A Horse Walks Into a Bar...

“You know what, Alan?”

“Hmmm? Yeah?”

“Of all the weird things about your world, I think the weirdest thing are the stars.”

Alan looked up from his laptop to give Caramella a sidelong glance. The pair were currently sitting in the bed of his truck, saved from sitting in the snow by the cover he had on it. After the oil light had popped up, Alan counted himself as one lucky man thanks to a truck stop appearing not so far away from their location. He didn’t want to think about how he was going to explain Caramella to anybody else if his car had broken down and they needed a tow. As it was, he was able to purchase some oil and change it himself—no middleman needed—and they tucked themselves away at the furthest edge of the parking lot.

“Whaddya mean?”

“I mean, it’s all so messy,” she replied, laying on her back and front legs tucked close. “All of the stars just seem thrown into the sky without any care whatsoever. It’s weird.”

“Are you telling me that’s not the case in Equestria?” he replied, tapping away on the keyboard.

Caramella whinnied. “Remember when I told you about Princess Celestia while you fixed your car thingy?” He nodded. “Well, she has a sister called Princess Luna.”

“And if her sister holds the sun, I guess she has control over the moon?” he guessed.

Caramella nodded, but held a small frown. “Yeah, but, it’s not just as simple as that. There’s a reason why she’s referred to as the Mistress of the Night after all. She doesn’t just control the moon—she controls the night itself, as well as having the power to go into ponies dreams.”

“W-wait, you’re serious?” He stopped typing completely this time. “She can go into dreams?”

“Yeah. And that part about the night? I mean it when I say she controls it. You see, the Princess was banished for a long time. Princess Celestia controlled the moon during that time—although not many ponies even knew she had a sister in the first place.I think I read somewhere that Princess Luna had been banished for a thousand years up until a few years ago.” Alan whistled as she continued, “it certainly took me by surprise! But when Princess Luna came back and reclaimed her throne...”

She looked up into the sky and let out a breathless sigh.

“...The sky that night was one of the most breathtaking things I had ever seen in my entire life. It was so... so beautiful. I don’t think I even have the words to describe it. It was just like somepony had used the sky the same way a painter uses a canvas, you know?. Er, no offense to Princess Celestia though. Your sky reminds me a lot of hers.”

Alan chuckled. “Sounds like your Princess Celestia lacked that artistic touch her sister had.” He joined Caramella and turned his gaze skyward. Being out on a rural stretch of highway, he saw a lot more stars in the sky then he normally would have if he were gazing out of his front window. Light pollution is one hell of a thing, he mused to himself, and while it may not have had been a picture perfect Equestrian sky like the one Caramella had talked about, it was good enough for him.

“Y’know, you sound like you have a great deal of respect for her,” he said, referring to the Lunar Princess.

“Oh, I guess I do, don’t I?” If Alan didn’t have the light from his laptop he might have had missed her faint blush. “I owe a lot to the Princess.”

“In what way?”

Caramella paused for a moment. “Well... remember when I talked about her going into dreams?”

“Yeah, hard not to remember something like that.”

“Well, she came into my dreams one night...”

“Really?” He gave Caramella his full attention now. What would a Princess have wanted from Caramella?

Her came out shockingly quiet as she spoke: “Yeah, really. When... when my parents... died... I started having nightmares. Awful, terrible nightmares.” Suddenly, she started to sob. “I just—I never expected them to go so early...”

Alan squirmed on the truck bed. He wrestled silently with himself for a moment before saying, “I-I’m sorry. Trust me, I... I know how you feel.”

“Y-you do?”

“Yeah... how did yours die, if... if you don’t mind me asking?” The fragile tone of his own voice surprised even himself. “My folks... they died in a freak plane crash on their way to some vacation hotspot in Florida. I was only in college when it happened, just a few years ago. Really messed me up for a while... still messes with me, I guess... Always hated Florida to be honest, too many weirdos down there.” His thin attempt at a joke died in a hollow chuckle.

“I-I don’t know what a plane is, but I know about crashes.” Wiping her eyes with her cloak, she said, “They died while doing some long distance delivery. It was a full week until we found out about it... they—they found them and their carriage at the bottom of a mountain. Turns out some dragon was hiding out inside of it and caused some boulders to come down. One of them hit my father as he was pulling the carriage along and both he and my mother were dragged off into...”

Another sob escaped her lips and Alan pulled her into warm embrace without a second thought, an embrace of which she greedily accepted.

“It was after that when I started to have nightmares. I refused to do deliveries for a while because every time I thought of doing one, I saw myself dying in some tragedy or another. Even small deliveries gave me anxiety. It was only thanks to Princess Luna that I was able to get over my fears and eventually accept what had happened.”

Caramella continued to lean into their embrace for an unknown amount of time. Alan didn’t mind at all—he was too busy wiping away the growing wetness in his own eyes.

“Man... I wish we had some super special dream princess here to help. Earth could certainly use it, that’s for sure,” he joked as he broke the hug, hoping to change the subject.

Melodious giggles erupted from Caramella’s muzzle, and he found himself laughing along with her. Genuine laughter this time. It was as if a weight he didn’t know he was carrying had lightened slightly. It was still there, but it didn’t seem all that heavy anymore, as if Caramella was now helping to carry some of it. He was sure that Caramella was having similar thoughts.

“Yeah, I can see why she’d be so helpful,” she said, wiping away the last of her tears. “Princess Luna could certainly have her hooves full with two dimensions full of dreams to watch over.” She leaned back onto the rim of the truck with a somber smile. “Hey, by the way, what were you doing before all of this happened...” She waved a hoof. “I’m curious.”

Reopening his laptop, he slung her a grin. “I was doing some research into Canterlot. Thankfully, the truck stop wifi reaches out this far, and it was good enough to dig up a few things on our destination.”

“Like?” Her trademarked adorable muzzle scrunch appeared.

“Turns out there’s some message boards surrounding some myths and legends around Canterlot. You can find some pretty neat stuff here to be honest... here, take a look.” He scooted next to the mare and sifted through several tabs as he spoke.

“Back before the whole portals thing happened, some people reported being able to see bright, multicolored lights coming from the local park. A few of the threads tell tales of seeing a giant, winged horse that night as well, although that part seems to be local myth depending on who you talk to. There’s no photographic evidence of it either.”

He shrugged before continuing. “Before that, well there are a couple of photos showing some pretty heavy damage done to the front of the high school.” He clicked onto a photo showing a massive, gaping hole blown out in the front of a school building. “And check this out—nobody can seem to recall just what caused all that damage. I skimped over one piece of news—” He switched over to a news article, and next to the text was a photo of an older woman with three-tone pastel colored hair. “—this person’s the principal. Funnily enough, she shares the same name as your Princess.”

Caramella’s eyes widened as she gazed at the photo.

“Anyways, when she was asked about the damage, she was the only one who replied with a semi-decent answer. Said it was a couple of water pipes that burst during their fall formal.”

Caramella snapped out of her daze, her gaze lifted from the woman's photo. “Huh? What’s so odd about that?”

“Well, for one thing, indoor water pipes can’t create a giant twenty foot hole as far as I’m aware,” he started, lifting up a finger.

“And two...” Another tab flashed onto the screen, showing a conversation between two people on an anonymous message board. “None of the students remember ever getting wet. See this?” Caramella apprehensively nodded. “This is a chat between, what I can only assume to be, students. I’ll save you from having to read the awful spelling.”

He skipped the non essential bits, mostly stuff like who was wearing what or who was with who that day, silly teenager things, and read aloud the relevant bits.

“So, what did you do when you got home, huh? I was pooped when I got back, had the weirdest headache.”

“I just got changed and went to bed. I was too tired to do anything else. Seriously, I can’t believe that the formal got canceled halfway through When I got home my parents were in the middle of getting busy if you know what I mean. It was so embarrassing! Tthey didn’t expect me home until way later! How do you even cancel a dance in the first place?”

“Dunno Bonnie, I couldn’t tell you why it got canceled either. Maaaaybe it had something to do with the big ass hole in the front, huh genius? Shit, I’m just glad nobody got injured. Rumors are floating around y’know. They say it had something to do with that Sunset Shimmer.”

“I’ll bet it was her. She’s always up to no good. At least my dress didn’t get ruined, I payed good money for that thing.”

“Ditto.”

“Ahem.” Clearing his throat, he continued, “This is a couple of months old by now, but it gives us a bit of insight. Nobody even mentions any hint of flooding or water damage or anything. Just that something happened. You’d expect some of the students to complain about getting soaked...”

Caramella still had her muzzle scrunched. “Where'd you get all of this information anyways?”

“The magic of the internet, my dear Caramella," he teased.

She snorted. “From what I’m hearing, it sounds like somepony just poofed their memories away.”

“You can do that?”

“I can’t. I’m not a unicorn, see,” she said, tapping her forehead and shrugging, “so I can’t really comment on magic-y stuff. Even as an Earth Pony though, I think it’d take a pretty potent magic user... and from what I’ve seen you guys don’t seem to have any magic here.”

A chilly breeze swept through the parking lot as Alan thought about that. Somebody—or maybe somepony—was probably using magic to alter the memories of the townspeople. But why? Something about it didn’t feel quite right to him though... who would do something like that? Were there more Equestrians hiding out in Canterlot, living in some secret society like a cheap fantasy novel?

Whatever the case was, he wasn’t going to get answers until tomorrow.

“Well,” he said, closing the laptop, “I think once we reach Canterlot, our best bet is to scope out the town. The school would be a good place to start. Maybe even talk to the principal... I’d wager that she knows more than she lets on.” He hopped out of the truck bed and got into the truck proper, Caramella followed suit. “Better get some sleep... long day tomorrow.”

“Yeah... and, er, hey Alan?”

“Yeah?” he asked, pulling down his seat.

“Thanks... for earlier, y’know? I’m sorry for that whole thing, I just couldn’t... couldn’t...”

Before he could respond, Caramella was already entering a deep sleep in the back seat.

“Yeah... no problem. Anytime.”