For what felt like hours, nothing happened. I sat motionless against the wall twiddling my thumbs together. I had nothing to do, nothing to eat, and no way to tell how long I’ve actually been stilling here. It could’ve been 10 minutes; it could’ve been 10 hours. All I knew for sure, is that it felt like an eternity.

Despite my growing doubts, Princess Luna eventually returned.

Two bright lines slowly descended from the top of the wall to my left, dividing it into three equal pieces. I watched in amusement at how incredibly slow the progress was. It reminded me of how Jedi would cut open a heavy metal door with their lightsabers in Star Wars.

Once the lines made contact with the ground, a large bright circle with intricate lines and symbols appeared between them before fading away. Once the circle disappeared, the entire room began to violently shake as the middle column started to rise.

Panicking, I kneeled on the ground, curled up like a turtle, and covered my neck with my hands. The vibrations of the ground rattled my teeth and the sound of rock grinding against rock was the only sound that reached my ears.

After 5 minutes passed, the sound finally stopped along with the shaking. I looked up and noticed the center of the wall had disappeared. I stood up and cautiously crept over to the empty slot.

I peeked around the corner to peer into the long hallway. The floor, walls, and ceiling of the hallway were lined with parallel lines of white and blue. At the far end we’re two figures shadowed by the light behind them. The one on the right was slightly shorter than the one on the left, both with moving shadows that reminded me of Princess Luna’s hair.

A familiar voice echoed through the hallway, “Come along Alex, ‘tis time for us to depart from this place.” The voice I recognized as Princess Luna’s, but sounded lower in tone, more like a grumble than how she talked before.

I smiled a little when I heard her voice, but I didn’t move. I’d been in this room for who knows how long thinking I would never see the sky or another person again, yet, finding out about the apparent existence of a talking, disappearing horse made me question if I really wanted to see the sky again.

What would I find out there? Would the sky really be the sky? Or am I in some subterranean cavern with some kind of organic light. Maybe the light came from a gargantuan crystal like the one in my room. However which way I could explain, it all said the same thing, nothing out there would be familiar to me... and that scared me.

“Alex?” I heard an unfamiliar voice ask, “We can see you. We are not here to harm you.”

I looked at the empty room I’ve grown accustomed to, then back to the hallway. Maybe I’m blowing it out of proportion. After all, Princess Luna seemed nice enough.

I stepped to the side so that I was right in front of the opening. I took a calming breath, and started to make my way down the hallway. The light from the room behind me faded away until the only guiding light came from the glow of the alternating white and blue lines that encircled the hallway.

I continued to walk for 60 feet until the hallway opened up to a large spherical room covered with dozens of large and small, blue and white circles with complex looking designs inside them. The hallway itself turned into a wide pathway that expanded over the drop.

I continued to walk toward Princess Luna and the other figure while keeping my eyes on the large drop on either side of the walkway. Halfway across, I looked back to see that my room was a large cube floating directly in the center of the hollow sphere around it. A small chunk of the cube jutted above where the hallway had formed. Other than that, the cube itself was plain looking.

I turned back to the direction that Princess Luna was waiting.

When I walked to the end of the walkway, I was met with another hallway with the identical white and blue lines as the one before. This time though, I only had to walk for 30 feet before I reached the entrance.

The hallway opened up to a small clearing surrounded by a dark tree line. In front of it all, were two ponies.

The one to my right was Princess Luna. She wore the same attire as she did earlier today. To my left was a larger pony with snow white fur. It wore a golden tiara and necklace, both containing a purple gem embedded in them. It had a long white horn and wings, but the thing that stood out the most was its hair.

It flowed in a non-existent wind just like Princess Luna’s. The only differences I could tell between the two is the white ponys’ mane was longer and consisted of a vibrant array of colors, much like a rainbow.

I remember Princess Luna saying something about co-ruling with her sister, but I don’t remember her name. This must be her.

“Good evening Alex,” the white one said while giving me a slight bow with her head, similar to how an old timey gentleman would lift his oversized cap instead of giving an over exaggerated bow with it.

As she raised her head, I wondered what I should do in return. They were supposedly royalty, and their apparel matched that claim... perhaps an over exaggerated bow would be best? I’ve never done it before, and screwing it up might insult moreso than help.

“Hello,” I said as I waived my hand. Nope, I should’ve bowed, definitely should’ve bowed.

“So are you the sister Princess Luna mentioned?” I asked as I awkwardly stuffed my hands into my pockets.

“You are correct, I am Princess Celestia. I rule Equestria alongside my sister.”

I looked between Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, then to the clear sky behind them. I wanted to know what was going on, or where I was, or when I was, but before I could speak, Princess Celestia beat me to it.

“We know you have questions for us to answer, and we will do our best to answer them in due time. For now, let us depart for our castle so we can have you settled into your own room.” She moved to the left and used her front leg to point to a carriage that had been hidden behind her wavy hair. The carriage looked like it was from revolutionary times, except it lacked a driver and windows. Attached to the carriage were four white, winged ponies in golden armor.

Before I could say anything, they both turned around and started to walk toward the carriage.

Again, I hesitated. I didn’t know about these creatures except that they can talk, they can think like me, and they locked me up in a room for months. So should I trust them? They let me out of that room when they could’ve just left me in there for the rest of my life. They’re also offering me a comfy place to sleep and answers to what the hell was going on... but that could easily be a lie.

What would they gain by lying to me? If they wanted to move me to another empty room, they could’ve restrained me and haul me to a new room instead of letting me walk freely and risk the possibility that I could run away.

They sounded honest enough, besides, the only thing they could do that would be worse than that room would be to kill me, and they wouldn’t need to take me somewhere to do that. They also wouldn’t be as nice as they were.

Princess Celestia’s voice broke my thoughts.

“Are you coming?”

My eyes focused back on my surroundings and noticed the princesses were already at the carriage. Princess Celestia had a look of concern while Princess Luna had a neutral look on her face.

Princess Celestia spike once more, “are you feeling well?”

Before I could think, I responded to her, “No, I’m confused with what’s going on and I don’t feel entirely comfortable about going with you to... wherever you’re going to take me.”

Princess Luna let out a sigh and looked at Princess Celestia, “Perhaps it would be best to resolve this now instead of delaying for a more comfortable setting.”

Princess Celestia nodded as she started to walk toward me, “I agree.”

They walked a few feet toward me, stopped, and sat down in the grass.

“Do you know of Equestria?” Princess Celestia asked.

“Uh, no, I don’t.”

Princess Luna raised an eyebrow, “Perhaps the Land of the Celestial Sisters will ring a bell?”

I shook my head.

“The Land of United Ponies?”

“No, nothing about a talking pony society or any names it goes by.”

I remembered a little fact from The Black Panther movie. “Is your country under a cloaking shield?”

Princess Celestia cocked her head to the side, “What is a cloaking shield?”

“It camouflages you from the rest of the world.”

Princess Luna raised a brow, “An invisibility spell on the entire country? No, we have done no such thing.”

Princess Celestia raised a hoof as an idea hit her, “Oh! Perhaps you know of us as the Trinity of the Three Tribes.”

I shook my head, “No princess.” I looked between her and Princess Luna, “I’ve never heard of anything like either of you.”

Movement in my peripheral vision tuned my attention to one of the Pegasi ruffling its wings.

I looked back to the princesses and pointed to the Pegasi, “I’ve heard of something like them, but they don’t actually exist, they’re from stories and myth.”

“If you have not heard of our country before, are you possibly form a sub-surface civilization? Would explain our lack of knowledge of your species.”

I shook my head again, “No, we’ve already explored the entire world.” I scratched my head in thought, “we haven’t explored much of what’s under the water though... are we in a sea cavern?” I looked at the setting sun. “Though, that doesn’t explain why there’s a sun... or how I got here.”

“Nay, we are on the surface of the planet.” Princess Luna motioned to the sky, “surrounded by space and living under our sun and moon.”

“You say you have explored your planet in it’s entirety?” Princess Celestia asked.

I nodded.

“You have never heard of our little ponies, perhaps your species missed us by mistake? Have you heard of the Griffin Empire? Or the Dragon Hierarchy? Or perhaps the Minotaur civilization?”

“No, my... species,” Wow, that feels weird to say, “have explored every inch of land. Even if we somehow missed all those species, we have satellites that have scanned the surface of the entire globe. We’ve solved a lot of mysteries thanks to that, but no signs of other intelligent life.”

Princess Luna’s eats splayed, “sister, do you suppose...” her voice trailed off.

Princess Celestia, catching what Princess Luna was implying, continued by asking me a question. “Alex... how did you arrive in our country?”

“I... I’m not entirely sure...”

Princess Celestia continued, “Do you perhaps remember seeing a portal?”

I shook my head, “No, I remember being picked up by a tornado... I think something hit me, and then I was in a field. I can’t recall what happened in between.”

“GAH!” Princess Luna yelled, causing me to jump and quickly look over to her. “WE RELINQUISHED OUR BOON FOR NAUGHT!!!!!!!”

Her horn glowed and then she vanished in smoke.

I stared at the empty spot in confusion, then shifted my gaze to Princess Celestia, who was also looking at Princess Luna’s vacant spot.

She let out a sigh, “I believe we know what has happened to you.” Her horn lit up and a piece of paper appeared in front of her along with a quill, “Do you remember anything about your surroundings when you regained consciousness?”

“Hmm...” I scratched my chin as I thought back to that day, “Well, I woke up in a crater... I eventually started walking in a direction and came across some train tracks, oh, and there was a forest on the other side of it... I followed the tracks until I found a ghost town... and I passed out after that.”

I looked back to Princess Celestia, who was busy scribbling her quill against the paper.

“Excellent.” Princess Celestia said as the quill vanished. The paper rolled up, was tied with a red ribbon, and also disappeared. Princess Celestia smiled, “I’ll have some ponies look into it. Now,” she motioned a leg towards the carriage, “shall we be off? I wish to have you settled in a room before dinner.”

“Is it like the one I was in?” I asked.

She shook her head, “it will have a bed, dresser, a window overlooking canterlot, as well as a restroom with the necessities.”

I looked her in the eyes. It didn’t feel like she was lying... and a shower sounds really good right now.

“Alright, I’ll come with you.”

She nodded, turned around, and started walking to the carriage with me close behind.

She opened the carriage door, looked to me, and made a gesture with her leg as if to ask me to go in first.

Ducking slightly, I stepped into the carriage.

The inside was... not what I expected. Instead of seats, there were four large, circular cushions. Two of the cushions were placed towards the front of the carriage, and two were at the rear. Looking between the four spots, I decided to sit in one of the rear cushions. I wiggled around a bit and leaned my back against the wall of the carriage.

As Princess Celestia entered, I gave the interior of the carriage a quick look.

The walls and ceiling were covered in red fabric while the floor was carpeted with a few metal plates in front of each cushion. One odd thing about this carriage was it didn’t have any windows like the ones I’ve seen in history books.

Princess Celestia sat down in the cushion in front of me, extended her leg, and tapped the metal with a rhythm. Soon after, the carriage jolted, and started to move. Despite the old looking form of transportation, the suspension was incredible! It felt like we were going pretty fast, yet I couldn’t feel a single bump from the ground.

It didn’t take long before I became conscious to the silence in the carriage. The padded walls only added to the deafening silence of the cabin. God, I was terrible at small talk... should I say something?

Princess Celestia was giving me a warm smile, but didn’t try to start a conversation either.

So we both decided to sit in silence while we waited to arriave at our destination.

Author's Note

Put on Hiatus because I can’t dedicate as much time to the story as I used to, but I also don’t plan on giving it up.

A work accident a few days ago freed up my time to edit this chapter in.