Twice an Alien

Ch. 3 Introductions

I took in the site that was the library with my mouth open, having a hard time believing that I had just been teleported. Shaking my head I looked around trying to discern if this was just an illusion. Before I could voice my amazement at what just happened the pink pony chimed in “WEEEE! That was fun Twilight! Let’s do it again!”

Twilight giggled at the pink ponies antics saying, “Sorry Pinkie Pie but you’ll have to wait until next time. Even as much as I’ve been practicing my teleportation spell it still takes a lot out of me. Especially when I have to transport multiple ponies at one time.”

I decided to speak up, “So while I’m not sure if that experience was fun, as Miss Pinkie Pie voiced, I’ll admit i’m amazed that teleportation even exists. Let alone the fact that you just did it near instantaneously with multiple people. Also as i’ve just witnessed what I would consider to be an impossible feat dare I ask if you are in fact a unicorn capable of magic?” I had noticed the horn on Twilight and Rarity's head but had been hesitant to believe yet another creature from legends existed.

“Yes of course. All unicorns are capable of at least basic magic.” she said as if it was the most common thing in the world. I took this last revelation about as well as could be expected for a man that was completely overloaded with legends coming to life. I sat down, laid on my back, and just starred up the ceiling breathing evenly.

After a minute or so of quiet contemplation Fluttershy decided to speak up, “U-um Cicero? Are you ok?” I took a moment to think about my response to that.

Making up my mind I finally spoke, “Yeah I guess i’m ok. Just a little overwhelmed by everything. I’ve always considered myself a pretty level headed person but recently that sentiment has been put to the test. I woke up today to a talking pony yelling and threatening me with a pitchfork. I then proceeded to watch another pony in an apple field kicking a tree so hard it’s apples fell off due to the sheer power of the vibrations coursing through its branches. Next I was chased through an Apple Orchard by these two ponies at speeds most mammals couldn’t possibly hope to achieve. Again I was blown away by meeting miss Fluttershy who is quite literally a fantasy pegasus brought to life.” Fluttershy make a quiet ‘eep’ of surprise at this statement. “And to top it all off I then met a fucking unicorn capable of magic that could teleport multiple people instantaneously.”

Twilight was the first to speak up, “Based on what you just said can I assume that wherever you’re from doesn’t have unicorns or pegasi?”

“No Twilight it most certainly does not. But now that we’re on the subject of where i’m from,” I said while sitting up, “Where am I?”

“You’re in the town of PonyVille located near Canterlot in the country of equestria!” I looked down and racked my brain for any past knowledge that might help me make sense of what she just said. Thinking of all the places I knew I’m pretty sure there isn’t any country or land called Equestria on Earth, at least I don’t think so. Then again I have limited geographical knowledge as it never really interested me. As I was thinking, a scary thought passed through my mind.

Steeling myself for my questions response I quietly said, “Twilight, this planet we’re on is called Earth right?” She looked at me funny.

“No the name of this planet is Equis…..” Her eyes widened in surprise as she understood why I was asking. “ARE YOU FROM ANOTHER PLANET!? Oh my gosh this is so exciting! There are so many things I want to ask you!” She turned around and looked up at a staircase yelling, “Spike! Quick I need you to take a note!”

I heard a grumble come from upstairs as someone called back, “Alright i’m coming Twilight. Just one moment.” I decided to get in a word before the other person came downstairs.

“To answer your question Twilight, yes I believe I am as my planet is called Earth and we don’t have any countries or lands called Equestria. Nor any talking ponies for that matter.”

All of the other ponies seem to gasp while Pinkie Pie called out, “YIPPEE!! You're the first alien from another world I’ve ever met! Not only that but you’re new to ponyville! You need a super awesome welcome to Equis, Equestria, and Ponyville Party! Do you like cupcakes? I love cupcakes! What’s your favorite flavor? Do aliens eat cupcakes? What about Cake? Do aliens have parties? What’s your favorite color? Can I-”

“PINKIE PIE!” all of the other ponies called out to her. Pinkie Pie looked slightly abashed as she realized she had been overwhelming me with too many questions.

I ran over all the questions she had bombarded me with, in my mind, and then responded with, “Yes, red velvet, most do, again most do, yes, and Blue.” Everyone stared at me in shock, except for Pinkie Pie who seemed very pleased with my responses.

“OOOOHHH I’m so excited! This party is going to be amazing! You’ll have to show me some alien baking at some point.”

“Yes, yes Pinkie I’m sure your party will be amazing, as they always are, in the meantime did I hear you mention something about countries?” Twilight said excitedly looking at me.

“Errr yes we have countries. Quite a few in fact. I come from one called the United States of America, or just USA for short.” I said.

She looked positively ecstatic at this news and turned around to yell at the stairs again, “SPIKE! SPIKE! I Need you quick! I don’t want to loose any of this valuable information!”

Rainbow Dash chose this moment to snort while saying, “Oh man Twilight. You allways nerd out at such boring eggheaded things. There’s way cooler stuff we could be asking this guy.” She fluttered in the air over to me and hovered close. “Like what’s the fastest you’ve ever gone?”

Before I could respond to Rainbow Dash's question a large upright walking purple lizard came down the stairs saying, “Jeez Twilight what’s the big deal?” Holy shit. Is…. is that a dragon? No fucking way. Being unable to contain my incredulity any longer I called out to the lizard, “Are you a dragon!?” The purple lizard at first jumped in surprise having not seen me as it was coming down the stairs.

After recovering it seemed to puff up its chest as it proudly exclaimed, “You betcha I’m a dragon! I can breath fire and everything!” My right eye started to twitch. I took a deep breath and let it out very slowly.

Again Fluttershy chimed in, “U-um… Cicero?” The concern was evident in her voice.

“Yes yes i’m ok again. With all the new things i’m learning today i’m just having to re evaluate everything that I believed to be a myth. Creatures like Pegasi and Unicorns are one thing but deadly magical carnivores such as dragons and manticores are a little harder to swallow.”

“D-deadly c-c-carnivores!” she squeaked.

“Manticores!” Rainbow Dash yelled excited. “Did you see one or something?”

“Yes Miss Rainbow Dash I not only saw a manticore I was in fact chased by said deadly beast through the forest last night. I’m pretty sure it was trying to make me it’s late night snack.” “WHAT!” Everyone called out in surprise. “Yeah I guess I’m lucky to have gotten away. I was really really drunk last night.” I said sheepishly while scratching the back of my neck. “That’s why I have these bandages all around my torso. Apparently I got them last night running away, but I was too drunk to notice.” I halfheartedly chuckled. “Thank you for doing such an excellent job bandaging me miss Fluttershy.” Fluttershy seemed to blush harshly and tried very hard to hide herself behind her pink mane.

“SO AWESOME!” Rainbow Dash called out. “I may have to re-evaluate your coolness factor now! You're at least... ,“ she contemplated her answer, “20% percent cooler now!”

“Rainbow Dash being chased by a manticore is not cool! It’s terrifying and dreadful! I mean look at the poor dears pants and shirt! They’re not but tattered rags now,” Rarity called out. I wasn’t sure but it seemed like Rarity was more offended about the manticore destroying my clothing than me.

Suddenly AppleJack spoke up with a glum sound to her voice, “Ahhh gall dangit. That’s why you were hiding in ma’ barn with blood on your clothing, isn’t it?” She looked really distraught by this realization.

“Uhhhh yeah sorry about that again. I didn’t mean to break in and everything but I was really exhausted and badly needed to rest.”

“Ahh sugarcube it’s alright. If anything I’m the one that needs to be sorry for trying to throw a pitchfork at ya this morning. I thought you were a no good thief.”

“It’s completely fine Miss AppleJack. I would probably have acted the same in your situation. Besides I slept in your barn last night and ate a couple of your amazing apples so let’s just call it even.” I said giving her a full smile. AppleJack looked up from the ground and gave me back a smile.

Twilight spoke up yet again, “I’m very happy you and AppleJack worked that out but I really really want to ask you some questions!” Twilight looked like she was about to explode if I made her wait any longer.

“Very well Twilight. I think I can handle a few questions. But I have a few questions as well. If you wouldn’t mind answering them. How about we go back and forth?”

“Excellent! Spike are you ready?”

“Sure am Twilight!” Spike said back.

“Alright first question wh-” she began as I interrupted her.

“Wait please. Is it alright if I go first? I have a question that I feel needs to asked first.”

Looking upset at being denied the ability to ask her questions Twilight said, “Alright very well. I suppose I can wait a little bit longer”

“Thank you. I know it’s a little late but who are all of you? I’ve heard all of your names during conversations but we’ve all yet to do introductions.”

“Oh my goodness dear you’re absolutely correct. How could we have forgotten proper etiquette,” Rarity said as if she’d committed some heinous crime. “This simply must not stand. Let me be the first to correct this egregious oversight. My name is Rarity. And I am this town's resident seamstress, designer, and fashion aficionado!” Rarity was a unicorn, like twilight, with a completely white short coat of fur across her whole body. But her defining physical features that stood out were her eyes, tail, and mane. He large eyes were a light sky blue and were made to heavily stand out by her obviously well maintained dark eyelashes. Her purple mane and tail were the centerpiece to her physical appearance though. Both her mane and tail had obviously been painstakingly curled and layered to perfection. They accented her plain white coat well. One other thing I noticed was a strange tattoo on the side of her hip. It depicted three sparkling light blue gems.

Wait did she say she’s a fashion designer? What’s the point if ponies don’t wear any clothes? Trying to understand how she could support herself with this job I asked, “Not to be rude miss Rarity, but how often do ponies wear clothing? As far as I can see you guys are as naked as they day you were born.” Everyone seemed to get slightly embarrassed when I called them out on their nudity, which seemed silly to me as they all hadn’t minded just a few seconds ago. But I suppose things like that generally weren’t asked if wearing clothing wasn’t a societal norm here.

Rarity recovered from my statement first. “While it is true that ponies don’t generally wear clothing at all times most like to wear dresses and other fancy clothing on special occasions. And please darling just call me Rarity. I believe I speak for all of my friends when I say no honorifics are needed here.” All of the other ponies seemed to nod their heads at this.

“I see. Thank you for allowing to address you all informally.” I pondered what occasions would call for clothing to be worn by a species that was apparently generally nude.

Twilight broke my train of thought by saying, “While I want to ask you why your species wears clothing and how often you do I’ll just finish the introductions first.” Twilight Sparkle was a completely purple unicorn. Unlike rarity she didn’t seem to spend as much time on her mane and tail as they were just brushed straight. It was still reasonably easy to tell she was a mare based on her body structure and appearance. Both her mane and tail had a streak of indigo and magenta going through them which greatly accented her purple body. Her eyes were also a darker shade of purple than her body. What surprised me was that like Rarity she also had a tattoo on her hip. Although hers depicted a large six pointed magenta start with 5 small white stars surrounding it.

“As I said earlier my name is Twilight Sparkle but you can just call me Twilight for short. I’m the protegee to princess Celestia of Canterlot and i’m here in Ponyville studying magic. More specifically i’m studying the magic of friendship. Oh, and I also run the town library which is where we currently are.” Protege of the princess? I wonder if the princess is training her in just magic or perhaps to become nobility or maybe even something else. Who is this princess? Also what the hell is the magic of friendship? Does she mean that metaphorically or does she actually think that friendship holds some type of magic? It sounds crazy to me but judging by the insane things that have been happened to me recently I wouldn’t discount it being real. So many unknowns. I feel like i’m drowning in all of these questions.

I was drawn from my sea of questions by Rainbow Dash who had taken it upon herself to go next. “The name's Rainbow Dash.” Rainbow Dash was probably the most flamboyant out of the whole group of ponies. She was a pegasus with a solid sky blue coat. Her eyes were a darker shade of magenta which stood out magnificently from her blue coat. These two paired features were completely overshadowed by her mane and tale though which were both rainbow colored. I was heavily skeptical to believe that this color scheme was natural, but then again I had seen stranger things today. Like the others she also had a hip tattoo. Hers was a small white cloud with a rainbow colored lightning bolt striking from it. What personally threw me for the biggest loop were her wings. There is no way wings that relatively tiny, in comparison to her frame, should ever be able to maintain sustained flight. As I had seen her do just this earlier I was trying to grasp what aeronautics could make this possible.

I didn’t get to think long as she said, “I’m the fastest flyer there ever was! I’m part of the pegasus weather team around ponyville now but I’m training to one day join the Wonderbolts!” Given her boast of being the fastest pegasus I could understand why she asked me how fast I could go earlier.

“First, might I enquire as to what a pegasus does on the weather team? Second, who are the Wonderbolts?”

“WHAT! HOW CAN YOU NOT KNOW ABOUT THE WONDERBOLTS!?!?” I simply continued to look at her and raised an eyebrow. After a second she realized her mistake. “Oh right. From another world. He he sorry about that. Well the wonderbolts are the most awesome pegasus flying group to ever exist! They train day and night to do crazy amazing tricks together at flying shows and i’m going to join them one day!” She finished proudly. “As for what I do on the weather team it’s pretty lame in comparison, although I still find a way to make it look amazingly cool of course. I just clear the sky of clouds when their not needed and then create whatever weather is scheduled for that day.”

I raised both my eyebrows this time and gave her a skeptical look. “You mean to tell me that you actually fly into the sky, remove clouds, and somehow create weather phenomenon every day?”

“And look crazy cool while doing it.” she thoughtfully tacked on while nodding. I shook my head in disbelief.

“Ok let’s say for a second that I actually believe you can do this, you do realize what this means, correct?” She seemed to think for a second and then just shrugged her shoulders. I sighed while saying, “This means you can do things that shouldn’t be possible even when taking into account magic. You can somehow interact with condensed water vapor by dispersing it and calling it back together at a whim. Next you can somehow manipulate these clouds to create water and i’m assuming lighting as well. This implies the ability to shift thousands of agitated bits of ice to create massive electrical currents without damaging yourself. But you didn’t specify weather phenomenon so i’m also assuming this includes other things such as wind currents and snow. This again implies control of wind and large air masses along with the ability to shift their positions rapidly,” I finished completely unconvinced of her claims.

Everyone was now staring intently at me as if I had grown a second head. “That was hot,” Twilight said with an hungry look on her face. These words seem to break the spell of silence as she blushed furiously and looked away trying act as if she hadn’t just said that. I blushed slightly as her words as well.

Everyone seemed to be trying to hold back a laugh at this statement while Rainbow Dash just gave in saying, “Yep that’s Twilight for ya,” and then began laughing uproariously. Twilight somehow impossible got redder.

Rarity came to Twilight's rescue with, “Darling there is nothing wrong with being attracted to intelligence.” Twilight looked like she’d had enough of this and tried to get the conversations going again. “Can we please just move on with the introductions? AppleJack why don’t you go next?”

Applejack chuckled slightly and said, “Sure thing hon. Well even though we met earlier ma name's AppleJack.” AppleJack was an light orange colored pony with a straw yellow colored mane and tail. Her mane and tail were both tied off at the ends in a loose ponytail. Heh ponytail. Moving on. Her eyes were a light lime green that clashed well with her orange face and white freckles. The centerpiece of her appearance was the light brown stetson resting upon her head. Judging from it’s heavily worn exterior it was obviously worn every day. If AppleJack had been a human she would have been the perfect representation of the attractive farmgirl look. Like the other she also had a tattoo on her hip. Hers depicted three indistinct red apples with green stems in a triangle around each other.

“As I also said earlier I run tha Apple Family Farm at the edge of town. We produce apples, vegetables, milk, jam, apple based alcohol, and pretty much everything else a normal farm does. So whenever ya have a hankering for fresh food ya come to us now ya hear!” She very proudly finished. I could see from the way she talked about her farm that it was a very special place for her. I could definitely respect someone who loved what they did everyday. On earth that type of pride in one’s work usually let to a better product and more attention to little details. I suddenly remembered something I had wanted to ask AppleJack earlier.

“AppleJack earlier when I was running through your farm I noticed a red pony kicking trees to knock apples off of them. Is that a normal skill?” Applejack chuckled at this question.

“Shoot that ain’t nothin for an earth pony. We got strength in heaps!”

This was a slightly scary revelation but I felt the need to also ask, “What’s an earth pony.”

“Hmmmm,” she thought, “the easiest way to describe it would be to say any pony without wings or a horn is an earth pony. We’re a whole heap stronger than the other two and are usually pretty darn good at growing things. But since we’re askin about each other I’d like to know how you took of so fast when me and Big Mac were givin chase earlier.”

Ah shit. That’s not something I really want to talk about. But seeing as how these ponies had been so open with me so far I felt it would be incredibly rude to not answer. I decided on a half truth half lie.

“Well without going into too terribly much detail I just shifted energy from one part of my body to the other. I just looked for the core of the energy inside my body and shifted some to my legs so I could go a tid bit faster than you. It’s a pretty common ability for the people on my planet.”

AppleJack seemed to frown as she said, “A tid bit faster? Sugarcube ya darn near shot off at 10 times me and Bic Macs top speed.”

“WHAT!?” yelled Rainbow Dash. “I’ve seen AppleJack run full speed and she’s pretty darn fast. Hmmmmm I have to reevaluate your coolness level yet again. I wonder how fast you can go….. But in the end it’ll never equal up to the awesome speed of my sonic rainboom!” She finished triumphantly.

“Sorry sonic rain what?” I asked, thinking I had misheard.

Rainbow Dash seemed to glow with pride as she said, “My Sonic Rainboom! It’s my killer trick in which I go so fast I create a rainbow shockwave!”

I sighed, turned to twilight, and said, “Is she seriously claiming she can exceed the speed of sound?” Twilight seemed shocked that I was asking her but quickly recovered.

“Yes. And i’ve actually seen her do it a few times. The rainbow colored shockwaves are quite nice.” I brought the middle fingers of my hand to my heads temples and began to rub them gently. Before anyone could ask me if I was ok again I said, “I could try to explain to you that first off just by design your wings shouldn’t be able to maintain sustained flight. I could also try to explain to you that a creature of you body structure shouldn’t be capable of getting anywhere near the speed of sound. And last I could also try to explain that creating rainbow colored refractions of light while breaking the sound barrier make absolutely no sense. But you know what? At this point I’m pretty much just going to explain all these insane scientific phenomenon with, ‘fuck it it’s magic’.”

Granted with my abilities I really really shouldn’t be able to say shit to Rainbow Dash about what was supposed to be scientifically possible. But I wasn’t going to tell her that and give her ammo to back up the defense of her logic defying abilities. And in my defense I could explain how I can do what I do. At least most of it. Alright only some of it.

Before I could try to come up with a logical defense for myself in my head Rainbow Dash retorted with, “Well I’ll just have to show you my amazing skills sometime you neighsayer! I guarantee once you see my stunt routine you’ll be so wowed you won’t try to use your nerd logic anymore!”

Being skeptical of these claims I simple said, “Let’s just continue with the introductions if you all wouldn’t mind.”

“OOOH OOOH ME NEXT ME NEXT!” Yelled a very exuberant Pinkie Pie. While Pinkie Pinkies appearance wasn’t quite as flamboyant as Rainbow Dash's, Pinkie Definitely came in close second to her. Her body was pretty much completely pink. Her coat was a cotton candy pink while her mane and tail were a bright magenta. What surprised me most was the insane level of puffiness to her tail and mane. Instead of being done up in layered curls like Rarity, Pinkie Pie's tail and mane seemed to just be one massive ball of curls that had just gotten more and more tangled until there was no hope. Instead of looking bad this theme seemed to somehow work for her. Her whole physical appearance seemed to radiate the same levels of excitement she did in every interaction i’d had with her so far. Her baby blue eyes only increased this theme of light hearted happiness and excitement. Like the others she also had a hip tattoo. Hers was a trio of balloons, the bottom two being blue with white strings while the top one was yellow.

“My names Pinkie Pie and I want to be your best friend! So what should we do first new best friend!?”

“Uhhhhhhh” I dumbly responded.

“WAIT I have it! We should go prank some people! Or even better we could go swimming! I love swimming! Do you like swimming? OOOH OOOH Even better, you could help me with my party cannon! I was going to upgrade it soon! Oh this is so exciting! Do you ha-” I could easily see where this was going as she had just done the same thing to me not a few moments ago.

I held up my hand. “WAIT!” She didn’t seem fazed in the slightest that I had just interrupted her mad rant. “Pinkie Pie I would love to hang out with you and do something but I can’t even tell you that if you constantly bombard me with questions and suggestions silly.” I said lightheartedly. She giggled and smiled back at me. “So what is this party cannon you talked about?”

“Why it’s only my favorite party creation device in existence!” She reached behind her back. I was not prepared for her to pull a massive light blue cannon with two toned pink wheels sporting a yellow flower on each out from behind her. I jumped in surprise as the cannon hit the ground in front of Pinkie Pie.

“Where the hell did that come from?” I said surprised.

“Well from my hands silly.” Pinkie Pie said as cheerily and smiley as ever. I walked closer to her and peered over her shoulder. I then got down on the floor and began knocking on it for a false floorboard or something. Not finding anything and being completely nonplussed I stood up.

“Twilight should I just chalk this up to pony magic again?”

Twilight gave a slightly worried laugh and said, “Actually in this case it’s better not to ask questions when it comes to Pinkie Pie doing things like that. No one really understands and it will just make your head hurt trying to.” I looked over to Pinkie Pie to see her giving a cheery nod at this revelation.

“Pony magic it is then.” Twilight seemed to frown slightly at me forcing this insane phenomenon off on magic but didn’t say anything. “Well Pinkie Pie as much as I would love to try and understand what your party cannon is I believe we’ll have to wait until a later date to do so. We still have one more person to introduce.”

“Okie Dokie Loki! I’m going to hold you to that!” She then proceeded to put the cannot back behind her making it completely disappear. I tried to ignore her doing this but couldn’t help trying to think of something that could explain how she was doing that.

“E-excuse me. Cicero? Do you mind if I go now? I know we already met but i’d still like to go. That is i-if you’re ok with that.” I sighed internally. I wondered if her nervousness came from talking to me specifically or if it was just her personality. Fluttershy was a light butter yellow colored pegasus. Unlike her rainbow colored pegasus friend, fluttershy and her wings looked very delicate. Instead of a sickly delicate it was more of a refined gentle spirit delicate. This look was enhanced by her light pink mane and tale. Both looked very smooth with a light wave going through them. She had very gentle looking cerulean eyes which just seemed to beg you to cuddle her. And last fluttershy once again had a tattoo like the others. Hers, keeping with her gentle theme, was a trio of butterflies with a light blue thorax and abdomen accented by their pink wings.

Lowered my voice and smiling I spoke to her, “Of course you can go Fluttershy. I’d love to hear about what you do.” Fluttershy seemed to glean some confidence from my words and decided to continue on.

“My name is Fluttershy and I take care of all the animals in and surrounding ponyville.” I was a bit confused by that non specific job so I asked for clarification. “Fluttershy what do you mean you take care of the animals in and around ponyville? Are you a veterinarian or something like that? What types of animals do you take care of.”

“Oh i’m so very happy to tell you about all my animal friends” she said beaming. “I’m not a specialist like a veterinarian, I just take care of the animals in a general sense. I make sure they have homes and food. I can also heal them when they get minor injuries or illnesses. As for who I take care of it’s a very wide range of creatures. From cuddly little bunnies to big fluffy bears!”.

“Wait. I can understand you taking care of bunnies but you’re telling me you also look after wild bears? Come to think of it I saw a bear next to your cottage the other night when I was drunk. It’s the reason I dodged past you house and ended up in AppleJacks barn.”

“Oh you saw Harry! He’s really friendly, he would never hurt anyone,” she tried to persuade me. Seeing as how I was a little hesitant to trust the animals around these parts yet, after the manticore attack, I decided to not voice my opinion of wild carnivorous animals at the moment. It was clear Fluttershy dearly loved all the animals she looked after.

“If you saw so Fluttershy. Maybe if I happen to come by your place at another time and see him i’ll say hi,” I said to appease her. She seemed pleased with this response and smiled.

“Well I guess it’s my turn to go then. My name is Cicero and I’m apparently not from this planet. I come from a planet called Earth that’s populated by only one sapient race called humans. My world is much like yours, from what i’ve seen so far, minus a few key differences. One of the most prevalent being that we don’t have any form of magic like you girls do.” Twilight gasped at this revelation but let me continue. “The other differences between our worlds are only speculations in my head at this point. But if i’m here for a while i’m sure i’ll notice and point them out to you all. Before I came to this world I suppose you could say I was a scholar and computer programmer. I don’t know if you have higher educations in this world but I went to something called college, which is a high level learning institution, in my world to study computers and how to program them. I graduated from this institution about 2 or so years ago and have been programming at a company ever since.”

“Now as you were all kind enough to indulge me and all of my questions I feel it’s only fair that you all get to ask what you want.” I was not surprised when Twilight was the first one to ask a question.

“What is a computer and how to do you program it.” Shit that’s one massive question. Well maybe I can try to just give her the general gist of it.

“Twilight to fully answer that question I would have to keep you here for years.” Twilight started to drool hungrily at the prospect of that much knowledge, but quickly snapped out of it when she realized what she was doing. “So I’m going to try to condense it down very heavily. But first I have to ask, do ponies have electricity and machines that run on electricity?”

Twilight quickly answered, “We have both. I believe the most advanced piece of electrical machinery that is purely electrical are electric ovens.”

“Shit that make this a lot harder again. Although I suppose I should just thank my lucky stars that we both happen to speak the same language and have mostly the same words for objects. Alright well as the idea of a state machine is a very old piece of knowledge am I correct in assuming that you know what this is?”

Twilight happily said “Yes I know what those are!”

I smiled and continued with “Well that’s as good as any point to start. Alright well without going into circuit boards and electronic components just imagine that for each state you can get to two others by flipping an electrical switch between on and off. A computer is basically an electrical machine with and endless state machine. You can also program it, as I do, to create new states without having to physically touch it. Oh and most nowadays are about the size of a small box. Some are even the size of my hand. In fact,” I pulled out my phone, “this is one of the machines I was talking about.”

For a second I was worried I had broken Twilight as she seemed to be staring straight ahead with her mouth open not saying anything. Before I could start to worry I heard the purple lizard speak up, “Don’t worry I’ve got this. This happens sometimes when Twilight starts to think about something really hard. She just sort of ignores the world.” The dragon then walked over to Twilight and pinched her on the backside.

“Youch!” Twilight yelped as she jumped straight up. Landing she looked around angrily to Spike. “What was that for Spike!?”

Spike held up his hands and defensively said, “You told me if you zoned out to think while talking to others I was supposed to pinch you.”

A look of realization crossed Twilight's face as she blushed and said, “Oh. Sorry Spike. I was just very excited by the endless possibilities of a machine that Cicero described.” She then proceeded to levitate the phone out of my hand and turned it around studying its design. “If this device can really do as you say, it’s simply amazing that something so small has that much power.”

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” I quoted. “That’s a quote we used to use on my planet and in this case I feel it applies very well. Though I have to say, that telekinetic magic you just displayed seems way more amazing than my phone at the moment. But before we continue our back and forth questions I feel truly ashamed that we happened to skip someone during our introductions. Spike would you care to go next? I’m sorry for skipping you as I didn’t see you behind Twilight.”

Spike seemed surprised that I was suddenly addressing him. Hesitantly he started with, “Well I’m Spike and i’m a dragon.” He was obviously a young dragon due to his size. Either that or dragons in this world just don’t get very large. Most of his body was a light purple but his underside was a light green. He had sharp looking purple claws and a soft looking set of green spines ending in a barb looking object for his spade. His most eye grabbing features were on his head though. He had light grass green slit like reptilian eyes. His ears were hard to understand though as they just looked as if someone had slapped some dirty green leaves on the side of his head. I will admit even though spike was a baby dragon I couldn’t help but be impressed that I was standing before a living dragon.

“Uhhh I don’t really have a job but I help Twilight here at the library and with her studies. She says i’m her number 1 assistant! I also live here with Twilight.”

“Wait what? Let me get this straight. You’re a fire breathing dragon that lives in a library full of flammable books that reside in a massive house made inside of a flammable tree, correct?”

Spike paused to consider my words and happily looked up to say, “Yep!” I did the only the logical thing at this response and facepalmed. Now I understand that he was obviously a baby dragon and therefore the problems were probably muted, but still.

“You ponies confuse the heck out of me,” I despondently said. “I can’t tell what’s normal anymore. Deadly carnivorous manticores in your forest, fire breathing dragons in your flammable homes, what’s next on the list of living legends!? Ancient celestial demigods walking the lands!?”

Twilight chimed in with, “Well I don’t know about demigods but princess Celestia and Luna both move the sun and moon every day for our normal day cycle.” I froze at these words. Anything with that much power is pretty much exactly what I was currently looking for. I felt bad baiting these ponies with my words but in my defense I didn’t actually think anything with that level of power would exist on this planet.

Needless to say I was still extremely surprised that two demi goddesses lived on this planet and as such said, “Once again I don’t even know where to begin with that statement Twilight. Being the scholar that you obviously are surely you realize the incredible amounts of force that would be required to move the sun and moon daily. Granted I don’t know the size of this planets sun and moon but the point still remains. Moving planet sized bodies of mass across the sky, without even factoring in gravity, requires and almost incalculable level of power!” I sighed. This day was just getting more and more ridiculous and I was pretty much nearing the end of what I could handle. “Everyone I’m sorry for saying this but do you think we could cut our questions and answers session short and resume tomorrow? Judging by the angle of the sun's rays it’s getting pretty late and I’m exhausted from everything that I’ve seen and learned today. Not the mention I don’t even have a place to stay for the night and I was hoping you all could point me in the direction of an inn of something of that nature before it gets dark.”

Everyone seemed to suddenly remember that there was an outside world to this library as they all snapped their heads to the window in surprise at the revelation of the days passing. Twilight spoke for the group.

“Yes I believe it is getting a bit too late for a long conversation.” She then looked me directly in the eyes and determinately said, “But don’t think this gets your out of our questions session tomorrow! There’s so much I want to learn from you!”

Pinkie Pie added, “And we also have to perfect my party cannon one of these days! Ohh and don’t forget you have to teach me alien baking!”

Rainbow Dash not to be left out challengingly added, “We also have to test your true speed! If what AppleJack said is true I wanna see if you can keep up in a race.”

Doubting that even with my speed I could keep up with a flying pegasus I placatingly said, “I would love nothing more than to simply mess around with you all but as I said before right now I need to find lodging for the night as I’m rather tired.”Thankfully Twilight came to my rescue.

“Well if it’s a room you need you can just stay here. We have a guest room on the top level of the library. Spike and I live on the middle floor of the library because it doubles as my house.”

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth *heh* I graciously said, “Thank you Twilight. I appreciate the level of kindness you’re willing to show me even though I’m an unknown alien from another world. I can honestly say this level of kindness of my world would be rare, if not nonexistent.”

“Well get used to it partner,” AppleJack said. “This is ponyville and I was about to invite ya’ll to my house in return for chasing ya around my farm this morning but Twi here just beat me too it.” What a wonderful place. I may not know much about this land so far but I know good peop- err ponies when I see them. If I was truly stuck here, as I believed, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad at all.

“Sorry to rush out everypony but as Cicero pointed out it is late and I really need to finish a dress or two before tomorrow,” Rarity declared before walking out the door. “Ta ta!”

“Rarities got the right idea,” AppleJack added. “With as much farm work as I skipped out on today I need to do at least a little bit more before callin’ it a day. See ya’ll tomorrow!” She also walked out the library door.

Rainbow Dash looked to Pinkie Pie and said, “Well I don’t have anything to do but I think a good pranking session is in order. The whole town was warned of a mysterious stranger wandering around and I guarantee we get some good pranks out of this situation! What do you say Pinkie?”

Pinkie Pie put a devilish look on her face and said, “No pony will know what hit them!” She then proceeded to walk out with Rainbow Dash, both laughing maniacally all the while.

Only Twilight, Spike, Fluttershy, and myself were left in the library at that point. Fluttershy turned towards me and fidgeted, looking as if she wanted to say something. Noticing this I turned towards Fluttershy. “Is everything alright Fluttershy?”

“U-umm well… you see,” she said looking very conflicted. “I-I guess I just wanted to say th-thank you.”

I reared my head back in surprise. “Fluttershy you’ve shown me nothing but compassion and concern for my health today. Not to mention you bandaged up my wounds without knowing anything about me or who I was. If anything I need to say thank you and I apologize for not realizing it before now. As such,” I bowed my head and upper body slightly, “Thank you.”

She seemed to beam at this and said, “That’s why I wanted to say thank you. I’m a very shy pony if you couldn’t tell.” I laughed internally at this obvious admittance but held it in out of respect. “Every time we have spoken or interacted today you’ve recognized this and done everything you could to make me less scared of you or to ease my fears. I really like you and hope we can see each other in the future,” she said blushing at her own words. “But I do need to get back to my animals now. I have to make sure they’re fed and I just know Angel bunny is making a fuss at how late his meal is.” As she walked out the door she turned back and said, “Goodbye Cicero, Twilight, and Spike.”

“Well that’s surprising,” Twilight said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen Fluttershy talk to someone that she just met that much.” She then looked at me. “Now I know I made the right decision offering you a space here. If Fluttershy trusts you then how could I not?”

“I didn’t realize Fluttershy’s decisions were held in such high regard.” She shook her head.

“It’s not that. Fluttershy is a very timid pony and usually only trusts other poni-err people if they have proven themselves to be very gentle and kind. So if she can trust someone like you then I would be crazy not to as well.” I contemplated Twilight's words and realized that I now owed Fluttershy another debt. I would have to find some way to repay it soon, after all she’d done for me.

“Well Twilight since it’s been decided that i’ll stay here do you mind showing me to the guest bedroom? The sooner I rest and sleep of this mental fatigue the sooner you can ask me all the questions you want tomorrow.”

“My goodness you’re totally right! Here please follow me.”Twilight had a very one track mind so it wasn’t hard to understand what I needed to stay to get some rest. Although I was hungry after not eating for around a day I had been longer without food and decided that sleep and meditation would be healthier for me in my current state. Twilight and I made our way upstairs on a winding wooden spiral staircase. At the halfway mark I noted a small alcove off to the side of the stairwell. It contained a cute little bed adorned with a blue sheets complete with sun and moon symbols spread about them. The best part of the little alcove was the large pony sized oval window that let you see outside into the retreating day. I could faintly see mountains before I realized I had been staring for far too long. I quickly caught up to Twilight after recognizing she had never stopped and was still trekking up towards the top floor. After a good 20 steps or so we finally reached the top of the staircase. As we reached the top I saw a wooden door blocking our passage any further. Twilight's horn glowed a soft purple and the wooden door suddenly swung out of our way. I followed Twilight into the small cramped room at the top of the stairs. This room seemed to be made for a pony to sleep in and not much else. It was very tiny and only contained a small bed that was twin sized, at most.

“I’m sorry my guest room is so small but we don’t usually get visitors here that are as big as you are.” I looked past the bed and saw a small window in the corner of the room that had a very clear view of the sky. It looked like it was possible to open it and get out onto the top of the tree if someone was inclined to do so.

I turned to Twilight. “It’s perfect. I’ve never been comfortable with large extravagant places. I’ve always prefered small homey feeling houses with a sense of freedom. This room perfectly embodies my idea of a home away from home.” I beamed at Twilight to try and show my honest affection towards this guest room.

She smiled happily back at me and said, “Well I’m very pleased it makes you feel at home. Now I know how tired you said you were so i’ll let you get to bed. Please feel free to descend to my level and use the bathroom if you need. Also please don’t refrain from heading into the kitchen if you get hungry before breakfast tomorrow. I don’t know your dietary habits but I don’t think I’ve seen you eat much today. Either way I will be taking my leave to record all you have told me today in a letter to the princess.” The smile on my face became slightly strained at that knowledge. It’s not that I didn’t trust this princess of Twilight's it’s just that I didn’t like to introduce variables that I didn’t know about until I was ready. However I quickly realized that Twilight and her friends had been almost nothing but kind to me in all of our interactions. If these ponies were this kind to everyone then surely their ruler would be no different.

“Thank you very much for all you have done for me today Twilight. I wish you nothing but kind dreams tonight in return for your actions towards me today.” Twilight smiled at me as she walked out the door and started clopping down the wooden stairs. I walked over towards my very small bed covered in blue sheets. The sheets had multiple pictures of a grey pony with a white beard. The pony also had a very gaudy looking blue wizards robe adorning his body. Not knowing who this pony was I decided that it was most likely some important pony figure. I would ask Twilight about him tomorrow. Sitting down on the bed I crossed my legs into a loose meditative position, straightened my back, linked my hands, closed my eyes, and fell into a very relaxed meditation session.

I contemplated all I had learned today. So many things I had taken for granted as a legend or fairy tale now held a spark of reality within them. Even things that I hadn’t seen today, that I believed impossible, could now exist. I realized that If I was to keep my abilities and calm demeanor in check I would need to shift my attitude to one of acceptance rather than disbelief as it had been today. After all, one who cannot control their mind is not in full control of their body. The last thing I wanted to do was lose control of myself in a land of such peace and harmony. Even as peaceful as this land was I still recognized in the back of my mind that I had most likely been sent here for a reason. Even with this thought in mind I could discern no logical reason behind my appearance in this world. It was truly as peaceful a place as I had seen so far. The human world was far far more chaotic and unpredictable. Why was I brought here when that world obviously needed my help? I understand that my mother was, and had, been watching over the humans for a very very long time. But as seemingly random as they are surely another protector was warranted?

I stopped following that thought process. Mother always told me that trying to understand the thoughts of the original protectors was useless. They saw and thought things that we couldn’t possibly ever hope to understand. Once more deciding to fall back on the idiom my mother had ingrained in me I decided to live in the here and now. If I had truly been send to this world then the princess demi gods twilight had spoken of would at least be able to provide me with the evidence I needed to confirm this. Maybe if I was lucky they also might be able to help me along in my journey to find my purpose. Either way I was determined to face tomorrow with my full potential now that I had finally had a chance to collect myself and regroup. Thanking the kind ponies I had met today one last time I uncurled my legs and laid myself flat on the bed. I looked out the small window in my room and realized that a few hours must have passed since I started meditating as it was now nighttime. As my body started to fall into a sleeping state I beheld an amazingly bright clean night sky through the rooms ceiling window. As the forest trees had blocked my full view yesterday I now realized that even if the stars up there weren’t the ones that I knew they held a beauty far past the night sky that I was used to. “Beautiful,” I murmured as I fell into a deep sleep.