Playing the Heart's Strings

The numerous group kept growing smaller, as more couples were called. The new college students looked attentively at the front of the classroom, with the usual chatting and whispers as background noise.  Albert sat in the middle of the classroom, looking around at all the unknown faces he would have to get to know from there onwards.  The list was barely by the E, so he was relaxing.

“Noelle Evans and Albert Jones, you two go together for the exercise,” called the professor’s voice over. He stood alert and looked around, seeing a girl with her arm stretched. She was small, but had a smiling face. Long, shiny black hair fell to her shoulders, framing a face as tanned as the rest of her body. She wore black, square-shaped glasses, a white hair pin, a white buttoned blouse and a long colorful skirt. He stood up and walked over to her.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Albert.”

She stood up, and her grey eyes joined her smile, as she extended a hand to him. “You’re a proper guy, aren’t you? I like that.  So, let’s go?”

He nodded, and they left the classroom, looking to solve the assignment the professor had left for them.

“You have a certain ring to your voice. You’ve been to choral classes, haven’t you?” asked Albert as they went down a set of stairs.

“Yes, my parents sent me to a musical school some years ago. I wasn’t happy with the idea at first. But it turned out that I had a talented voice; I received quite a lot of praise in there. And I liked it, truth be told. So I decided to stay. With time, I grew up liking it, and  that’s how I decided to come here. How about you?” She turned her head to look at him.

“Is pretty simple, really. I’ve always liked music. In my house there’s often something on, and I grew accustomed to it. I hadn’t really anything that I was interested in, so I decided to come here and test my hand at it.  Silly, isn’t it?”

She shook her head. “Not really. I hope you find yourself here.”

He looked ahead of him and nodded lightly. “I hope so too.”

----

He followed Celestia’s technicolor mane, flowing despite the absence of windy currents, through the corridors of the castle. He didn’t pay attention to it, just concentrating in her while they walked silently. Finally, Celestia stopped in front of a couple of doors which her magic opened, revealing her bedroom. She went inside and Albert followed her. After she closed them again, he looked around. This was a circular room, with a tapestry on the middle, in front of a chimney. Next to it lay a window, and around the room, several bookcases and a couple of smaller doors.

And laying upon the regal tapestry was the Princess of the Night, fully awake despite it being the early evening. Her azure eyes gleamed when they locked gazes. She stood up, approaching him, her face devoid of any smile, but kind.

“Good evening, Albert,” said her quietly, before stopping in front of him. Celestia stood by his other side.

“Good evening, Princess Luna. It’s good to see you.”

“‘Tis good to see you as well.” She then avoided his gaze, and with the gleam of her horn, summoned several cushions for him to sit in top off, while both sisters laid in their four legs.

After some seconds of silence, Celestia spoke, using the same downplayed tone which Luna had employed.

“I take it you have known about the history of Equestria by Twilight, haven’t you?”

He nodded, looking into her eyes.

“That was about the many things she talked about while I accompanied her at the Library. Honestly, I don’t think I could recall half of what she told me, but that I have no problem remembering.”

Celestia considered his words, and then continued.

“At that time, the world was an extremely disordered place. The three races were just beginning to learn to get along with each other. Many had perished; whether because of the journey, fighting amongst themselves, or Discord’s machinations. It was a truly tough job the one Luna and I had, making sure things ran as smooth as they could. Which wasn’t much, but we did it slowly and constantly.

When we received word of these creatures known as humans, we desired to know more about them, but it was simply impossible for us to take time for it. We were lucky to have ponies that gave us their account of them.”

Luna took over the speaking then.

“The weather back in that time was just like the weather at the Everfree Forest, unmanageable and unpredictable.  It took quite some time before we and the pegasi managed to take a hold of it. The environment didn’t seem to help very much, and so we didn’t suspect about some incidents that costed several ponies lives.  But now that we look back into it, the presence of disturbing Chaos makes itself overwhelmingly obvious. “

Albert shifted around, his legs cramped, as he attended to the sister’s words. Celestia took the word once again.

“The humans eventually disappeared inexplicably or passed away.  During their stay in this land, we conferenced with the unicorns who were studying them about their presence in here.  We weighted the things as they had happened and decided that, in order to steer Equestrian society towards a brighter future, we should keep it under wraps, and strive to lead them towards a better structured society.  It means that my sister and I bear these burdens for the sake of maintaining Equestria in a kinder state. Of course there is no avoiding conflict and distress among our ponies, both between themselves and with the different races, but the real big things have been managed.  And some of them are of our own creation..”

Celestia fell silent then. She stood and turned around, facing the chimney. Its crepitating flames were reflected in her eyes.  Luna spoke then. Her voice was kept in the same tone and didn’t reflect anything, but Albert could perceive the darkening of her face.

“The endless strife between ponies at that age helped create that manifestation of endless Chaos that is Discord. We suspect it also brought the Windigos into existence. How else can we explain creatures whose only purpose is to punish quarrelers?”

The three fell silent; Celestia didn’t break apart from the vision of the flames while Luna looked at Albert. He pondered their words, looking into the dancing fire. He finally stood up, stretching his legs.

“But I already knew most of this. You didn’t bring me here to talk just about this, did you?”

Celestia finally turned to look at him. She let out a sigh and looked at her sister, who nodded. Celestia’s gaze then came back to him.

“No, of course not.”   The royal pony sat straight, looking down to him as they spoke.

Her horn shone and a scroll came floating to her from a near bookshelf. She skimmed through it and put it down in the floor.

“The letter that Twilight sent says she performed a scanning spell on you. She found high levels of chaotic energy emanating from your interior..”

He simply nodded, waiting for her to continue.

“We would’ve like for Twilight and the others to be here and participate of everything, but we must simply dispatch this issue already.”

Each of the sisters had a shadow running across their faces. The fire on the chimney danced and almost was put out by a strange wind, but it relented, illuminating the royal bedroom.

“Everything has a balance in the order of things. There are light and darkness: the Day and the Night. They both have essential roles in the land. Without the day, there isn’t any warmth to help sustain life. Without the night, and the presence of the moon, we can’t  keep track of the different cycles necessary for many things. Those are just some of the benefits that are brought by each aspect. You may think that we hate Chaos, but that is not the case. Chaos is the balancing force that allows Harmony to exist. If any given system didn’t have its fails, we wouldn’t know it is working. It would be devoid of any meaning, and that’s why this state of unrest exists. The problem is when Chaos begins to escalate and lose any equilibrium it may hold. That’s when it becomes worrisome. That is what Discord brings to the land and why he must be contained.

And between such anomalies, your presence here is one of them. It lacks such coordination that you haven’t even crossed through a proper string of time. We don’t have the capability to send you back to your place of origin, and even if we didn’t have, there’s no telling at which point in the history of your world you might arrive at.”

Celestia’s words came to a halt. She seemed posed to continue, but her mouth wouldn’t move any more. Luna lifted herself and approached her sister, standing by her side. Her voice was as kind as when she had first spoken with Albert.

“For this situation here, we have two options to follow, and we will present them to you now. The Elements of Harmony wouldn’t help us out here, as your situation is different from that of the ultimate embodiment of Chaos. You don’t have any control over it. You are simply a vessel and not in any way held responsible for anything.”

She advanced a couple of steps towards him, her deep reaching blue eyes never leaving his.

“First, you can be converted into a pony. The essence shift would liberate your body from the chaotic energy inside it. Given that we don’t have the necessary knowledge about your race, It would mean you’d have to give up any hope of ever coming back to your normal life. But you know there’s not the slightest chance of that, anyway. That would be your safest route.”

She had caught up with him. Luna adopted a sitting position, seeing eye to eye with him. He looked into her eyes and saw inside of her. The concern of a mare who had been once afflicted with the dark energy of chaos. Though she had simply been assaulted by a minuscule particle, that spark had been enough for her powerful nature to give birth to a unseemly night creature. Luna’s eyes finally broke apart from his and she backed a couple of steps. From behind her, Celestia looked impassible at the scene, her expression unreadable.

Every moment that passed afterwards transcurred very slowly in Albert’s mind. He looked at them, but suddenly their images had become very unrealistic; they had become caricatures that were looking at him with ridiculous expressions. He blinked once and all the images turned back to normal, with the two expectant princesses looking at him. He blinked again.

The white coated and black maned pegasus with a guitar-shaped cutie mark flapped his wings to give himself another impulse. The small and colorful town of Ponvyille appearead finally below him with its recognizable landmarks.  The saddlebags he was carrying were quite bothersome in flight, besides the guitar case that hung in his back, but there was no option for him but to carry them. Making it to the center of the town, he turned in mid-air and descended until landing in front of a certain tree-building, lifting some dust with his hooves. He pushed open the Library’s door and waiting for him inside were the studious librarian, Twilight Sparkle, her assistant Spike and their two pets, with the owl surprisingly being awake in the middle of the day. They all greeted him warmly and the lavender unicorn trotted up to him with a big smile on her lips.

“How was it?” questioned Twilight eagerly, her eyes gleaming. He let go of his cargo, flexing his muscles and extending his wings to free himself from the stiffness.

“It was pretty good, as always. Canterlot is a great place for performances, I couldn’t be happier. And I think I’m getting a little bit better with Octavia. I honestly don’t know what to do with that mare.”

Twilight chuckled, pushing him playfully. “I’m sure you two will come around.  For now, how about some tea?”

He was shaken out of his fantasy by a strong hoof. When he came to his senses, he looked at Luna in front of him, with an even more concerned look. Celestia had approached the both of them and held the same concern.

“I’m sorry, Princesses.” He shook his head, freeing himself completely. He then advanced, placing himself between the both of them.

“This is a truly wonderful place to live in. So many things are different from the place I come from. All the ponies and creatures I have met here are amazing, kind and sweet. I could stay here forever, maybe.”

A silence followed his words. He shifted his gaze from one sister to the other and continued.

“Twilight once asked me what I was. I’ve been thinking about that since then. I still don’t have the answer and I don’t think I’ll ever have it. But I know something. I am a human, not a pony. It was as I was born, and it is what I’ll always be. Nothing else.”

He concluded and said no more. Time seemed to stand still by the whole of the room, until Luna looked at her sister. The Princess of the Night trotted to stand by her sister’s side, both alicorns sitting in front of him. He saw them exhibiting all their majesty and might, their manes waving as if a strong wind current pushed them. But soon he could see the tears that fell down both their faces, flowing endlessly. Celestia finally spoke again, with a quiet, but clear tone.

“I understand that, Albert. We would’ve wanted to embrace you among us. But we have to carry, as always, the burdens that plague Equestria. This is something that we really hoped never to get at. We wanted to offer Twilight and the girls the possibility of walking to an equally bright future. But it can’t be avoided this time. I am deeply sorry about the circumstances that are tying you. But you don’t want to hear about this, don’t you? You want our five bits.”

The tears kept flowing down Celestia’s cheeks, but she kept on.

“Albert, you have to die.”

From a serum bag hanging from the wall, liquid flowed down into the veins of a lavender unicorn lying on a bed, while six ponies and a small dragon surrounded her.  Looking from between two of those ponies, a unicorn with a doctor robe assessed her condition.  Suddenly, the bedridden unicorn began to shake slightly. All around her looked attentively. Finally, after some minutes, she opened her eyes slowly and began to take in the room, the faces of her friends. She spoke slowly.

“Girls? Where I am?”

Twilight Sparkle woke up.