MLP-Multiverse: Chimera - The Snake's Charm

Chapter 7: Homeward Bound

"Whatever happens, the worst is behind us. Let's go home."

I wake up a bit earlier than usual, feeling rested, but also a little drained. I try to lift myself up and stretch for the skies, a feeling familiar to every morning, and I look around, but i see no steel walls or sealed doors. Nor any hint of my old room. Merely a few wooden crates, the small bed we neglected to use, a lamp plugged into a few lemons, a kitchenette with a coffee pot and an assortment of packaged foods I have never seen before, and a dresser with a book on top of it. It reads "The History of Equestria". I get up, put my clothes and glasses on, and pick it up. This could be important. I look over at the sleepy mare sprawled out under the blanket we shared. I don't want to wake her up, but i don't think a mare that lets me cum inside of her ass would mind me reading a book. I look over at the kitchenette and decide to brew some coffee for the both of us, and when Ellie wakes up, I'll surprise her with some breakfast... I'll look around first.

I poke around the cabinets and an actual working refrigerator. That's surprising for a town without a vault. How do they do it, I wonder? Moving on, I find some packets of "Mr. Crust's Crispy Carrots", and potato chips made by a jolly Santa Claus of a pony named "Sultan Vinegar". Are these typical pony names? That would make things SO much easier for humans. They would easily know what they should be doing with themselves, I still don't know if I should be cooking food, repairing machines and appliances, or giving advice to bickering Humans. Ugh, I'm apparently not too shabby at murdering slavers in self defense... maybe my name should be "Snake-eater" or "Stabfang" or something extreme like that. No, I don't make a habit of killing people. They may have been survivors like us, but that doesn't excuse slavery or trying to kill my friends. I need to keep a close eye on Dick. I like him, he seems genuine, but I don't know his real intentions. Back to the food.

After a while of searching, I find some carrots, a daisy... sandwich, and several large blackberries. No idea what those are. I also find some water, and in the cabinet, some cooking oil. Maybe i can whip something up with these ingredients. I put them back as I wait for the coffee to brew, and I sit down, slowly opening the book in front of me. I sit and read for a minute, when the first thing I find is what sounds like a fairy tale. Three types of Ponies, Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth Ponies, which I suppose i must be, made three separate tribes and after a long and cold life, hiding from evil spirits called Wendigos, united to stop said spirits from freezing the land over completely. After years of raising the sun and moon themselves, Celestia and Luna... two Alicorn sisters, were trained to do the task themselves, having enough magic within them to do it over and over.

There are so many stories in here... Changelings, these bug creatures that eat emotions, then Tirek and Scorpan, a centaur and a gargoyle who wanted to steal the Ponies' magic, before Scorpan accepted the Ponies rather than destroyed them. Then I find even more stories of the creation of events and holidays like the Grand Galloping Gala, and Hearts and Hooves Day. There's even a story about Starswirl The Bearded, the mentor of the two sisters, joining a group of six followers to plant a sacred tree and create six elements of harmony. I read further on, and I find wars against the changelings, the races of Yaks, and Griffons, and Hippogriffs, and great battles against Sirens, a Unicorn with a broken horn, and even a dark Unicorn king. After that, Celestia, who controlled the sun apparently banished Luna to the moon, long ago, for attempting to rebel. I thought HUMANS had family issues. So then she reappears as a monster called Nightmare Moon, only to be defeated later by one Twilight Sparkle, who after fighting many hardships with her own gang of friends at her side, even finding the same enemies from the past, managed to rise to the top and become not only an Alicorn, but a princess. She took Celestia's place as the ruler of Equestria... but I wonder, is she still alive? She's supposed to be their leader, so that has to be important. I'll have to ask Ellie when she wakes up. For the moment, the coffee stopped brewing, so I might as well have some.

I spend so long reading the book that I forgot to cook something, so I get up, gather a few of the vegetable ingredients and start chopping them up, making some semblance of a salad, but these mutant blackberries are incredible. Despite their design, I can slice them as thinly as tomatoes. I use the daisies as the base for it, add the mutfruit slices as the tomato replacement, and top it with the carrots. I take a bite... fair enough for a wasteland salad, I hope Ellie enjoys it. For now, I sit back down and continue reading, engrossed completely in these stories. When I think I've torn into the book enough, I set it aside and relax, sipping a cup of coffee. There are far too many creatures that I haven't even seen yet. Many creatures of the wasteland, and even more from this Equestria place. Will I come across any cool ones? Maybe some other races, but hopefully that one centaur stays put. As I take another sip, I hear a loud "RAAAAAAGGH!" from behind me, and I fumble my cup, almost dropping it.

"You bucking dork, who wakes up this early?", She laughs as she asks the question.

"Ellie, you FUCKING scared me!", I say, as if correcting her.

"Wait... fucking? What in Tartarus is a fuck?"

"You say 'bucking?', well, we use the term 'fucking' where I come from. Also... 'Tartarus'?"

"That's weird. What's a 'fuck'?" Ellie looks confused, of course, so I explain.

After exchanging a little bit of terminology, I come to understand a bit more of Ellie and, as a result, the speech patterns of my own race. I realize that human terms, like most swears, religious figures, and references to weapons don't come as easily to ponies, being a mostly peaceful race without the same theology as humans. Despite being peaceful, they did find themselves at war with many different races, using only their strength, flight, and the Unicorns' magic.

"So... magic really does exist?" I ask Ellie.

"Of course it does... or well, it used to be far more prevalent, but now it's far more reserved. Unicorns mostly use it along with modern technology, as it enhances whatever it touches, and can be used to some amazing effects, like the hydroponic gardens, and these flowers we started growing, and the bees? I LOVE the bees. They gave me the job of taking care of them and collecting the honey!" She gives such a warm smile after saying this, and I'm taken aback at how some people can truly keep themselves happy in this world. Nevertheless, I love that smile on her face, and I want her to keep it.

"So, you mean they use magic, but not as much as they used to?"

"Exactly. Why are you so curious anyway?", Ellie curiously asks.

"Well, lemme start. I'm an Earth Pony, I was raised around humans instead of ponies, you're the first other pony I've met, you have wings, and not only that, but there are other ponies with horns, and there are somehow even more species, not even pony-related ones?"

Ellie stands motionless. "Oh geez, no wonder you want to know." She stifles a laugh, but finishes by saying "Well, the thing is... None of us really know why we're here. A long time ago, Ponies used to live in a faraway land called Equestria, and it was NOTHING like here. From what I know, Ponies used to walk on four legs, they were extremely resilient to the crazy things that would happen day by day, and they could do all manner of insane feats of strength, speed, and magic, but now, somehow we ended up here, surrounded by these humans. Not only that, but in retaining some, but not all of our abilities, the humans see us all as magical, even though these are innate to Ponies, Unicorns and Pegasi. The unicorns were hit the most heavily though. As we evolved, we grew taller, we learned to walk on two legs, and we after too many failed attempts to reach human beings, we learned to stay away from them, and the Unicorns?... They adapted so well to this new world, advancing in science, medicine, machinery, that they lost most of their magic."

"Geez, that sucks... Why on Earth would that happen?"

"I don't know, but so long as they have their technical abilities, everything we used magic for could always be recreated through the machines they build. They even created that 'Second Sun' suspended over the town."

"Holy crap... That thing is all because of a machine?", I have to ask, having thought the floating nuclear fireball was COMPLETELY magic-based.

"Yep, they built a machine to recreate a small sun as well as various weather patterns to ensure the health of our crops.", she says as if this is a normal thing.

I stand there, shocked at what I'm hearing. "That's not exactly a normal thing. Humans would kill to get their hands on that kind of technology."

Ellie looks worried, and her ears lower as she turns away, sadly. "I know. That's part of why I was so scared of your friends coming over. I hope no one's afraid of them." It hits me at that moment. I let my rowdy thug of a best friend who I have trouble reigning in, and an ex-slaver who may very well be untrustworthy, into a town of pacifist ponies in possession of technology and resources that their race constantly kill each other for...

"BUCK!" I set the half-drank coffee cup on the table and bolt from my seat. "Enjoy the salad, I have to go!"

Ellie is surprised, of course, and begins to ask, "Wait, what's wrong? Salad? Snakebit, what's the matter!?"

There was no time, I had to hightail it out of there and look for Butch and Dick. This would be easy, if I follow the only feeling I had at the moment. "Look for the area where the people in town are obviously having a problem", is that nagging feeling. I look around and see several shops, all looking fine, I hear no one shouting in or around them. I have to keep looking. I head to the fields, thinking we did need to bring back food. No one here except the field workers either. They're wave hello to me, but I can't talk right now, but thank goodness they're friendly. Where else can I check? Butch said he needed a drink.

I head over to the bar and throw open the door, and sure enough, the first thing I see are two humans punching a fellow pony in the face... much to my surprise though, they seem to be getting along. No one is stopping them, and they seem to be exchanging punches evenly, and egging each other on.

"Butch! What on Earth is goin' on here?", I run into the bar, to his side.

"Hey man... This place has got some great shit! They got these HUGE mugs o' cider, freshly squeezed from REAL apples, and they got this stuff called 'Snails' Pale Ale', one of my new friend's favorites, eh Bar Fly?", He slurred as he spoke, clearly intoxicated, but after trekking through a dirty, sweaty ghost town, I won't fault him for having a good time. Regardless, his new friend begins to speak, slurring just as much.

"Eh... nice to meetcha mizzer Snake! Butchie ere's tol' me ALL aboutcha. You like to stab radroaches wit a switchblade, eh? We could use an exterminator round 'ere... too many Ponies are afraid of 'em.", He was a big Pegasus, with a distended beer-gut and a long, bushy beard. He could barely see out of one eye, I'm assuming with the cataract in it, and he looked like a mountain man, wearing flannel, overalls, fingerless gloves, and a tuque hat. His breath REEKED of cider and old carrots, but he seemed friendly enough. "An' ya slaughtered the raiders that took our lil' Ellie, didja? That sounds 'orrible, but at least ya showed this one a lesson, huh Dick?"

Dick didn't look so happy, but he played along, tracing the rim of his shot glass "Yeah, the neon green pony with the snake eyes sure showed me I was on the wrong team, not like I knew... hey barkeep! Get me another shot of bourbon, please.", he looked like has suffering in silence, afraid to say something important.

"Hey Bar Fly, ease up a bit, alright? He didn't wanna work for them in the first place. They pretty mu-", I'm interrupted by a palm to my stomach pushing me aside. "What the buck, Di-"

"No. I'M gonna tell him. Listen here, Drunky, I don't suppose you know what it's like, having your family killed in front of you and having to smash two heads in at age nine, but it's pretty fuckin' unfair! Look at you, this chubby schmuck drinkin' all he wants like it's his job, and ya wanna know what MY job was?", Dick is starting to crack. I need to defuse the situation, but Butch actually holds me back.

"No man, this is important. Watch... He's startin' to show us who he is.", I haven't heard this side of Butch before, maybe when he's drunk, he's not trying to act tough all the time? I take his advice and listen.

Bar Fly finally responds with "No, I dunno what yer job was. Wanna tell me?"

Dick's anger turned to complete despair as he recounted the job of a slaver. "I kidnapped people, and Equestrians like you, putting rings on the Unicorns' horns and binding the Pegasi with ropes. I helped keep them in line, often threatening them with my sledgehammer, or kicking them in the ribs to keep 'em quiet. At the end of the day, I got nothin' to my name, I got treated like dirt by my so-called friends, SAME friends that murdered my mum and dad, mind you... and I got about as much to eat as the captures. I was planning to escape since before I met these guys, but..." Dick's face turns red, and he begins to grab at his face, as if he has a migraine. "I didn't get the chance to do it, ok? I tried... I just didn't want to DIE. I was talking to Ellie and... I was thinking she would take me with her if we escaped. Why are you all acting like you're ok with me?"

Bar Fly walks up to Dick, claps a hand onto his shoulder, and for a moment, he looks angry as he towers above him. "You wanna know why, kiddo?" Dick looked a little scared as he stared straight at him, but he nods his head, face full of tears, and Bar Fly continues, "Dick, lemme tell ya, there are tons of terrible people out there, but ya wanna know why we even let you stay here? Because you got the BALLS to learn somethin'. Ah don't blame you, Dick. You've had a pretty rough time, and I'll bet right now is the only time you've grabbed some boozers and just talked with some friends, huh?"

Dick seems to relax, and the bartender suddenly gives him his shot glass, and smiles at him as he returns to his work. "Well, not the FIRST time, but yeah, actually. I was always stuck with those guys my whole life."

"Well, now that'cha ain't, these two told ya what you were doin' wrong, ya said ya were sorry, and if any of us actually DO blame you, you can try and fix things. Ya hear that people? We got a human who learns friendship lessons!", for some reason, the entire bar erupted into cheers. The bartender came back, and passed us 3 large mugs, filled to the brim with a sweet, golden cider. Apparently the "new friends" deserved a reward for rescuing Ellie and learning a lesson, in Dick's case.

"Hey barkeep...", I begin to say, before he interrupts me to ask how I knew his name. I roll my eyes and laugh before finishing, "Just a lucky guess, but why is it so important that Dick learns friendship lessons?"

Barkeep turns to me and says "Well surely you must know. The whole reason we Ponies can't get along with humans is because they don't understand how friendship lessons work. Yeah, they don't feel bad, or apologize, or anything... they just keep coming up with reasons to justify their terrible behavior and keep hurting people. Truth be told, I'm actually pretty impressed by your friends there. They act all rough around the edges, but they ain't bad at all."

It feels good to hear it from someone else, but I can't help feeling a little shitty. These Ponies talk about humans like they're totally irredeemable, at least usually, but genuinely happy and accepting when someone like Dick shows a bit of humility. I may be a pony, but I was raised with these humans like they were my family. This reminds me, I need to find a way to get some food and water and bring it back to the vault. I ask Barkeep if he can help, and surprisingly, he tells me he'll talk to Droplet, the water pump manager. I head over to my two fellow knuckleheads and give them the news.

"Hey guys, it's time for us to get moving. We can come back later, but we need to get those supplies to the vault, remember?"

Dick speaks up, "Of course! Let's get to the vault! They're probably worried about you guys, right?", I'm glad Dick is excited, but... why, exactly? I don't know how the vault will react to an ex-slaver joining our ranks. At the very least, with no weapons and restocked food stores, he'll probably be able to relax.

"Hey..." Butch says, starting to his feet, "Whaddya mean, time to go? Did ya find food? "

I explain, "Well, I talked to Barkeep, and he'll help with the water, and I had an idea for the food. Follow me." I led them to a person I knew would be able to help. I knocked on the door, and found Ellie jumping through the entryway and latching onto me like a parasite.

"Snakebit, where did you GO!? I was so worried...", her ears were still lowered, and her eyes were indeed widened with worry.

"Sorry Ellie, you told me that Ponies had some bad blood with humans, and I feared the worst. Ellie, I'll be back, promise, but I need help. My family is running out of food and water, and I wanted to ask you about your honey. You said it's filling, antiseptic, anesthetic, all that stuff, right? I was thinking, what if we took that back to the vault?"

Ellie perked up, excited to finally be able to help, I suppose, and she yelled, "Oh my Celestia, that's a great idea! I'll have some out for ya, hang on a second!" and she ran inside the shack, where I heard clattering, and what i assume was her, scrambling to get everything prepared. I thought about how I ran out earlier, and the salad I made for us, so I turned to the "entourage" and asked to talk with her alone for a second.

"You mean HIM?", Butch laughed nastily, "Dude, you fallin' for a dude?"

I rolled my eyes and walked in, behind Ellie, and asked her, "Hey Ellie, sorry about running out like that, I- ", She smushes herself right into me and plants a kiss right on my muzzle.

"It's ok, I forgive you." She narrows her eyes and smiles. "You know, I enjoyed the salad too.", I could not be happier. I guess everything worked out in the end.

"Oh, that's great! but uh, one other thing. You mentioned Celestia, and not the town. She was that princess that raised the sun, right?"

"Yeah, of course, why do you ask?"

"I wondered... ya built that machine to recreate the sun and weather... but what happened to Celestia?"

Ellie simply shrugged and said "That was such a long time ago, no one remembers. The only thing we know is that Celestia just disappeared one day, and a while after that, there was a massive flash of light, a burning pain, and we were suddenly transported to this world, filled with humans, bugs, dragons with horns, metal people, all kinds of freaky creatures."

I think for a bit. Why would Celestia leave her people? This isn't a good sign. I would continue pondering this, but as I look at the collection of honey jars she's prepared, I feel a swelling sense of relief that our problem has been solved. I pack up the honey into backpacks and hand em over to the guys, and we go back to pick up the water from Droplet. As we head back to Celestia's entrance, I call back to my new "marefriend" as I leave Celestia, hoping to come back soon.

"I need to get goin. I'll see you when I get back, ok Ellie?", I call back to her as she waves goodbye excitedly.

"Man, what a day, huh Snake?", Butch asks.

I respond, "Yeah, but look at this! We found new friends, a new town, and a bunch of supplies for the vault. We play our cards right, and we could have a long-standing ally."

Dick fumbled around in his pocket, making sure the dynamite he smuggled was still there and gave a small grin. He was starting to doubt himself...

Leveled Up. Perk Selected.

"Equestrian Citizen"

You fit in so naturally with your own kind, but even more so with your natural Charisma. You get +15% bonus experience from speech challenges and a 30% discount when dealing with former species of Equestria. Remember, friendship is magic!