My name is... or was Jacopo Greyson, and I used to be a human being.
Human. It's such an unfamiliar term to me now, it feels weird in my mouth.
I used to be a human, until one day I made a wish for a new life and was transported with my sister to the fantastic world of Equestria and we became what we are today.
Today, my name is Autumn Glow and I consider myself a pony, a stallion. A happily married pony and a pony that is proud of his grown children and an even prouder grandfather. As I watch my own children make their own forays into life I can’t help but smile. I still keep in touch with all of my friends but, after I became a father they all kind of distanced themselves, keeping busy with their own lives while some moved away to begin their own families.
All of them, except for one. The one I now wake up next to and thank my lucky stars for. The one I married all those years ago. The single mare that made my life, my new life, matter.
As for my sister; I loved her and cared for her as much as I could but, it wasn’t enough. Though it’s been years the last memory I have of her still haunts me and it will continue to until my dying breath.
Celestia suggested I write a memoir a couple of years ago but I never really got around to it. I'll admit, I was afraid to. However, with the support of my friends and my family, I have begun the painstaking process of writing my life journal.
Starting out upon this venture has proven to be an enjoyable experience for me. Yeah, it brought back some memories that I feel were best forgotten, but I also remembered memories I had completely forgotten about. Ones that matter.
Unfortunately, while my memories of Equestria are crystal clear, many of my human memories are dim and dull, faded to the point of dream-like quality and I’m unsure of the accuracy of some. I guess it comes with living my new life as a stallion longer than my older life as a human and, happily, accomplishing so much more.
However, there is one human memory that remains as clear as the day it happened. That is the day I first experienced the magic of this world, where a certain princess opened it up for me, after I wished upon a star.
So from just before there is where this tale begins. Grab a drink and pull up a chair every reader: You’re all going to be in for the long run. You will be with me as I retell stories of love and hate, good times, bad times, happiness and sorrow, and the magic that is truly friendship.
Chapter 1-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
There was nothing about this night to suggest anything out of the ordinary. The moon dimly shone upon my house in the clear night sky. The birds had long since gone to their own burrows and the fresh sweetness heralding the arrival of spring was in the air.
All in all it was almost a quiet night. But not quite.
I rolled over in bed for what felt like the thousandth time that night, pulling the blankets over my head as I did so yet again in a fruitless attempt to block out the inevitable argument my parents had to have every night.
We were poor, I’m not going to lie about that. Me, my younger sister, my mother and my useless, drunk, good-for-nothing father. We were struggling to make ends meet, and that was just on the good days. Most days we didn’t make ends meet at all, even with Mom pulling two jobs and my paper-run. Those days we often went with one meal a day. This was mainly because Dad would waste the little money we had on alcohol and gambling.
He always came home really late, when he bothered to come home at all, and Mom would start hassling him usually about him stopping his drinking, gambling and for him getting a steady job. He would always make some horse hockey excuse and that would set my mom off which would set him off. Even now, with my head in my pillows, under the blanket, and ears plugged with my fingers; I could hear mother screaming at him.
“Jacopo?” A small, vulnerable voice whispered in the dark. “What’s going on out there?” Switching on my bedside lamp I saw my sister, eight year old Mayella, standing by the foot of my bed. As I laid my eyes on her a particularly loud shout from our father echoed around the house and she shivered.
“You cold?” I asked her gently. She shook her head. “Scared?” She nodded. I lifted my blanket and beckoned her closer. She clambered clumsily into my bed and cuddled close to me. I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her tightly. “What’s up May?”
“Mom and Dad are arguing again, aren’t they?” May asked me quietly. I sighed and nodded. “Yes, they are.”
“Why do they always have to shout at each other?” she asked as she cried softly to herself. “Do they not love each other?”
“Sweetie, I’m sure they love other very much. They just have problems every now and again, just like any other couples that love each other,” I soothed her with my voice while hating myself for having to lie to her. “Everything will be alright in the morning, you’ll see.”
Her tears dripped down her face and onto my pillow as she continued crying. “They don’t love us, do they Jaco?” she sobbed heartbreakingly. My heart ached to see her this way, so I braced myself, preparing to lie again.
“Of course they love us. They love you the most of course, and how could they not love you, little Maybie Waybie?” She giggled as I used our parents’ name for her, but all too soon she turned serious again. “If they love us, and they love each other, then why are they always fighting?”
I was silent for a few seconds and I guess she thought I was asleep because she remained silent, beginning to snuggling into me. “I don’t know,” I finally whispered to her, “I just don’t know why our parents have to fight, but I promise you, Mayella Greyson, that I will always be to protect you, ok?”
“Ok,” she mumbled sleepily. “I love you, big brother.”
I kissed her gently on the forehead. “I love you too, sis,” I whispered with a smile, “now sleep well and dream happy dreams.”
I don’t know if she heard me, for soon she was breathing slowly and steadily. I, however, couldn’t fall asleep. After a few moments of fruitless effort I eventually got out of bed and, taking great pains not to stir my sleeping sister, I opened my window to get some fresh air and quiet into the room; as though opening the window would quell their voices.
Taking a deep breath of the fresh air I stared up at the dark purple night sky quickly getting completely and utterly absorbed by the countless shining stars up there in the sky. Blinking slowly through tired and aching eyes I almost missed it.
There, perhaps one of the faintest stars, it’s six points gleaming a soft lilac, hung in the sky like a beacon. As I gazed at this wondrous star, I absently spoke aloud
“I would do everything, give anything in my my power to give my sister the greatest possible life. I wish her a life of simple peace, love and happiness, where noone can hurt her, betray her or scare her and I will be by her side, no matter what.”
As I whispered the words I glanced back at Mayella peacefully sleeping in youthful innocence. I smiled and turned to give the night scene a final look. To my surprise, the six-pointed star lilac star had disappeared, almost as if it had never been. I rubbed my eyes and looked again, squinting directly at the space where the star had recently occupied. Nothing, my eyes must be playing tricks on me or there was a cloud in the way that I couldn’t see.
Deciding it was perhaps merely only a figment of my imagination I shut the window and slid back into bed, where my eyes shut in a matter of seconds.
I don’t know how long I was asleep for, it may have been minutes or it may have been hours before I heard a voice in my dream.
“Awaken, human,” this voice, strangely beautiful yet commanding said to me. Thinking it was only part of my dream I shrugged it off and snoozed on. This was followed by a sharp poke in my ribs. In ignorance, I simply assumed that it was my sister.
“Mayella, I’m sure that whatever it is, it can wait until the morning,” I sighed, keeping my eyes shut and I tried to fall asleep again. “Stop bothering me and go back to sleep.”
“Thou would be wise to mind your words around a princess such as ourselves, human!” The voice continued, louder and I was poked again. ‘Since when did Mayella speak in third person?’ I wondered sleepily.
My eyes slowly blinked open. ‘Come to think of it, since when did Mayella start referring to herself as a Princess?’ I sat up and looked over to where she slept. To my great surprise, the other side of the bed was empty, Mayella was gone. I scratched my head in plain bewilderment. “Who in the hell?”
“Ahem!?” The same voice cleared it’s throat, directly behind me. I gulped hard and slowly turned around, dreading to think of what lay behind me. While I was prepared for some crazy-sociopathic-chainsaw murderer, I was not at all prepared for what stood before me. Now, in front of my disbelieving eyes, stood a small horse. A pony: similar to the ones I saw on a horse farm that was near my aunt’s.
Only, this one was different. It stood as tall as me, easily looking me in the eye. It was less detailed than a normal pony, but definitely more colourful with a coat of midnight blue and a long, flowing mane full of a galaxy worth of stars to match. If I hadn’t heard it address me before, I would have still declared it sentient just by looking into it’s blue eyes.
I shook myself firmly. ‘What am I thinking?’ I ridiculed myself. ‘This can’t be real.’
“Well yes but, also no, human,” the creature addressed me in a soft feminine tone. “No, this isn’t quite real, though that depends. This is merely a dream. A dream that We crafted to make Our presence more easily acceptable to thee.”
‘Holy crap!’ I exclaimed in my mind, ‘This thing can read my mind?’
“Well, yes we could converse as such, but We choose not to for thy convenience,” it remarked a little sourly. “But thou have spoken aloud these last few words.”
‘Well that explains the mind reading thing’ I thought, careful to close my mouth this time.
“As for ‘this thing’,” she replied cooly. “We would ask thou to refrain from such ignorant generalization. We are an Alicorn Princess, but you may address Us as Princess Luna.”
“Uh, m-my apologies, P-princess Luna,” I stammered as I rolled to the edge and jumped out of my bed, quickly I kneeled before her in a deep bow. “I did not seek to anger your highness.”
Suddenly, I heard a tinkling sound, like glass falling. It took me a moment to realize that Luna was laughing. “Arise, fair human that calls thyself Jacopo Greyson, thou needst not bend thy knee unto me. We are not so arrogant and power hungry that we would force outside species to bow before an unrecognised idol!”
I slowly picked myself up but kept my eyes at her hooves, lest she change her mind. “Pardon me for speaking out of turn, your highness,” I said, standing up again. “But why have you come to me in this dream? What, um, who are you?”
“We have come to answer thy wish human,” the princess replied, “Thou did wish a better life upon thy sister and self, correct?”
“Well, I saw a strange star and I hoped for a better future for her, yes.”
“Then that is why we come to be in this particular dream. Our ruling sister heard thy wish and bid us to seek you at once. We have come from our own lands; a world far from this one, but similar in structure.”
“Where is my sister and where would you take us?” I asked her, letting my eyes rise to meet hers. They were like sapphires, reflecting a galaxy I never knew at me.
She shook her mane and scuffed her front hooves on the floor, a little impatiently. “Your sister is in another dream. We had spoken to her previously. As for thy wish for a better future, Our sister and I could think of no better future for thou and thy kin but in our ruled lands.”
“Hang on,” I had to clarify one this opportunity she was offering me. It was the middle of the night, afterall. “You mean to say that you have come to take us from this world, my real world, and transport me and my sister to your lands?”
She fluffed her wings, clearly impatient now. “Were we not clear in that regard?” She huffed. “We would take you to Equestria where thou wouldst live out thy days in our world; in peace.”
For a moment, I was all ready to say yes, to get Mayella and go, but then I realized that this was only a dream after all, and I sighed in weary disappointment. “Thanks, but no thanks.”
Luna’s eyes widened and she reared back slightly. “But thou sought a happier life for thy kin, the human thou call Mayella, did thou not?” She said loudly, obviously put out at coming here on this fool’s errand. “We could give thou what thy asked for, what thy desperately wanted!”
“Here, in this dream world, I know you could Luna,” I replied sadly, “But at the end of the day, this is nothing but a dream, not the real world.”
She watched me carefully, then smiled slightly. “Thou are indeed a curious human, Jacopo. She turned towards my bedroom window. “Very well, we will leave thou here, as thou have requested, after our departure, thou will return to the normal dream world.”
Her horn glowed a deep blue, and the window smoothly slid open. The princess gracefully floated through the window, but stuck her head back through to speak to me. “We will leave thou and thy sister here, as thou wished,” she replied. “But know this, if during thy normal sleep thou wake up and open this window, then thy original request will be granted, thou and thy sister will awaken in Equestria. Farewell for now Jacopo, may thy dreams be happy!”
With that, she was gone and my window slid shut again. I staggered as a wave of exhaustion washed over me. I stumbled back to my bed and flopped into it, falling asleep immediately.
I woke up again, gasping for breath as I surfaced. My room was like a furnace and it could only mean one thing. ‘Dammit, Luna’s still here!’ I sat up again and glared out the window, but there was nothing there. All the same I heard a shuffling of the blankets and a tired whimper coming from beside me. Upon closer look Mayella was snuggled up to me again, still breathing deeply and steadily though her little face was creased in a frown as my movements had disturbed her.
Gazing around my room I released a pent-up breath. I had indeed left Luna’s dream but did that mean that I was now awake? I pinched my arm and hissed in pain. ‘Yep, definitely awake.’ I shifted in bed and became aware of the heat in my room again, it was sweltering hot and that must have been what woke me. As I got out of bed, careful not to stir Mayella, I was conscious of my shirt sticking to my back and that my throat felt like dry.
I stood still, listening intently for any sounds that my parents were still up. Nothing but silence. They must have finished their fight and gone to bed a long time ago. I quickly, but quietly, moved to the kitchen where I drank two glasses of water quickly and greedily.
Tiptoeing back to my room I found it still too hot so I went to my window again opened it and glanced once more up to the night sky. ‘Huh, is it me, or is the moon larger than normal?’ I idly wondered as I jumped back into bed.