Twilight and James—the others had all dispersed, having their own responsibilities to take care of.

“Oh, I keep telling her that she needs to do something with the place,” Rarity said, her voice toned by her typical socialite accent. “It’s so… drab.”

“It’s fine, Rarity,” Twilight grumbled, having obviously heard her friend’s complaints before. “I like it just the way it is—a library doesn’t need to lookhaute couture, as you call it.”

“Haute propriété in this case, Twilight, and I disagree. Absolutely, a home of somepony of your ilk must be—“

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” James intervened, stepping between Rarity and Twilight. The fashionista frowned at him, the makings of a small glare beginning to form in her eyes, but James ignored it. “But, Twilight, where am I going to sleep?”

Twilight smiled at him, her eyes bright. “Feel free to take the guest room,” she said, motioning to a room to the side. “There’s a bed and a light in there, so just put your stuff in there.”

James frowned, taking a moment to look down over himself. Besides his now ragged and ripped suit, he had… nothing. Not even his beloved watch, which had disappeared at some point or other. He looked back at Twilight, displeasure evident on his face.

“Oh, that’s right,” Twilight cringed, looking away. “You don’t have any stuff… and you said humans need clothing, right?”

James simply nodded in response, not wanting to repeat what he had explained to Twilight and her friends after the princess, Celestia, departed.

“Yeah, those clothes aren’t going to last you any longer…”

Rarity stepped forwards, a large grin stretching across her mouth. “And this is where I come in, Twilight!”

James grunted, turning to look at Rarity. “What do you mean? Can you help?”

“Mmhm! I am a seamstress and fashion designer, after all, and I’ve always wanted to design clothing for something besides a pony. It’s a chance to test my skills.” Rarity flittered her eyes up at James, seemingly attempting to coerce him. “Meet me at my shop tomorrow at noon, so I can get your measurements.”

“But I haven’t agreed to anything,” James replied dubiously. “And whatever money you have here in Equestria, I don’t have any of it, so I wouldn’t be able to pay you.”

Rarity shook her head, a giggle escaping her lips. “Nonsense, dear, it’s all on me. I do like to be generous; I am the bearer of the Element of Generosity, after all.”

“The Element of what now?”

The unicorn, however, ignored him, turning around and making to leave. “Now, Twilight, I’m sorry to be a bother, but I’ll be making my departure now. Ta-ta!” Rarity opened the door with her magic, waving back with her hoof. James watched her leave, before turning back to the other pony still present.

“Twilight?”

She looked at him, her smile still present. “Yes, James?”

“What now?” he turned away, looking once more over the library. His eyes glazed over the various books within their shelves, skimming through their titles. “Is there anything else we need to do? I’m… pretty tired, actually.”

Twilight chuckled, turning away from James and making towards a table that sat in the middle of the library. “Not much else to do, really. I don’t want to introduce you to the rest of Ponyville just yet—I don’t want to cause any panic,” she explained, her horn now glowing with an arcane sheen as a number of books began to float off of their shelves. “And I think we should begin our… cultural exchange, tomorrow, after you meet Rarity. So, all that’s really left is dinner.”

“Which is when?” James asked, feeling his stomach. Indeed, now that he had realized it, he felt quite hungry—enough to, perhaps, eat a table.

Twilight giggled again, aware of James’ hunger. “Oh, as soon as my assistant, Spike, arrives with the groceries. Which should be about…”

Knock knock knock.

“About now,” Twilight trotted over to the door, her magic glowing. The door swung open, and outside stood a small creature, purple in color, with green scales that lined its head, back, and tail. James raised a brow, eyeing the multitudes of brown bags within its claws. Vaguely, yes, James remembered this creature—it had been the one to send that first letter to the princess. A dragon, if he recalled correctly.

“Thanks, Twilight,” the dragon said, his voice akin to that of a young male teenager. “I’ve got the groceries, but you probably already know that, and—huh?!”

He jumped back, his eyes wide in alarm as he dropped the bags within his arms. The dragon, Spike, he assumed, raised a claw, pointing straight at James. “Twilight, what the heck is that?!”

Twilight frowned down at Spike, smacking his head lightly with a hoof. “Spike, calm down. This is James—you saw him back at Fluttershy’s cottage, remember?”

James raised a hand, waving it lazily at the dragon. “Hey.”

Spike stared at James for several moments, silence reigning within the library, until he finally tipped his head back, his mouth open in an ‘o’ shape.

“Oh, okay. Yeah, I remember you,” he said, nodding at James. “What’s up? You weren’t looking too good earlier. Are you okay now?”

James smiled at the young dragon, nodding back. “Yeah, I’m alright now. Thanks for asking.” He looked back at Twilight. “Now, what’s for dinner?”

Twilight made to reply, but stopped, an eyebrow slowly cocking upwards. “Actually, first of all, James, I have a question for you.”

“I might have an answer. What is it?”

Twilight stepped closer to James, looking not into his eyes, but into his mouth. “I couldn’t help but notice that you have canines,” she queried, her tone of voice unsure. “Are humans… carnivores?”

Ah, yes. That would be a problem. James resisted the urge to smack himself in the face, having forgotten that ponies were, in fact, herbivores. Their diets, and those of humans, would not completely overlap.

James’ smile wavered, shaking his head at Twilight. “Well, not quite. Humans are omnivores, so we eat food from both plants and… animals.” He chuckled hesitantly, gauging Twilight’s visual response.

Twilight, for her part, did not dither, frowning up at James. “So, you can still eat plants, right? Because, I’m not sure anypony would be happy with you eating meat around here. Is hay acceptable? Flowers? Can humans eat grass?”

A little part of James died inside, before he responded. “Well, yes, we can eat plants, so I’ll be happy to… remove meat from my diet for now… though I’ll have to replace it with something else.”

Steak, it seemed, would be a pleasure to be forgotten for the time being, as would barbecue and grills. Very unfortunate, to say the least.

“But no,” he continued, eager to move on. "Humans can’t digest hay, or flowers, or… grass, for that matter.”

“Then are apples okay? Bread? What about eggs?”

James nodded, showing his affirmation. “Yeah, those are fine. I take it that’s what you’ve got in those bags?”

“Yep,” Twilight replied, her horn beginning to glow as she picked up the groceries. “I’m sorry, James, but besides some flowers and hay, that’s all we’ve got for tonight.” She looked up apologetically at him.

“It’s alright,” James assured her, smiling down warmly at the unicorn. “We can go over what I can and can’t eat tomorrow, with that culture exchange thing you were talking about. For the time being, though, I’m starving.”

Twilight returned James’ grin, promptly leaving through a side door. “Spike! Come on, it’s time to cook.”

“Coming Twilight!” The dragon said, leaving James alone in the library. James stood quietly for several moments, giving a half-hearted shrug, before making his way towards the guest room.

Some rest was in order, until the food was ready.

James bit into the sandwich in his hands, savoring the taste of toast, eggs, lettuce, and cheese. The food was delightful, to say the least, especially to his famished state of being, and though he would have preferred to have had at least some meat within his dinner, there wasn’t much he could do about it.

“Is it good?” Twilight asked from his right, and James swiveled slightly on his chair, noting that his seat was a tad bit too small to fit him comfortably.

James swallowed the food, enjoying the warm, filling sensation. “Yeah, it’s good, Twilight,” he replied, grinning at her. “You’re a pretty good cook, I’ve gotta give you that.”

Twilight’s cheeks reddened, a sheepish expression upon her face as an abash smile crept across her mouth. “Eh heh, this is really easy to make, it’s just toast and eggs… and besides, Spike did most of the work.”

“But it’s still good,” James assured her. “Don’t put yourself down, Twilight.”

“No dude,” James turned upon hearing Spike speak. “You don’t wanna know what happens when Twilight cooks on her own.” The dragon promptly bit into a large jewel of some sort, and James looked back at his sandwich, ignoring the absurdity of a dragon eating a gem.

“It can’t be that bad,” he said, taking another satisfying bite out of his dinner.

To his sides, Spike simply laughed to himself, apparently reminiscing upon humorous incident in the past, whilst Twilight groaned, looking away.

“Well, if you call making a bowl of soup implode suddenly start squawking like a chicken ‘not bad,’” Spike said between fits of laughter. “Twilight’s also managed to give her friends food poisoning several times in the past. They have an agreement to never let her cook for them.”

James immediately stopped eating his sandwich, looking at it analytically, with a new sense of fear. After a moment, he shrugged, biting into it once more.

“Doesn’t bother me,” James said, voraciously wolfing down his dinner.

Twilight and Spike both chuckled, and the three relapsed into silence, preferring to eat in peace as each reflected on the events of the day. After some time, Twilight coughed, standing up from her seat with her dish in her arcane grasp.

“Well, it’s about time for me to head off. I’ve got some important things to do before I go to bed, and I shouldn’t waste any more time,” she said, before turning to James with a gentle smile. “I’ll likely see you again tomorrow morning, James, so have a good night.”

James nodded in response, simply electing to watch Twilight ascend up the flight of stairs. He looked back at Spike, an eyebrow raised.

“And you, Spike? Are you done too?”

The young dragon nodded, picking up the arrayed silverware and plates. “Yeah, but I’ve got to do the dishes first. Night, James.” Spike walked towards the kitchen, carrying the various dishes with him.

Now alone, James sat silently for several moments, before standing up himself. It was much too early for him to sleep, but, at least some self-reflection was in order before he pitched in for the night.

Perhaps the morrow would bring with it some clarity to his situation.

Princess Celestia nibbled absentmindedly on her pastry, small flecks of bread and cake falling down to her plate as the diarch dwelled on her thoughts. Slowly, she put the sweet confectionary down, her blank, violet eyes simply directed out the open window of her private room.

It was a cold night, and a chill breeze swooshed in through the window, causing Celestia’s spectral mane to wave like a veil. Her sister, Luna, had raised the moon some hours before, and although Celestia was proud of her long-lost sibling, eager to see her reintegrated into modern Equestrian society, Celestia could not help but direct most of her mind towards matters more recent in time.

Namely, that of a particular human, the first of his race to lay his feet upon Equestria in a long, long time.

Though she felt, in her heart, that James Volker, the teacher, had been telling the truth, Celestia’s mind drifted towards the endless possibilities. At first, she had thought the man was an intruder—reconnaissance, perhaps, for a much larger force of humans that would, one day soon, pick up where their forebears had left off. The issue in that theory lay in the fact that James had defied all expectations Celestia would have had for a human of Har’yagul—she had thought he would be devious, scheming from the very start to fulfill some ulterior, menacing motive of his. Though all traces of mankind had been thoroughly erased long ago from Equestria’s records, Celestia remembered all too well their sinister ways.

Yet, James had been sincere, perhaps even honest to a fault—something that one of the Elements, Applejack, had clearly approved of. His plain terror and anxiety of being dropped into a new world had been genuine and, frankly, Celestia could see that he felt very much like a cornered animal in Equestria—though it seemed the human did not quite understand his own psychological thoughts or feelings on the matter yet.

There was, also, the matter that James did not possess the signature appearance of the humans Celestia was quite familiar with—pale, almost sickly skin, dark hair, the deep, ominously blue eyes, and their fanciful fashion of swooping cloaks and coats over ruffled and puffy formal wear. No, instead, James had been of a somewhat darker tone of flesh, as if having been thoroughly sunburnt in the past, cool, brown hair, and green eyes that foretold of care and melancholy. His ragged fashion had clearly once been a full, modern suit, albeit tailored for humans—items of clothing that no human she knew would have worn.

No, it was becoming clearer and clearer that James did not, in fact, hail from the same group of humans that once, long ago, tormented her little ponies. But the question still stood, and so she had decided to, once again, enlist the aid of her student, Twilight Sparkle.

Celestia’s orders for Twilight had all been contained within a letter she had sent not but a couple of hours before. Under the guise of a formal cultural exchange, Twilight would learn just where, exactly, this man had come from, and what his own people were like. That information would be brought to Celestia, and if all evidence pointed to James of having come from a benign civilization, she would let him be, and quickly fashion a way for him to return home, if he so desired.

Of course, if that were not the case, then she would crush him under her hooves, quickly and cleanly.

Knock knock.

Celestia turned, drawn out from her thoughts by the rhythmic sound of a hoof knocking upon her door. With a swoop of her magic, the door to her private chambers swung open, revealing a mare with a dark blue coat and a mane that reminded her of the beautiful night sky.

“Luna, dear sister. Is there anything you need?” she asked, smiling warmly at her beloved sibling. “How was the Night Court?”

Princess Luna returned her smile, beaming down at Celestia with love, and yet she beheld a familial concern in her eyes. “Bothersome like always, Tia, but I’m sure you know that already.”

The two sisters shared a laugh, before the Princess of the Night joined her sister on a cushion.

“Is something wrong, Luna?” Celestia raised an eyebrow, a frown upon her face. “You look worried.”

Luna nodded, placing a hoof onto her sister’s shoulder. “Indeed, We are worried about thee, Celestia. Thou hath—“

“Language,” Celestia interrupted, grinning markedly. “You’re slipping back into the old tongue, Lulu.” Luna rolled her eyes in exasperation before continuing.

“You’ve been in your chambers since you got back to Canterlot, Celestia. The moment you got back, I could tell something was bothering you—you hardly addressed me before retreating here,” she explained, her gaze sincere and her frown distressed. “What’s wrong?”

Celestia’s grin disappeared, replaced by a grimace. “Nothing, Luna, nothing. I’ve just been… tired, recently.”

Luna shook her head, patting her sister’s shoulder with her hoof. “Celestia, I may have been trapped on the moon for a millennium, but I can still tell when my sister is troubled, and lying to me. Tell me the truth, sister, or I’ll tell Blueblood you promised him an estate of his own.”

Celestia gave a low sigh, before giggling half-heartedly. “Oh, fine. I guess I can’t get anything by you, and besides, Blueblood would never shut up about that estate if you led him on,” she said. “But, yes, something has been on my mind. Luna, you remember the humans, yes? And their country of Har’yagul?”

Luna nodded, her gaze hard as a snarl made its way out her mouth. “Yes, I do. If I recall correctly, they all disappeared a century or so before… well, Nightmare Moon,” she spat, before looking curiously at Celestia. “Why? Have they returned? If they have…”

“No Luna,” Celestia reassured her sister, her smile warm, and she shook her head. “Well, at least they haven’t.”

“But?”

Celestia looked away, her eyes catching sight of a particular star outside, before responding. “A human has appeared, Luna. In Ponyville.”

Luna stood up abruptly, her form that of rage as she stomped a hoof. “Then what art we waiting for? Alloweth us to be off, to rid Equestria of that beast!”

“Caution, Luna!” Celestia pulled her sister back down. “I’ve already talked to him. He calls himself James Volker and, as far as I can tell, he’s not one of them—he told me he came from another world, and it seems he’s telling the truth.”

Luna frowned, obviously still displeased by the existence of a human within Equestria, yet beginning to calm down. “Then what do we do about this human, Celestia? Do we just let him roam free across our ponies’ lands?”

Celestia shook her head, holding her sister’s hoof with one of her own. “No, not at all. Twilight Sparkle, you know her, yes?”

Luna nodded her affirmation, a small smile creeping across her lips. “Yes, I do. She has been a good friend to us. Why?”

“Me, Luna, and I’ve put James, the human, under Twilight’s care for the time being. During the next few weeks, she and the human will exchange stories and facts about our respective cultures and societies,” Celestia explained. “If James turns out to be peaceful enough, then we can proceed from there. If not…”

After a moment of hesitation, Luna nodded. “I can’t say I agree with your decision, Tia, but I will stand by it.”

“And, Lulu, there is something I must ask you to do for me.”

“What is it?”

Celestia sighed, fatigue evident in her voice. “I request that you look into James’ dreams, and see what you can find. That way, we can find out more about his society of humans—and if he is lying or not, to our dear Twilight.”

Luna smiled at Celestia, standing up from her cushion. “I can do that, sister. Starting tonight?”

“Tonight.”

Luna nodded, giving her sister a quick hug before turning away to leave. “Then now, I’ll leave you alone. Have a good night, Tia.”

“You too, Lulu. And one more thing, before you go.”

Luna stopped in her tracks, turning around to face her sister once more. “Yes?”

“Tell Shining to send a few guards to Ponyville. Just in case.”