“Hello? Are you alive?”
Those were the words Celestia heard through the haze of sleep. She tried to ignore it and continue sleeping, attributing the question to a dream.
However, she started feeling something poking her in the snout and the question followed again, albeit this time with some more gusto. “Hello! Are you alive?!”
Celestia opened one eye and found herself looking at a very strange sight. Well, strange for some anway. Before her stood a short, average looking human male. She knew why he was there, but wasn’t exactly pleased with being awoken from her slumber.
Grunting lightly with annoyance, Celestia slowly got out of the bed, quickly adopting a less aggressive expression and stared him down. “Well, hello there. Might I ask how you got into my room. I hope you know that trespassing in one of the princesses rooms can be seen as a serious offense.”
The boy quietly took a step back, looking down, almost retreating into his shirt. “I’m very sorry miss. I’m just as confused as you.” He said rather weakly. "All I remember is accepting my award and here I am."
Celestia let out a brief sigh, bothered that she wasn’t able to glean much information from him. However, she could tell that he was afraid and decided it was time to ease him down. “It’s alright, I can tell you didn’t mean any harm so we’ll just look past it for now.” Seeing the boy loosen his posture, she gave him a brief inspection to better identify him and the answer quickly popped into her mind.
“Ah, I believe I recognize you. You’re Anon correct?”” Immediately she noticed a slight bit of relief on his face.
“Uh, yes ma’am. How did you know?” She laughed heartily before responding.
“Well, I am a princess and an Alicorn, I’m quite well informed about who is coming to my castle. You’re here because you won the contest.” Celestia paused. “I imagine you didn’t think it was real did you?” Anon shifted nervously before replying. “So you’ve just been fucking with me then?”
Celestia chuckled lightly. “Well I wouldn’t exactly put it like that, but in a manner of speaking, yes.”
“Huh, was not expecting the same kind of humor we have back where I’m from and yeah I honestly thought the contest was a joke. Who wouldn’t? I mean, a world of talking ponies, that’s just a television show, or at least that’s what I thought.”
Celestia stretched and shook her wings out. “I understand it’s a fair amount to process and seems impossible. However, as you can see, we are very real, which is obvious now I hope.” She said unfazed.
Anon nodded quickly. “Oh yeah, you’ve effectively made a full blown believer out of me.”
“Wonderful. Well, since I’m awake anyway, what say we discuss this further over some food. I imagine you’re a bit hungry yourself?”
Anon looked down at his stomach which proceeded to make an unholy growling sound. He grinned sheepishly “It would seem so, yes.” Celestia put her crown and the rest of her regalia on before making her way to the door. “Well, let’s be off then.” She said, beckoning to the door.
She led them down to the royal dining hall where the guards along with other residents of castle ate . They got in line behind Cadance who for some reason had her tail aside ever so slightly.
As Anon stood quietly, he noticed the pink princesses tail and proceeded to stare at her partly exposed mare parts, his face slowly turning red.
Celestia, being right behind him, quickly noticed this. “Enjoying the view?” She whispered with a grin. Anon quickly looked away from Cadance’s rear and instead laid eyes on the available food options.
Cadance, having heard Celestia’s voice, though thankfully not enough to make out the words, turned around, eyes widening at the sight of Anon. “A human? How in the world did you get here?
Anon,still feeling embarrassed from earlier couldn’t manage to form the words to respond. Thankfully, Celestia quickly cleared up the silence. “Oh, this is Anon and he’s here because he won a little contest we decided to host.”
Cadance’s shock was quickly replaced with confusion. “Contest?”
“Indeed. An art contest as I recall. The winner would win a trip here to Equestria and be given the chance to interact with with our populace. Anon ultimately won thanks to a rather beautiful rendition of what he believed Equestria looked like.” She finished her sentence with a nod to Anon.
Cadance still had a puzzled look on her face.
“So you’re telling me that there was a contest for a trip to Equestria that took place wherever Anon is from? Since when did that start happening?”
Celestia realized that this was a foreign concept to Cadance but she couldn’t help but feel a little frustrated. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m telling you. As to when did it start, this is the first time this has happened.” Celestia knew it was a lie but she wasn’t about to spill the beans. Especially to Cadance who had a habit of spreading things she shouldn’t.
Thankfully, Cadance didn’t seem keen to press the issue further and simply nodded in agreement. “Well, if nothing else it’s a good chance for some interaction between our respective worlds. So Anon, how does it feel to be in Equestria?”
Anon struggled to get the words out. “Uh...um, heh it’s cool.”
“No need to be nervous sweetie. We won’t bite.” Cadance said with a kind smile.
“He’s a little shaken up I think after seeing your intimate parts.” Celestia said, a mild look of bemusement on her face.
Cadance’s face turned an angry red as she stared Anon down. “Were you spying on me you creep?!”
“What? No! Your tail was off to the side and I might have glanced at your...stuff.” Anon responded with fear in his eyes.
Celestia leaned over to Cadance. “He did more than glance.”
Luckily for Anon one of the dining hall servers interrupted the situation. “Keep the line moving please.”
Everyone fell silent and moved through the line. Cadance grabbed her food and went off to sit with Shining. Celestia grabbed some cake and Anon’s appetite disappeared so he got nothing.
Mercifully, Celestia led them to a secluded area towards the corner of the dining hall. She had a seat brought over for Anon in which he immediately sat down. Celestia sat down on her rump across from him.
“I thought you were hungry.” Celestia said with a hint of concern. She noticed Anon was looking down at his hands which were in his lap.
“I was but I’m not anymore. I’m a little too worried about getting my ass kicked by an angry princess to think about food right now.” Anon said this without ever meeting her gaze.
Celestia chuckled as she played around with the cake on her plate. “Cadance? You don’t need to worry about her. She won’t do anything crazy. Turns out, the Princess of Love tends to, how do they put it where you’re from...get around when it comes to partners. Of course I’m well informed about her activities, so she knows doing anything to upset me would be a bad decision on her part. So don’t worry too much about it.”
Anon didn’t seem moved either way by this information. “Doesn’t change the fact you made me look like a jackass and a creep back there.”
Celestia took a few bites of her cake before responding. “Don’t worry about it, nopony here will say anything. If not me, then Cadance will make sure to keep it quiet. So relax.”
Despite her words, Anon still looked just as on edge, eyes occasionally darting to Cadance’s table only to shift back instantly. “You really need to lighten up a little bit. I understand this is new to you but I’m just having some fun. Honestly, you should consider yourself lucky. You were able to see something that most stallions would give up their firstborn to see.”
Anon finally looked up at Celestia. “Well, I’m not saying I hated it but it sure didn’t help that you brought so much attention to it. I haven’t even been here a day and already I look like some kind of weirdo.”
“It’s fine dear. I’ll make sure that there are not any problems.” Celestia took on a motherly tone and slid the rest of her cake towards Anon. “You need to eat. This is the best cake you can find in Equestria. It’s made specifically for myself.”
Anon looked the cake over and then back at Celestia. “I don’t have any utensils.”
Without a word Celestia picked up the cake with her magic and held it in front of Anon. “Do you want me to make train sounds while I feed you?”
Anon gave her a pained look. “Please don’t. I’m not a baby, heck I’m pretty sure even my own mother didn’t do that when I was a baby.”
Celestia however, got another playful smirk on her face as she moved the cake towards Anon’s mouth. “Time to open up the tunnel. Chugga chugga chugga choo choo!”
Anon, cringed at the action, but saw little point in protesting as he opened his mouth and proceeded to eat the cake. He glared at Celestia while he chewed as he wasn’t able to get a word in. She just kept feeding him more cake while continuing the train sounds.
Thankfully for Anon the charade was soon over as Celestia ran out of cake, though remnants of it were smeared all over his face.
“Do you have a napkin?” Anon asked, hoping that Celestia wouldn’t make it weird.
Celestia lifted her crown and pulled out handkerchief. She gave it a lick before wiping Anon’s face clean. “There, good as new.” Celestia said as she gave Anon a pat on the head.
Anon looked around wondering if anyone saw the embarrassing shenanigans. As he scanned the dining hall he noticed one pony in particular was glaring at him. Anon quickly averted his gaze back to Celestia who had stood up and was preparing to leave.
Before Anon could ask Celestia who the pony was, the pony in question stormed over. He stopped in front of Anon and leaned in close. So close in fact that Anon could feel the pony’s breath on his face.
Author's Note
This was short I know but I wanted to get the ball rolling and at least post the introduction to the story. I will be working on future chapters so be ready for that.