The Sum-total

by combatarms

Chapter 2

Previous Chapter

It didn't take long for the princess to settle the nerves of the ponies. the three ponies she hired had decided to leave feeling that their job was done. the only ponies with questions were Twilight and Fluttershy. Celestia felt it would be best to start with Fluttershy.

"so uhm, princess I understand that this human is from another dimension but is he safe to have around; I believe we should give him a chance but from what you have told us he could be very violent towards ponies."

Celestia thought about this for a moment, she didn't really know how the human would react with ponies or blend into society. "I can’t rightly say; the legends say that humans would use their interdenominational travel to visit us for trade." Celestia took a pause to let that sink in. "All we can do right now is to allow him to speak for himself, if its determined he is unable to exist in our society then placing him in the Everfree may be our best solution." Fluttershy seemed content with this answer and sat down.

"Now let’s move onto Twilight's questions" Celestia gestured towards the lavender mare who seemed to be quaking in anticipation to speak

"Where did the humans come to visit us from, is their world an alternate reality?" Twilight shot out her first question as if it was a western standoff.

"One record states that they came from a planet called earth, some refereed to it as Terra as well though; as to if their word is an alternate reality that may be true in some sense." She paused for a sip of tea. "They seemed to know where they could find some of the more useful resources without using magic or what they called science. one scroll referred to the humans only wanting to mine a semi green ore that made ponies sick just from being near it for too long; in exchange, they showed the ponies where they could mine vast quantities of gold and iron." Twilight jotted down everything Celestia said and even added her own notes along the way.

"I’ll just ask one more question for now, why did the human appear and why did he appear in the griffon kingdom and not somewhere else?" she asked preparing new parchment.

"The legend state that after humanity was almost all but forgotten one would appear, with all the knowledge of his race; he would dispose upon who he felt worthy the know how to not only control the planets energy but the very stars themselves." Twilight and the others seemed stunned by this. "Now as for why he appeared in the griffon kingdom I believed it is random, he could have easily appeared Before the dragons or zebras or even us; what matters is he was not giving Razor Tail information willingly as we saw."

A masculine voice seemed to shatter the serenity of the room "well you’re at least right about that" he called out from his spot on the floor. the ponies in the room jumped to attention. "The reason i was sent here isn't one I can explain first hand, but i remember it; my people had conquered the stars and the big rip was beginning to take place." he stopped to sit up, his joints cracking like trees in a storm. "They seemed to have put all their research into grabbing things from back in time, they deemed it necessary to take me and of course implant all of our knowledge into my head."

"But why would they send just you here, if your people wanted they could have repopulated here in our universe." Celestia asked the human who had now started stretching. "

"They seemed it smart to accept their fate, they gave me an immortal body and missions; To either cement our position in this universe or grant the knowledge of humanity to a race I deem worthy" After his stretch his began to look at his tattered rags he once called clothes, they had become more bloodstain than cloth as it stood. "If possible, can one of you mend my clothes I would rather be decent looking in front of what i assume is royalty."

"Gladly" Celestia spoke as she cast a mending spell on his clothes. the other ponies seemed curious about his choice of clothing, strange blue fabric pants and a white fabric shirt.

"Thank you, now I believe I have one last issue to address; does your nation seek our knowledge?" he asked the great ruler.

She contemplated this, this informational wealth of humanity could be at her disposal. No other country could ever threaten her ponies again. But then she thought of the ruin it could bring, there are very few accounts of what human technology could do but some scrolls spoke of weapons capable of reducing cities much larger than Canterlot to ash.

"No, knowledge is a very powerful tool indeed but I do not think what you bring to us will benefit our planet in the long run; maybe we would ask you for ways of improving what we have now but I do not think it would be wise to suddenly give us all manner of technology." She spoke as she would to any ambassador.

"I understand completely, now with that out of the way I have a few questions" he paused to collect his thoughts. "Is it normal to see your magic the way I do, you ponies with horns have these revolting fields of energy constantly being pooled into you; while the ones with wings and with neither only have faint auras?" He asked them.

Celestia seemed somewhat surprised at his question, there were ponies that could sense latent energies and mana but none that could directly observe them. Twilight was on the same train of thought but thought about how his vision could be used to optimize spells. "Well, I’m not sure why that is but it may have been due to the immortal body your people gave you; if they had come to Equestria maybe they implanted technology in you allowing you to see mana and the way it flows." he seemed content with the answer.

"Well with that mess out of the way I only have one real question I have is where will I be staying here, it seems that I’m in some form of palace but if all possible I would rather be somewhere more quiet" He asked.

This time the orange mare in the group spoke up "Well if yer looking for somewhere quite to live we got spare rooms at the apple house, your free to stay with us until you get on your feet" she told the human who seemed shocked at the proposal.

"You seem pretty quick to trust me, is there a reason why offered your home so quickly." He asked the orange mare, truly wondering why she would do something like that.

"Well, the apple harvest is coming up and we need all the help we can get; if you stay with us you just have to give us a hoof bringing in the harvest" she told the human.

"Well that seems good enough, if anybody else is offering anything then me know; Otherwise I’ll be staying wit- oh I don't know any of your names." he said.

The group blushed, seeing as how it was rude not to introduce yourself to visitors. they each stood up and introduced themselves. there was rarity the fashion designer. there was applejack the farmer of course. there was twilight who researched magic. there was flutter-shy, the town vet who was lived a ways out of town it seemed. There was Rainbow dash who was part of the weather team. living with her seemed like a no-go because he didn't like the idea of falling off her house and dying. Then there was Pinkie Pie, she seemed to exist in a superposition of reality. It didn't seem like he was too keen on the idea of living with somebody who seemingly controlled space itself.

As he began to respond back with his name his stopped, a slight fear coming into his mind "I forgot my name, or rather I think my people took it from me when they sent be here" He spoke looking at his hands for an answer. "In fact, I don't even remember the life i lead, the only things coming to mind are the lessons learned from experiences i guess" He sat down beginning to break down mentally. Not only had he been pulled from his time, but his memories and the people he knew had been ripped away.

Before his mind could begin collapsing the six mares he had just met all embraced him in a hug, He didn't know them at all but to how such kindness far outweighed anything he thought he had experienced on earth. He had never felt such a kindness, so genuine that he immediately began to trust these new people he could come to call friends.

The group backed off from the embrace and twilight spoke up "We aren't too sure what your people did to you but we will do all we can to help you feel welcome and safe here."

He stood up and spoke to the six ponies "thank you very much, if there is anything you need me to do ill also do what i can to help you out; i don't really believe that i should share all of human technology but i believe that a little bit here in there can help everybody"

With introductions, out of the way Celestia had some paperwork drafted up for the new citizen, he would have to register as a "Ponyville" citizen himself but this would cover and legal issues that showed up with him being in the country itself. he was also handed a bag of 50 gold coins they called bits. He didn't have a grasp on the value of money but figuring it out on his own can’t be that hard.

"Well, if all of our business is in order i would enjoy heading to this apple farm." He said pausing a moment to look at the bright nausea only he could see "As pretty as this magic stuff is I think I’m going to have a stroke if have to look at this much for too long."

"Does our latent mana really bother you so much you can’t stand to stay here any longer?" Celestia asked in an overly mother like tone.

He responded. "It doesn't bother me on a physical level yet, but imagine seeing giant wells of color from the people around, especially the unicorns."

She seemed somewhat disappointed that he didn't want to stay in the palace, but she was to be over it quickly enough. "Well that's fine, you’re probably still in some form of shock and I do believe I need to speak with Luna and the advisers as to how we will deal with the griffon king from here on out." she paused and the bell again, the maid from earlier came back inside. "Please escort our human and the elements to the chariot platform and send them on their way, I’m sure our human would like to settle down after his jarring experience."

the group followed the maid to the platform located near the back of the castle, there were an assortment of chariots. most for military use but around six decorated in blue and white. the maid flagged a few guards down "Excuse me can you prepare a couple of chariots to send the elements and their guest back to Ponyville" The guard gave a nod and yelled at some of the Pegasi who seemed to be slacking off at the moment. They all rushed to three non-descript chariots. The group walked over and the ponies split up into two of the chariots while the human took his place at the one left.

Fluttershy spoke up "should one of the unicorns go with him to make sure he is safe?" she asked the other mares.

He waved his hand nonchalantly at them "I’ll be fine I think, just hold and don't let go, right?" The ponies didn’t seem so sure about letting him ride by himself but they didn't have much choice as their chariots began to move. a moment after they departed the human’s chariots soon took off after them

It didn’t take long for them to build up speed but to the ponies it seemed that the human was doing fine. In fact, he was not if the grip on the handles meant anything.

One of the guards looked back to make sure he was still attacked to the chariot he chuckled at the human "Yeah this usually happens to first time fliers, don’t worry we won’t drop a passenger no matter how weird you seem to be." The guard turned back around.

A few minutes later as the chariots began to approach the small village at the base of the mountain Canterlot was built onto "Hey since we are about to land I’m going to give you some advice, move out of this town as soon as you can." he paused as they slowed down just in case the other chariots caught wind of what he was saying "The ponies here are insane and your life will be in danger the moment you set hoof here, they aren’t evil in a normal sense; they would kill you by mistake but not feel bad about it in anyway."

another guard picked up "If you do feel the need to live near here get a house build it away from the town, I would also suggest a wall or something."

One of the guards up front shouted back "Rumor is the water does it, maybe put some bits towards your own well or get water imported in like filthy rich." They brought themselves back up to speed with the ponies, the three chariot drivers all nodded towards each other.

the guard that first spoke up said "Our last piece of advice is to write a journal it might seem pointless now but the ponies could eat away at your mind, you’re going to need a way to keep sane."

The group approached the town landing near what must have been a town hall. The human mulled over what the guards had said and decided that putting his thoughts to paper would be a good idea. the human got off his chariot only to be surrounded by the entire population of Ponyville, some looked in wonder but most in fear of this new creature that had landed before him.

He didn’t make any sudden movements as the crowd around him grew a bit, the town he ended up was as tiny as one could get could. If it really was as quite as he was hoping maybe it wouldn’t be so bad after all. Of course as he thought this whatever architect of fate there was decided to shit on everything.


Author's Note

Gonna level with you guys now, i dont write sober anymore so ive got no clue where this is gonna end up. be warned i guess

After this chapter or the next im gonna start off and on switching to a first person view cause i suck ass at writing this way. gives me a headache trying to write as some kind of omnipotent god. if that bothers you, fuck off i guess.