The Student

by Fireheart 1945

Rating: teen
Tags: Other, Adventure, Princess Celestia, Slice of Life, Human, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 18640

A pony student goes to a human college. However, she is no ordinary student...

Ever since Equestria was teleported to Earth, there has been both friendships and tensions between humans and ponies. In particular, the latter are skeptical of humanity's past.

One pony enrolls in a human college, intending to learn the truth for herself.

Published 2021-08-15 03:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2023-01-04 17:20:54 UTC

Chapter 1; An ordinary history class session

Professor Charles Roux watched his students trudge through the door. A few of them were huffing and puffing; there were some narrow windows in which to get from one class to another on time, though thankfully the number of students who had to run from class to class - or at least from their previous class to his - seemed relatively few.

He reviewed his schedule for this class. Today was the second day, after introductions, for the class. Today the real learning would begin.

The class was Introduction to Medieval History. The Late Romans would be the main focus for the discussion this day.

"Welcome," he said warmly. "This is the second day of class; we did introduction and set out the syllabus last time. Make sure you're ready to take notes, this is the first real lecture for this class."

"Oh, I'm sorry," a light voice interrupted.

Charles turned to see a tall gray unicorn step into the classroom, about as tall as he was.

Ah, my first pony student, he thought.

Equestria had been teleported from their own world to this one just a few years ago. The initial meetings had gone relatively well, but many ponies had been put off by the history of human violence. Their Princesses had set strict regulations on humans being able to enter the country, and for now only ambassadors and their entourages were allowed in.

They had no such regulations for ponies who wanted to go out. Perhaps it was because the Equestrian leadership had thought that no one would want to leave, but some few had, and a number had either taken up jobs in human countries or were enrolling as students at colleges.

"Sorry I'm late," the unicorn said; from the sound of her voice, she was a mare. "My alarm clock's battery went dead, and I overslept."

"That's fine, you're here now and haven't missed anything," Charles replied. "Please sit down, miss...?"

"Silver. Silver Mane," she answered. "I apologize for missing introductions for the class."

"Basically, we went over the class syllabus and what I expect from the students in the class. If you want to learn more, look up my after hours on the syllabus. But we have to start the class now."

"Of course," she said, looking at the seats. "Um, do you mind if I just sit without a chair?"

"That's fine, but we do have a schedule to keep. Please try not to block the views of any of the other students when the lecture begins."

Silver Mane walked over to a desk near the back of the room. She levitated the chair out of the way and sat on her haunches with the desk in front of her.

Charles, using the overhead projector, brought up a map of Europe, chiefly one of the late Roman era. It showed directions from which barbarian invasions came as well as significant cities and battle sites.

"Now, the Roman Empire, in Late Antiquity, was very much in decline. We see many problems that simply were not dealt with, or not dealt with properly. By this time, Rome was ruled by an Emperor, though there was no codified system as to how the succession was to be handled, which is one reason why there were civil wars. Another reason was that generals would become popular with their own armies and would use that popularity to try and become Emperor themselves."

"But beyond these rulership issues, there were deeper problems. Due to the wide use of slavery in the Roman Empire, technology stagnated; after all, why invest in new technology when you could force unpaid labor to do everything? The Romans are widely admired for their architectural achievements, such as the aqueduct, but they could have done so much more if the wealthier citizens had been more willing to invest in newer technologies. Hero of Alexandria - Hero was literally his name - tried to build steam doors, which would have been interesting if the idea had gotten off the ground. But because people could just pay slaves to open their doors for them, this wasn't implemented."

He used the short stick in his hand to point to northern Italy. "At the same time, the plantation system of Italy - Latifundia is what the Romans would have called them - was largely used to grow cash crops, for the plantation owners to make money. As a result, food had to be imported."

He tapped a button on the remote for the projector, which now brought up the image of a coin from Late Antiquity. "There was also the problem of inflation. The ancients used hard coin and not paper, but inflation could still happen; all one had to do was, instead of making a coin purely out of gold or silver, to paint a layer of the more valuable metal in question over a less valuable one, such as copper. As a result, more money was minted, but it was less valuable and prices reflected this. It didn't help that the coinage was debased a number of times, which only damaged the economy further."

He clicked again; an artist's rendition of a barbarian warrior showed up. "What may have been the biggest issue was that this was the time of wandering tribes. Now, I use the word "tribe" loosely; these groups were often made up of numerous ethnicities and languages. We have the Huns, Vandals, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks, Burgundii, and many more wandering around, and the Romans didn't have enough soldiers to patrol or guard the entire frontier; individual forts could just be sidestepped by any tribe wanting to enter. And since Roman wealth, despite the problems I mentioned a moment ago, was greater than that of poor, nomadic tribesmen, they wanted a share of it, whether by trade or through force. The Roman solution was to negotiate contracts with some of these tribes; 'we'll let you stay in this borderland region of our empire, and in return, you defend that area from other barbarians.' I think most of you can see the problem with this, but we have the advantage of hindsight over those from seventeen-hundred years plus years ago; the Romans may not have been able to think of a better idea when their border could otherwise simply be crossed at will whenever a roving band of warriors wanted to raid and loot."

Charles took a moment to breathe. In that moment, the mare's hoof went up.

"Yes?"

"Why not make friends with these so-called 'barbarians?'"

Charles breathed out through his nose for a moment. "Because those 'barbarians' were invading with full intention to kill and plunder; if people are invading and destroying your land, I don't think you would be thinking of friendship and harmony with them. And, furthermore, the foederati system - the very contract system I was talking about - was pragmatic, not idealistic. The Romans would never have wanted to rely upon other peoples for their own defense if they could have helped it; their very identity as a people was too dignified, too nationalistic, too expansionist, too militaristic, for them to have relied upon the foederati if they could have thought of any other system. It must be said that most societies existing at the time put a high emphasis on martial issues; warriors, or soldiers, had much respect from their civilizations, and most civilizations would have been more than willing to conquer another that was weaker than theirs. That's the way it's been up until arguably a hundred years ago."

Silver Mane's shod hoof fell, but quickly rose again. "And why did they enslave other humans? Other sapient beings?"

"Because until a couple hundred years ago, slavery was the norm... everywhere, I might add. Slavery has been present if every society; it may have been enslavement through raids, force or trickery, or a person may have been enslaved in order to fulfill a debt, or they may have been prisoners of war who were made slaves in order to weaken the military of the nation they belonged to. Miss Mane, I know that this knowledge is distressful; slavery is something I personally detest, as do most people I know today. But it was, as I said, the norm for a very, very long time in just about every inhabitable area of the globe. And, if you'll forgive me, I do have to finish this class by 12:30, so I must continue."

"My apologies." The mare's hoof fell, and remained upon her desk.

"Anyway, the Roman system was in a state of decline when the Third Century Crisis hit. This was an era of invasions, civil wars, and emperors being assassinated. It was, in short, a state of chaos. 'Barbarians' invaded in the north, while the Sassanid dynasty of the Persian Empire attacked from east. You had popular men, namely generals, marching on Rome and ousting the previous emperor and declaring themselves in charge. Five emperors died within six years, and out of twenty who reigned during the crisis, only two died peacefully.

"Eventually, a man named Diocletian took the throne. After the, er, suspicious death of Numerius, who his troops had been tasked with guarding, he would end up winning a short civil war and taking the throne. He made numerous reforms, such as fixing market prices, re-dividing the provinces to be more efficient. The biggest reform was to split the Empire into a Western half and an Eastern half. Each would be governed by an Augustus, aka an emperor, who would appoint a Caesar to succeed him. When one Augustus died or retired, the other would retire, and the two Caesars would become Augustus and would each appoint a Caesar. This was done to fix the problem of succession; the so-called "Five good Emperors" previously had managed to set up systems of succession, but none of them had codified the succession into law.

"Furthermore, Diocletian was, in numerous respects, a tyrant. He persecuted Christians, who were then a religious minority in the Empire. Roman Emperors were worshipped by the common people, and the worship of multiple gods was the norm; Christians, believing in only one God, rejected both, and were hated by many common Romans. In particular, the refusal to worship Emperors was seen as treason, and the only religion that was allowed to believe in only one God, Judaism, had long since been legalized, whereas Christianity was not. Ultimately, the persecutions would fail to destroy Christianity, which would become legalized in 313 and become the state religion in 395.

"Additionally, Diocletian's edict banning price gouging made profiteering and speculation punishable by death. His plan for succession only worked once, when Diocletian retired; after that, no Augustus would step down according to Diocletian's plan. Rome's economy would continue to spiral out of control, and price freezing led to black marketeering by many Romans in order to try to turn some kind of profit. Even after the Third Century Crisis ended, civil wars, economic woes, and continued 'barbarian' invasions continued until a Germanic king named Odoacer went to the child emperor of Rome, Romulus Augustus, and basically told him to scram, that Odoacer himself was now ruler. This moment, in 476 AD, has traditionally been marked by historians as the end of the Roman Empire, although Odoacer and the man who would kill and succeed him, Theodoric, would attempt to keep a semblance of Roman practice and of being Roman for some time."

Charles stopped talking for a few seconds. No questions, even from the mare.

"The end of the Western Empire was something long coming. Romulus' banishment was really just the last domino to topple. With the failure to fix Rome's economic and social problems, a collapse was imminent."

"What about the Eastern half?" the unicorn asked, after raising her hoof again.

"The East would remain independent, under its own Emperors, until 1453, when the Turks conquered the city of Constantinople. However, it must be said that Christianity there would diverge from the Latin traditions even early on, leading to an as-of-yet permanent split. That wasn't the only break off; Greek would become the main language of the East, with Latin preserved mainly in the West in the successor states that 'barbarian' kings set up within the now defunct Western Empire; we actually have some of these 'barbarian' rulers to thank for the preservation of the Latin language; as Odoacer and Theodoric realized, speaking Latin and maintaining some Roman practices gave them a sense of legitimacy, and Odoacer's overthrow of Romulus was actually backed by the Eastern Emperor. The East would also maintain a very good trade network, which allowed its economy, for the time being, to flourish even as that of the West spiraled. Naturally, what we called the Eastern or Byzantine Empire would continue to call itself the Roman Empire, despite the increasing use of Greek, all the way up to the destruction of the state as previously mentioned in 1453. In fact, Emperor Justinian would briefly reconquer Rome, even though by that time the once proud city had just between five hundred to a few thousand people still residing there; famine and a general population loss combined to reduce the city to a shadow of its former self."

He took another brief rest again, using the remote to flip the picture to one of a post-Western Empire map. "Here are the 'barbarian' kingdoms that took hold in the west," he said, pointing them out. "We see the Franks having control of most of today's France, the Ostrogoths taking Italy, and Visigoths in Spain, with Britain split between various peoples. The Franks in particular would be very significant in centuries to come. The Ostrogothic kingdom would collapse, and be replaced by the Lombards, with the Pope taking Rome and surrounding lands and the Byzantines managing to hold onto bits of Italy after most of Justinian's conquests were abandoned."

"There has been a tendency to refer to the era between 476 and the mid 700's as the Dark Ages. Part of this is because we don't know as much about this period as we do the eras before and after it, part of it is because there is a common idea that things generally got worse, especially since Roman technology was largely not able to be copied by the invaders, including aqueducts and other engineering marvels. To a certain extent, this is true. There was a decline in technology, especially in engineering, but for most people a lot remained the same, especially in places with a large Roman presence. Also, it must be said, the life of the average peasant changed little between the traditional end of the Roman period all the way up through the 1700's; people were born, lived, worked, and died, mostly within a few miles of their home village; for them, life was always a struggle, and not just through the Dark Ages. Also, the Eastern part of the Empire continued to flourish despite the fall of the West."

"Then why do people think the Dark Ages were as dark as they're made out to be?" a man in his early twenties asked.

"At least in part, it's due to the Renaissance writer, Petrarch, who made a comparison between the age he was living in, the Early Renaissance, with Late Antiquity and the period between it. In his eyes, there was a bright Classical Era, followed by what we would call the Dark and Medieval Ages - a time of strife, destruction, and all-around bad things, according to Petrarch - and then a rebrightening, or rebirth, as Renaissance literally means. His view certainly impacted how we view this 'Media Tempestas,' which was his term for the Medieval Era. His view was not uncommon, and it is the one most people take. In my opinion, upon more careful study, it is not wholly correct. As I said, there was a decline in some areas, but decline, death, and war were far from the only things that happened, in the Dark ages or the Medieval period. In many areas, knowledge was preserved, and in many cases we have Christian monks to thank for this; Latin's survival, the preservation of old texts, and, of course, the Holy Bible.

"There were also individual scholars and educated men throughout the worst of the period who kept knowledge alive, and there would be a number of renaissances - the Carolingian and Ottonian Renaissances in particular - that would predate what we today call the Renaissance. Furthermore, the people of the Dark Ages, and the Medieval period for that matter, could only build upon the generations before them, whether their predecessors were Roman, 'barbarian,' or otherwise, the same as us. The Renaissance, like ages before it, was not a spontaneous combustion, but a slow build-up, overlapping with the Late Medieval period. The same applies to Late Antiquity and the Dark Ages; it's not like everyone was building aqueducts and building marble columns and then suddenly, boom, everyone's in the dirt and poor with 'barbarians' everywhere... it was something long in coming."

He glanced up at the clock. "Five minutes early, but I'll call it for today, ladies and gentlemen. I hope the notes you took were helpful. Next class, we will start off with a very short quiz to make sure you've actually read and understood the online assignment, so keep your brains exercised and read A Medieval History, 250-1500*, pages 1-20, between now and our next class."

Roux shut off the projector and began to gather his materials together. A couple students - human students - asked him a few basic questions, which he answered briefly.

Good to know some of them are interested in the subject. Of course, he thought with a mental sigh, some of them probably just want a degree, and this class helps fill out what they require for that degree.

He turned to leave the room.

"Professor."

"Hmm?" He looked up to see Silver Mane standing before him. "Yes?"

"Sorry for startling you. I hope I can ask a few questions."

"Well, please be fast. I do have another class to be at in fifteen minutes, and I need to stop off at my office real quick before then."

"Okay. Well, why have there been so many wars in your past."

Charles sighed. "These reasons for that are many. I would personally say it is part of the consequences of the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden, as per Judeo-Christian faith."

She continued to look at him.

"I would also point to the ambitions, good and bad, of military and civil leaders, to greed for power and riches, to resource scarcity, to nationalism and ideology, to the many differing cultures and yes, at times religion."

"I do worry that this world may not be a peaceful home, if that is the answer I have to take home."

"It's not the only one. There have been plenty of peacemakers as well. And dark days teach valuable lessons. The devastation caused by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 helped persuade people to never use them in anger again, or at least to this day. The sinking of the Titanic, as terrible as it was, saw new safety regulations that helped prevent later shipping accidents from being so devastating. And some wars need to be fought; dictators such as Hitler, Mussolini, and the military rulers of Japan would never have stepped down from power voluntarily; we had to fight them in order to bring the threat these governments brought to the world to an end."

"Alright. What about things like slavery and apartheid and anti-Semitism? Why do humans seem almost hard-wired to hate and exploit one another?"

"I would point back to the Garden of Eden again, but there are material reasons why people do so. Slavery provided convenient income for those who could afford them, mostly the aristocratic elites who more or less ran most ancient states, including the world's first democracy and republic, Athens and Rome respectively. I know how you feel about slavery; it disgusts me too, along with most people in this day and age. As for anti-Semitism, many have hated Jewish people for putting the Lord Jesus to death, for being different than the people around them, for being wealthy bankers who often had great wealth... one of the sentences I most hate hearing, or seeing online come to that, is the phrase, 'The J-w cries out in pain as he strikes you;' it makes me want to reach through and grab the person on the other end if that were possible. And as for apartheid, that can be attributed to dominant attitudes of colonizing states between 1492 and 1917; many people assumed, wrongly, that the conquered peoples must be inferior peoples. And that's not just something the West is guilty of; many nations who conquered thought of the defeated as inferior. Indeed, the Chinese name for their own country is Zhongguo, meaning 'Middle Kingdom;' their concept of the world was that of the one true civilization - China - being surrounded by inferior barbarians. If the Chinese weren't so inward focused and isolationist, they could have conquered most of the world by now, if not the whole thing."

He paused again. "And what I will say next will no doubt disturb you, Miss Mane; from my studies, I know that Diamond Dogs take ponies prisoner and use them as slaves when they can. I know that many ponies are automatically suspicious of anything or anyone new. I also have no doubt that the pegasi in particular, in addition to the thestrals, were warlike, and the Hearthswarming pageant always emphasizes that aspect of the pegasi."

Silver Mane took a step back. "How do did you come to know that?"

"Some of the ponies who come here are historians, and bring Equestria's knowledge with them. And one Christmas Eve I took one of my pony student's invitation to a pageant. So, if you forgive me, I think your own people face or have many of the same problems as we do. I must also note that I've also met a few members of other species, such as dragons and griffons, and they've confirmed that, even during Equestria's 1,000 plus years of peace, the other nations still battled each other from time to time, all showing the very same inclinations that ponies are all too willing to accuse us of. Prior to Equestrian Unification, I have no doubt your civilizations had the exact same issues as ancient human states, and even afterward to sharing similar prejudices to human nations that conquered other peoples and built empires."

"You... give me a lot to think about."

"That's a scholar's job; to think, teach others to think, and spread knowledge, so that one day their student's may exceed their teachers. And a historian's job in particular is to teach the truth about history."

"Aren't there different views on history? Which is to say, aren't there situations where there are two or more opinions where none of the sides involved are deliberately lying?"

"Oh, yes. The number of such debates is too many to count. I've squabbled - in a friendly way - with Mr. Johnson over whether George Washington was a Great General, and with Ms. Peters over whether a Union victory in the American Civil War was inevitable. Those kinds of debates bring us closer to the truth, while sharpening and exercising our minds in the process."

"And don't you debate the Catholic chaplain on the campus about the doctrines of the Christian religion?"

"Know about that, do you?" he replied, a cheeky wink in his eye. "Yes, we debate each other on Catholicism and Baptism. But unlike in many previous centuries, that debate remains friendly, and we have our little jokes. One I like to ask him every so often is whether the Catholic/Calvinist debate was predestined, or a matter of tradition."

The mare chuckled. "I suppose you have a point. I would like to ask one more thing before I go."

"One more is about what I have time for."

"Right. Why do you think there's only one race - the human race - on the earth that is sapient, and not multitudes of others?"

"I don't have that answer, miss. You'd have to ask God about that one, not me. From faith, I'd say that it was always meant thus on this world."

"And what about my world?"

"I don't have the answer to that either, though I'd answer the same from faith as before.. And that's technically two questions. Sorry I don't have the answer to either of them." He looked up at the clock. "And I've got to be going. See you next class, Miss Mane. Don't forget the assignments."

"I won't, thank you."

Silver Mane made her way to her dormitory room, unpacking her saddlebags via levitation.

She looked at her schedule and then at her syllabus. She wouldn't have another class for half and hour, and she could be there quite quickly. She had some time for a break.

She sat down on her bed - which she had reinforced using magic - and sighed with relief. Her first day was going well, her alarm clock not withstanding, and the first class had been... revealing, to say the least. Her major would be in human history, with a minor in human culture.

She was a mare with a mission; find out about humans, their history, and their culture, and return to Canterlot once she had her degree. What the Royals would do then... depended upon the information received.

She looked in the mirror. So far, her disguise had held; to everyone else, she appeared simply as a very tall unicorn, one approaching the size of a horse in human lands. She had ditched her usually hoofwear for regular, run of the mill horseshoes, ones that were nailed to her hooves. It had felt odd, but they worked well once she'd gotten used to all four of her hooves having permanent attachments on them; they certainly kept those same hooves from cracking on the bricks and cement of the campus.

She wondered how the rest of her family would react once they got news of this class back to them; there were certainly disturbing bits in there, and she wasn't all that confident they would take it well. Not that there wouldn't be good news; far from it. But most ponies looked upon the new world they found themselves in with suspicion, and on the surface human history was filled with bad things... very bad things.

The thoughts of her family made her shed a tear. She'd be away for a few years, except for a visit here and there. From what she'd seen, no other ponies were on the campus, so there was no one she could really talk to, not at the moment.

She reminded herself that this mission was very important. It would have major repercussions on human-pony relations.

Keep it together, Celestia...

Author's Note

*note; as far as I'm aware, not an actual book.

Chapter 2; Infiltration

Celestia, in her disguise as Silver Mane, ran over her mission in her mind.

The reason Equestria was on Earth was simple; their old world had been dying.

The ground outside of Equestria had refused to grow crops, fierce winds had begun to sweep across the world, and tidal waves had begun to level cities. Only Equestria had managed to hold out, due to the use of magic, but even there the symptoms of ecological collapse were being felt. The Crystal Empire, despite it's magical defenses, had almost been swallowed by unending snowstorms. And the Cloudsdale Weather Factory had been unable to keep up with the demands upon it, given the unnatural weather and other problems.

They'd all tried to cope and to reverse the problems; in an effort to make up for crop loss, winter had first been shortened, then stopped altogether in Equestria. The Weather Factory had been continually built up, tripling it's previous capacity. Scholars of all nations had searched books of all ages, trying to find ways to combat the disaster and to discover its root cause.

Nothing had availed them; the giant walls Vanhoover and Tall Tale built were overwhelmed by the seas, and the efforts to skip winter led to rapid soil degradation that only worsened crop yields. Attempts by Twilight and her friends to create a shield to protect Equestria had only been partly successful; it had kept back the oceans, but also cut Equestria off from the rest of the world and did nothing to stop the rotting of the land. In the end the shield was abandoned, as were most efforts by other nations to counter the continuing blight.

Scholars had eventually found that it was possible to send part of a country to another world. Ironically, it had been a yak to find that out. Not that Celestia had anything against yaks, but they were most well known for stomping and breaking things, not for brilliant scholarship.

Celestia, her sister, her student, and her friends, had invited the all the other races to their land, and had searched for other worlds where they might be able to teleport their land to. Ultimately, they'd selected this one. The Princesses and Elements, with the help of the other sapient species of their world, had combined their powers to bring the Equestrian continent to Earth.

It was unlikely they'd be able to move again; given the massive drain in energy and the months the Sisters had spent in the hospital afterwards due to the near-draining of their magic, in addition to the slow recovery of the other leaders and the damage the various magical items they'd used had sustained, this was it.

The discovery of humans and their history had not boded well; naturally they discovered this new land on their globe via their satellites... and, sadly, the displacement of water had severely damaged coastal cities throughout the world. South Georgia Island, next to which Equestria had spawned, had been nearly wiped out by the waves sent at it, and throughout the South Atlantic, there was terrible damage.

This had caused numerous diplomatic incidents when the former inhabitants of Equus met the humans, many of whom were not happy given the damage and loss of life. Fortunately, Twilight, in absence of the Sisters (who were still laid up in hospital beds at the time) had managed to negotiate ably with them, along with several members of the species who had come along. She, along with the rest of the council that had met the humans, had refused to speak of the disasters that had led Equestria and the other peoples of Equus to make their journey, but had managed to agree that Equestria would either pay for or help to repair the damage caused by the displacement.

It was fortunate as well that magic still worked; unicorns could still cast spells, pegasi could still fly, and earth ponies were about as strong as ever. But there had been consequences for moving to another world. For one thing, she and her sister could not, and did not need to, control the sun and moon, one thing Celestia was both relieved about and missed at the same time. In addition, Earth clouds would not hold up pegasi no matter how much the latter tried, and only clouds brought from Equestria could be used for buildings. That of course included Cloudsdale and the aerial locations within the the big spell's area of effect. No matter what the Cloudsdale teams tried, Earth clouds stubbornly refused to be molded by pegasus hooves, and they would not yield to reformation of any sort; that had remained true when Celestia had discretely left for a human university, and as far as she could tell, it remained true.

Another discomfort was related to the cloud problem; the weather of this planet could not be controlled. This had led to unexpected storms unleashing their payloads of rain and lightning - very lethal lightning - upon unsuspecting ponies and other species. And, in order to maintain the ecological balance, the spell had reversed Equestria's North and South; the Crystal Empire (much to their relief at not being stuck in an empire of melted mud) was now in the far south, just off the coast of Antarctica, and southern cities like Klugetown were now in the north, much to the initial confusion of everyone. In addition, in order to save what they could, the scholars - the Royal Sisters included - had been forced to cut off sections of their continent; Equestria, the Crystal Empire, parts of the southern deserts that were inhabited, these were brought along, though not before all inhabitants who wished to leave their dying world had come to Equestria.

There were benefits, of course; the soil had begun to improve almost upon their arrival, and since the sun and moon were not under magical, manual control, there was little if any chance a villain could use them whatsoever. Furthermore, human medicine and medical knowledge in general was far superior to traditional Equestrian medicines, and thus, when imports of technology came in, Celestia and Luna had healed faster than they would have otherwise.

She could still remember the long months in the hospital, virtually unable to even levitate a cup of water, let alone anything else. Thankfully, her system and Luna's had healed properly, though they'd had to be careful for some time afterward.

Even before they were fully well, they'd had to deal with the other leaders and the species they represented. All wanted equal representation with ponies, which she and her sister were willing to accept. One of the problems was that each race wanted its own territory, especially the griffons, dragons, and yaks. Another was the unreformed changelings; they, including Queen Chrysalis, had come along, and there were fierce negotiations with them. Even with all the other peoples against them, Chrysalis had not been willing to concede much, other than close surveillance upon her and those who remained loyal to her. She had been willing to accept an arms limitation - the unreformed had a strict limit on how many weapons they could possess - but few expected her to actually hold that part of the bargain. It was only the fact that the unreformed changelings were the diehards who absolutely refused to reform, and the fact that they needed a queen, that Chrysalis and her followers were allowed to join this new society at all.

All races - ponies, changelings (reformed or otherwise), griffons, yaks, kirins, hippogriffs, dragons, diamond dogs, and even species that had long accepted subordinate roles such as sheep and cows - had eventually come to a compromise. Celestia and Luna would remain in charge, but there would be a Council under them, made up of each races' leader (Chrysalis and Thorax had nearly come to blows before they were separated and accepted being representatives of 'different' species). The power of the Royal Sisters was curtailed; major decisions needed to go through the Council, and a two-thirds majority was required for most petitions to pass. Ponies could stay wherever they had lived, and those nobles, mayors, and others in charge could retain their power, but had to accept all other species as equals with ponies in everything, in addition to allowing the other races an equal opportunity to share in local politics. Any job that could be done by a member of a certain species - for example, a kirin as a fire fighter or a dragon as a blacksmith - would be fully allowed, so long as they went through the education and training those jobs entailed.

There were also major changes in how each species was to behave. Dragons obviously weren't allowed to destroy everything and anything in sight as they'd been used to previously, and unreformed changelings had to wear a magical necklace that would remain on their person no matter what shape they took on, while yaks had to accept that breaking things, especially things that didn't belong to them, was no longer going to be tolerated, except for specific instances. Reformed changelings had to accept being checked every so often to make sure that their unreformed brothers and sisters hadn't infiltrated them, griffons had to contribute to the economy if they wanted money, and diamond dogs were forbidden to practice any form of slavery, with many similar changes taking place.

While the treasury had remained robust, as it had accumulated much during the thousand years or so of peace, it had nevertheless been badly drained during the disaster. Fishing, of course, could quickly resume as normal, but farms needed massive help getting started, and many ponies had lost their homes, either due to the crisis or to economic reasons. In addition, the many races who had come to the Equestrian continent needed homes as well. Much work needed to be done... and of course, the Council squabbled about all of it. The United Species Council, which was what the Council called itself, was not the most friendly of organizations. Indeed, the Royal Sisters had felt considerable frustration that legislation that they could have passed easily just years before were being vetoed simply because the two-thirds majority wasn't met.

One of the most pressing issues was, of course, the humans. Finding out they were the only sapient species on their planet, and that they numbered around 7.5 billion, was shocking. However, given how many nations they were split up into, the fear of a sudden invasion by the entire world was thankfully very little, and the South American and African nations nearest to Equestria were not the most militarily able.

The military. Another thing that had to change. The Royal Guard had served well in the past; they'd kept their Princesses from being harmed, and worked well in dealing with criminals and with minor to moderate problems that required force. But spears were no match for automatic rifles, machine guns, and artillery. Equestria needed these in a hurry, with Twilight Sparkle all too eager to learn just about everything (thought military studies were only part of her studies on this new world. Shining Armor had begun a program where each species joined a united military, one that would operate purely by merit and not by blood, money or power. All members of the military would be taught how to use modern weapons and train in combining these with their races' own abilities.

Despite the difficulties of social change and the aftermath of ecological meltdown, Equestria had survived, and managed to present a (mostly) united front when dealing with the humans. And all of them, even Chrysalis, agreed that human history was simply too violent on the surface to allow for any immediate cooperation. Humanity would need to earn Equestria's trust before being allowed in on a major scale. As such, the Council actually agreed that only ambassadors and those who worked for and with them would be allowed into the country. No trade and no other contact, beside payment and repairs in nearby countries to make up for damage and loss caused by the displacement, would be allowed. After learning of tyrants such as Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Vlad Tepes, Equestria wasn't going to let their society be infiltrated by potentially violent extremists.

A convenient loophole - one could argue, correctly, was deliberately built into this policy - was that this didn't ban ponies - or other species - from leaving the country. Given that most of the other species were busy trying to build or rebuild homes, that meant that ponies generally led the way in foreign endeavors. As such, humans often got the notion that Equestria was purely a pony nation. Technically, it had been throughout history, though times had changed once the crisis had struck. Their misconception, however, allowed for greater secrecy; changelings, reformed and otherwise, could infiltrate human societies to discover what they could, and could serve as a secret service (though again, Chrysalis and her loyalists had to be restrained). The Defense Intelligence Service was roughly 75% reformed changelings, 5% unreformed changelings (and Chrysalis was fortunate to get even that), with the remaining 20% being made from other species. Most of their work, ironically enough given their name, was to gather intel from human nations, and to spy on human communications and media such as they could. However, the point was continually stressed and made throughout the organization that this was all about defending Equestria from external threat, not a means of aggression.

Twilight's main duties were, obviously, scientific research; Celestia had set her in charge of all of Equestria's R&D efforts. Rainbow Dash and the Wonderbolts were busy forging an air force for the nation, and were responsible for defending the nation from aerial attack. Applejack was tasked with reviving Ponyville's agricultural economy, at which she had had decent success. Fluttershy was given the task of preserving and, so far as was possible, restoring the environment around the fabled town. Rarity was, naturally, busy trying to make clothes for both private citizens and the military, which, though profitable for her, was tiring. Pinkie Pie was... well, Pinkie Pie, busy as usual at trying to make others happy and throwing parties at Sugarcube Corner every night to help the common folks there, pony or otherwise, rest from their burdens and enjoy a break from their work. Cadence, having a nine-year-old daughter to care for, still ran the Crystal Empire and oversaw the Crystal Heart; the shield that artifact could emit could be a last-ditch solution if there actually was an invasion.

As for the Royal Sisters...

With governance, in many ways, in the various appendages of the Council, and without celestial bodies to control, Celestia and Luna nonetheless still had important duties to uphold. While laws had to be addressed by the Council, Royal Courts were still held every day so that the common citizen could voice their concerns, of which there were many. With the sudden influx of other races in Equestria, the natives and their new neighbors didn't always get along, and divides of culture led to disagreements, legal or otherwise. Celestia had taken it upon herself to address these problems. While she often felt satisfaction at solving some of the issues brought before her, more times than she would have wanted the problems had to be taken to a courtroom, with defense and prosecution making their cases before a jury decided the verdict. The Royal Sisters also took the duty to defend the country personally - if the situation called for it - seriously, and they, as did the leaders of the other nations, held general-level positions in the new military.

Luna was still busy every night defending her subjects, native or otherwise, from nightmares. Oddly enough, despite the proximity of human nations, she seldom felt called by her magic to defend human dreams, and even then those "dreams" tended to be disorganized messes, unlike the streamlined and structured dreams most ponies and other races of Equus dreamed. A pony's dream about a romantic evening out would usually remain just that; a human dream might feature the dreamer being aboard a train doing something one moment, while the next the dreamer might end up underwater next to a tree for no discernable reason. Discord loved to tease Luna about that kind of chaos.

Discord's... role, such as it was, hadn't changed much. He still enjoyed time with Fluttershy and often played practical jokes upon unsuspecting citizens. However, he had taken a keen interest in humans, mostly their senses of humor. He'd sometimes - illegally - listen into human radio communications, sometimes even going so far as to turn himself into a piece of equipment (such as a set of headphones or a recording device) in order to do so.

With the new situation as it was, and with the stresses of the sudden changes, Celestia often felt homesick; the detachment from her sun felt like loosing a friend to a terrible disease (with Luna saying the same thing about loosing the celestial body that bore her name), and she often tried to scry Equus, to check in and see what was going on. Sadly, every time she did so, she either failed to get anything, or only got confirmation that things had gotten worse since Equestria's departure; oceans covering most of the former coastal areas, constant magical and non-magical storms, bones of deceased creatures, and the continuing decline of the planet's ecology. It became clearer and clearer that there would be no returning home. Even with the sun and moon back home set on automatic (which may have been another reason the Sisters wound up in the hospital), their world wasn't recovering.

But to return to her mission, the reason she had decided to don a disguise and enroll in a human college was simple... and complicated, all at once.

Despite the efforts by the secret service, and Twilight's own prodigious efforts to learn all she could, relatively few ponies could really piece enough of human culture and communications together to form a clear, constant picture; there were so many cultures and so much history to go through that even Twilight, who was head researcher, could not put the data together fast enough. The secret service's trouble of intercepting communications was made more difficult by the fact that unencrypted radio was used less often than it was in Equestria; television, the internet, and social media were largely not available to Equestria (which lacked technologies such as the internet and iPhones), and governments naturally had codes in place for official and secret communication. Add to that, the distrust felt by Equestrians toward humans was apparently mutual; ambassadors had, time and again, tried to pry into Equestria's history... namely, its very recent history, and why they had come to another world. Many human nations forbade ponies to travel their lands until the ban on humans coming to Equestria was removed. This didn't stop individuals from travelling to those lands that didn't ban them, but their experiences hadn't been extensive enough for Celestia's taste.

With the other alicorns busy and with the weight of her continent upon her withers, Celestia had lost her temper in a recent Day Court. It had been a minor issue, really; a pony was upset that his dragon neighbor had burned down his fence, the dragon claimed the pony had stiffed him when the latter had asked the former to... she couldn't remember, but the debate that had ensued there in the throne room had got almost physical. Given how ridiculous the whole thing seemed, and with more important cases no doubt in waiting, she'd used the Royal Canterlot Voice to give both of them a vicious tongue-lashing.

Luna had heard, of course. That night, the sisters had discussed the issues of governing a now multi-cultural kingdom - well, technically a federated principality now, but still - and how it was wearing Celestia down the most. Luna had suggested that her sister take a few days off, but, after doing so, Celestia still found herself losing her temper, or coming close to doing so, more often than usual.

With work still needing to be done and needing a long break from her millennium-long rule, Celestia had suggested going in disguise as a unicorn in some human land and doing something to learn more about them and their history, something that would allow her to experience things from the human side of the divide and be able to handle them more capably upon her return. Luna had been almost apoplectic about the idea, noting the many reasons it might not work and the potential trouble she'd be in if she got caught, but in the end, she had agreed, under certain conditions. In the meantime, the monarchy would work to keep Celestia's absence a secret. The Day Court would be suspended, replaced with a judicial council made up of various judges to decide minor cases, referring the bigger ones to the actually judicial courts. Luna would cook up a story about Celestia's mental health being impaired by the displacement spell and of the white alicorn's need to remain bed-ridden until doctors could cure the disease. Neither of them were comfortable about the lie, and neither intended to keep it in place after Celestia returned. However, most ponies had bought into it, especially after several doctors apparently examined her and "found" a dislocation within the brain that supposedly partially blocked her magic.

That was easy bit; even Chrysalis was apparently fooled, even though she had clearly gained some ambitious ideas with the Sun Princess seemingly out of the picture. The harder part was being able to get into a human nation and into a college somewhere; college, mainly a history focus while at a college, would add to her experience and knowledge gained by being in the human world. Additionally, Celestia had, since Luna's return, felt her little sister ought to have more time ruling anyway; the Solar Princess had spent enough time in the spotlight, now Luna could take her turn with it.

And of course, she counted on the magic of friendship to help her...

She looked at the watch - located on her fetlock - that she had hastily brought from the campus store after the morning debacle. She had fifteen minutes to get to her next class, after which she'd have half an hour to eat lunch before another class. She checked the illusion spell that hid her wings; it was still working strong, and her saddlebags kept those wings from expanding outward when something unexpected happened.

So far, her endeavors in the US, and in the province - no, state - of Maine had been pleasant enough. However, she'd had quite a surprise and a momentary scare when she saw humans in the countryside casually riding horses. The bus driver had to explain to her that Earth horses were just animals, and that they weren't being abused so far as he was aware of. Nonetheless, it had taken a while for her heart to be put at ease; she had wondered whether the humans around her only saw her as an intelligent horse to still be ridden upon, like the Earth horses. She had shaken that mentality rather quickly - most humans were curious, not imperious, toward her - but it occasionally tried to poke it's way back into her brain, and a hoofful of bad experiences kept giving it just enough food to not starve, such as when one man told her to "go back to the barn."

As for the college itself... she'd arrived at Joshua Chamberlain University* just a few days ago, and had gone through the necessary procedures and paperwork (they still, with their technology, had paperwork!?) along with a tour of the college grounds and given a small dorm room, one where she could be alone without a roommate, as she intended for that to be her one place of privacy.

The humans on campus - they seemed to consider themselves Americans first rather than human first - were certainly interested in a pony being on campus. They certainly asked a few awkward questions, such as whether or not she preferred hay bedding and similar nonsense, but that was largely ignorance. She brought them up to speed. She more or less told the truth; she lived in a house with a bed, kitchen, and the facilities and services necessary for living. Of course, she left out the fact that the "house" was in fact a massive palace, and that the palace facilities went far beyond what was necessary. She also told the truth that most ponies lived in houses, the same as humans did, and that they were essentially a nation equal to any on earth. That, given the fact that Equestria was badly behind on technology, was also technically true but incomplete. It also left out the catastrophe that had forced the relocation, and trying to fend off why Equestria had migrated an entire continent to Earth could be trying, especially since many of the other students weren't content with, "You'd have to ask the Princesses about that."

Speaking of Princesses, it was surprising how few nations on earth were monarchies; most had alternative systems of government, though most had some prior history of monarchy. Democracy, Republicanism, and dictatorship seemed to be the most common forms of government. It had been... disturbing, to say the least, to find out that the French and Russians had both killed their respective monarchs at different times in history, though she hadn't yet started her classes. No pony would have thought that up (or at least she hoped not), though maybe Chrysalis wouldn't have qualms about killing a head of state in order to gain power for herself. She hoped to learn more of the circumstances in her classes.

Today was when all of her preparations would be utilized. She would learn about human history, and get to know humans as friends.

Or... well, she didn't want to think about or. Or could mean Equestria would have come to a warlike planet all too willing to destroy it, and would have to live in permanent isolation. That would not be sustainable; either Equestria, a small continent, would need more resources and thus have to open up trade with warlike powers, or it would be invaded. Neither of these conclusion appealed.

She had to succeed. And she was determined to do so.

Author's Note

*Not a real campus, just one I made up for this story.

I put Equestria in the South Atlantic because, well, as far as I can tell it's more or less original, though I have my doubts regarding the weather (mainly that which is temperature-based) remaining largely the same.

I also know that many will probably attack me because the way I worded the reason for Celestia's choice to galivant to the US seems to make no sense. And, honestly, I sometimes have trouble with wording. I apologize.

Chapter 3; Renaissance

Celestia - no, Silver Mane, she corrected herself - walked into her next class. This one was under a Dr. Jonathan Laurens. It would be taking a look at events some time in the future of her previous class, so it felt like she was going out of order. However, as a history graduate, she had to factor in the fact that there was no time to take just the one class; she did intend to go back and continue her position as Diarch of Equestria, after all, and continue being a mother to her subjects. As a result, some classes would either have to be taken simultaneously or out of turn altogether. The one was the Renaissance period, which according to her pre-class research took place just after the Medieval Era.

As in the previous class, people stared; a sapient pony was not exactly a common sight on their world. Nevertheless, at least she was on time, and like last time she budged the chair aside and sat down behind a desk.

"Good morning class," the professor said. "This will be our first lecture; as you've probably heard a bunch of times today, we set out the syllabus and course schedules last time, so now we'll be moving on to our first lecture."

He held up a button, and like in the previous class with Professor Roux, a projector flashed on, with a PowerPoint appearing on the screen.

"Now, we have to ask ourselves; what was the Renaissance? In brief, it was a recovery, or rebirth, of Classical Era thought, literature, philosophy, and other concepts. The Renaissance metaphorically brought back the ideas of ancient authors; Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Cicero, Seneca, and many, many others. It also saw a real revolution and explosion of art, which is perhaps what the Renaissance is remembered most for; when you think of the world "Renaissance," no doubt some sort of image of the Pieta, the Last Supper, the Mona Lisa, and others pop up in our heads. However, those were just part of the Renaissance period, and actually part of the later period of the Renaissance. There is no definite cut-off period between the Medieval Ages and the Renaissance, no matter how many people try to convince you it was that year or another, such as 1453; history, especially when we're talking about eras in history, doesn't work like that, or not generally. Important things happened in those years, yes, but the Renaissance started within what most people would consider the Late Medieval Period, perhaps as early as 1300, and would kind of extend into its own era."

That sounds a lot like what Professor Roux said. I wonder if they're friends, or if this is a common idea among historians.

Upon brief reflection, Celestia accepted the idea. Equestrian history was much the same; one era bled into the next, with no clear, absolute cut-off line. There would be important dates and years, such as when the three original tribes - eventually joined (more or less) by the thestrals, or bat-ponies - unified. However, for most of society, change wasn't very quick; peasants largely remained peasants, nobles remained nobles, etc. Art and literature likewise developed slowly, over hundreds of years.

"Furthermore," Professor Laurens continued, "the Renaissance wasn't just something to happen everywhere at the same time and in the same way. In Italy, for instance, we tend to see more of a secular brand of humanism, which is the idea that man is what is important in life and that his achievements should be celebrated. In Germany, on the other hand, Christian humanism, the idea that humans can be self-fulfilled within Christian principles. This actually makes sense; Italy was the original area of the Roman Empire, and much of the Italian Renaissance was finding, or re-finding, that Roman heritage. North of the Alps, Roman influence wasn't as strong and the humanism that came was tied to a religious hunger felt by most of the population there. As such, saying the Renaissance can be a bit disingenuous. In fact, from this point onwards, I'll be referring to this era by region rather than just as a singular movement; the Italian Renaissance, the German Renaissance, et cetera."

That too is noticeably true; a great change starts, and then sweeps like wildfire across the world. Although this has happened much slower in our own world.

"I think I, and most historians, can say with certainty that the Renaissance began in Italy. There were numerous reasons for this. Italy - which was a region rather than a nationality at the time, most Italian entities were city states - was extremely wealthy when compared to the rest of Europe due to trade. In fact, city states like Venice were practically known for their wealth from trade and business. It must also be said that feudalism, except in the south in Naples and Sicily, had never been particularly strong in Italy, so the typical breakdown of Medieval society into king, noble, and peasant wasn't as strong. What we would call the middle class tended to be much stronger in Italy as a result and probably contributed to why Italy was so particularly wealthy. Additionally, the trade networks that made these cities wealthy also brought with them cultural and material exchange, which only broadened scholars' knowledge and hunger for the arts and classics. And we also have people patronizing art on a major scale. Much of the art we contribute to this era is religious art, such as The Last Supper and Pieta, both of which I mentioned earlier. It also included wonders such as the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and Brunelleschi's Dome. I would like to point out that it wasn't just religious art that was being made; there was just more art in general in this period. We can also thank the Pope and rulers of the Italian city states for their patronage of art. It's thanks to the Papacy and the Medicis of Florence that cultural growth, including art, spread as far and wide as it did, at least in Italy."

Laurens paused for a moment, letting out a long breath of air. As he did so, Cel- Silver twitched her ears, even as she used her magic to quickly write down as much of this stuff as possible.

"We also have increasing scholarly activity at the time. Archeology as we know it was obviously not nearly as advanced as it was today, but people were looking for, and finding, ancient documents, such as the Letters of Cicero, which were found in 1414. Thanks to scholars such as Poggio Bracciolini and Giovanni Boccaccio, among many others, much of what we know about the Romans was recovered and is available to a modern audience. As to scholarly activity, that was another thing going on during the Renaissance; increased education. More people were able to read and pursue scholarships, more people were able to work on art and things that would be have considered frivolous during the Early and High Medieval eras.

"We also have a major schism in Christianity. For well over a hundred years, we've had the Pope, the highest Catholic bishop and the Bishop of Rome, under the firm rule of France, in the city of Avignon. This led to a major schism, with Europe about half divided between following the Avignon Popes and the various antipopes set up in opposition to them Eventually, in 1377 the Papacy did in fact return to Rome, but we had new problems. By the time of the High Renaissance, during the 1460's, the Pope had banned councils as being heretical. This effectively meant that the Pope's power couldn't be challenged by a council of clerics. It would also hamstring the Papacy's efforts to crush the Protestant Reformation later on, as we'll see. Additionally, after the 1460's, we see Popes being elected who were... worldly. They were much more concerned with building church structures, making art, and increasing their own wealth and influence than they were at feeding the spiritual needs of Catholics everywhere. A couple of examples are two Popes elected from the wealthy and powerful, but very worldly, Medici family, Leo X and Clement VII. This led to church corruption in many places, with some church officials gaining multiple titles, meaning they couldn't serve at any one place at a time. It also led to a spiritual hunger in Northern Europe, one that would partly be responsible for the Reformation."

Although the mare could bare process all of this, she made a mental note to herself to read her notes in detail later, along with her textbooks.

"We will be looking distinctly at these subjects, among others, in detail throughout the course. Meanwhile, I expect every student to hold to academic excellence in my class; no cheating, no plagiarism, no using old essays and similar materials to try to scrape by now. Everything you work on will be from this semester, not from last year or ten years ago, or what-have-you. I also expect you to give your work everything you have with the time you have to do them; it may be a fault of mine, but having to give anything lower than an A- is disappointing for me. I understand if you have family or work-related problems, or problems related to scheduling. I also understand if you have medical conditions or trouble that interfere with your work. However, I expect to be told about whatever it is, as far ahead of time as possible. Finally, I want you all to excel at this subject; if you have questions about the subject matter, or you don't understand sometime, then please come and see me; I'll be more than happy to answer. Now, class is dismissed. Please take care, all of you.

Celestia, in her disguise, walked forward. "Professor?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes. First time I've taught... a non-human. What can I do for you?"

"I have to ask, as a new student on the subject, why is human history so blood-stained?"

Laurens took a deep breath. "If you think what humans did in the Medieval and Renaissance eras was bad, 'you ain't seen nothin' yet,' as they say. Trust me; the 19th and 20th centuries see things just as dark, if not darker."

"So humans are growing worse over time?"

"Yes and no. Human beings have struggled with moral issues; colonialism, conquest, slavery, how to treat someone based on the color of their skin and their ethnicity, and many more. I have to add that humans have also gone backward in some respects; when abortion, the killing of the unborn, is legal, then you know something's wrong; the same with sexual deviancy. Likewise to political thuggery on both sides of the political spectrum. Yet I would also argue that in the past two hundred and fifty years, there has been gradual improvement in some areas. Slavery has been formally abolished in much of the world, with those that do still allow or tolerate it are looked down on. We value government of the people, by the people, and for the people; the right for citizens to make their voices heard in government, as opposed to the government just railroading the common man and woman. We've fought to end dictatorships and to end immoral practices, such as the holocaust in Europe and the savagery - no other word, save barbarism, comes close - of fascist and communist rule. We look on things previously seen as good, such as the conquest and subjugation of native Americans, as evil, and view their persecutors as wicked people. While there has been much evil in the world, and still is, I don't know how I could, with a straight face, condemn humanity as having no sense of morality."

"Alright, perhaps the problem is not a lack of morality in a particular sense, but you did admit there are numerous modern moral problems you take issues with."

"I did. But I feel I must raise the issue; as much as I dislike using 'what-about-ism,' I must ask what your own people do that is morally wrong, or what they did in the past that was. I highly doubt Equestria is a paradise where there are no problems or moral issues whatsoever."

The mare paused. "That is true," she said slowly, after a moment. "There are moral issues that plague our country." Not least being the catastrophe that forced us to move here. "However, we've never had a civil war over slavery, nor anything like the Nazi holocaust."

"Perhaps," Laurens replied thoughtfully. "Those were both horrible events. But the lessons from dark days have taught us valuable lessons. For example the sinking of the great ship Titanic brought about necessary safety regulations for ships, including the provision of lifeboats for all on board, as well as a coordinated ice patrol for the Atlantic. The horrors of 9/11 brought about increased security in airports - for better and for worse. And while the world reeled under the Second World War, that conflict, and the various terrible things connected to it such as the Holocaust, brought about lessons as well. While dark days are awful to go through, in a sense there is a silver lining, however slight it may seem to the survivors of such atrocities, for the world to see and take notice of."

"But would it not be better to avoid such 'dark days' altogether?"

Laurens scratched the back of his neck. "That's certainly a question, no doubt about it. And I certainly think we should stop them if possible. But we can't stop all bad things from happening even if we tried; for example, the Titanic sank because the way she collided with the iceberg caused 'freak damage' that was not considered a practical possibility at the time. And binoculars and searchlights, as much as people talk about them, would have done little good on a moonless night, especially given that nocturnal optics were scarcely a thing in 1912."

"Couldn't the ship have avoided the iceberg?"

"As I said, night vision wasn't a thing back then, and the ship's first officer allowed her to plow ahead at full speed despite warnings and sightings of lesser ice beforehand, which was against the White Star Line's policy. And the previous winter caused icebergs to go much further south that year than in prior years, so even though Titanic was on the 'southern track,' she wasn't far south enough avoid the ice altogether. Between human error and the combination of natural phenomena, the collision was a near-certainty. And before you start on the human error part, I'm sure that 'pony error' is something that occurs in Equestria as well."

The mare bowed her head. "It does. We do have problems back in the homeland. For instance, there are tensions between the various pony tribes, especially the thestrals."

"Those are the bat ponies, right?"

"Yes. They've been hated ever since m- Nightmare Moon first happened. Even after Princess Luna's return and reformation, her beloved thestrals have faced discrimination because of their nocturnal nature and their fangs. However, it has never gotten to the point where anypony tried to wipe all of them ouuuuuu-" She came to a stop.

"What?"

"...Back in the days just after Nightmare Moon was banished, a duke named August Splendor called for the thestrals to be locked in prisons, or for special "colonies" to be set up for them. His proposals were shot down by the Princess, but he took action behind her back. As in your world, the nobility in those days had a freer hoof to do as they pleased, and he had hundreds of thestrals within his jurisdiction arrested, most on trumped up charges, and threw them into prison camps. 'Camps' perhaps isn't the word to describe them; they were jails without cells, a place for soldiers to work thestrals until they died, and the food shipments - except for the soldiers guarding these camps, of course - were often not enough to feed the poor prisoners, and it was often moldy and maggot-infested. Thankfully, the Princess found these camps, freed the thestrals and helped to heal them; Splendor was arrested, stripped of all his titles and nobility, and de-knighted. Sadly, about a hundred thestrals died of overwork and malnutrition before this horrendous process was halted."

"...I've never heard of that, as much as I've tried to get my hands of Equestrian history."

"Most ponies don't know about it, professor. It wasn't something the Princess was eager to advertise, that Harmony had failed these unfortunates. It wasn't covered up, but it was, for a lack of a better term, allowed to die. Not all forgot, of course; modern day thestrals still point to it when they're being bullied or feeling stressed relations with the other tribes. It's partly due to this incident that for nearly a thousand years the vast majority of them withdrew to mountains and caves, where they set up their own cities. Even today it is relatively rare to meet a thestral outside of their domains, although they come outside at night much more now that Princess Luna has returned."

"It sounds like something that shouldn't have been forgotten. It should have been remembered; not as an example for others to emulate, never that, but as an example of how far real prejudice can go, and to contrast it with the much better way of harmony that your leaders advocate for. And it might have allowed the thestrals to re-integrate better into society."

Celestia wanted to speak up in her own defense; it wasn't so simple; if the event was more remembered, it might be a stain upon the harmony she had been trying to build at the time, a concept that, although inherent within most of ponykind ever since the windigo incident, was still struggling to find a hard foundation.

...But if she was really being honest with herself, though, the "Splendor Camps" were a reminder that she had failed Luna, and had continued to fail her even after her alter-ego was banished.

She also had to remember that she wasn't a Princess here; she was Silver Mane, Equestrian student of history and other subjects, who was learning about the human world in order to bring necessary knowledge about them to her people in order to better their understanding and lot in this new world.

As a result, she simply bowed her head in response after thinking for a moment.

"Not that I necessarily find it easy to blame them; many of us want to forget dark days as well, especially those caused by human beings. You'll find that truth is often a mixture of light and darkness, Miss Mane; sometimes, it is light that is more dominant, other times the darkness."

"You make a convincing argument." Then something caught in her brain. "Do you and professor Roux know each other, by any chance?"

"I should say so! Charles and I are... well, maybe not best friends - Professor James Philips fits that description - but certainly friends as well as colleagues. We do disagree, and quite often, on many on theological points - he's more free will, I'm more predestination and determinist - but we like to discuss and debate theology and history together every so often; it's fun, and it stimulates the brain a bit. Why do you ask?"

"Because your lectures sound a lot alike."

"Well, I suppose it's partly because we're experts in the same field, and partly because we've rubbed off on each other over the years." He looked at his watch. "And now, if you'll forgive me, I really must go; my next class is in five minutes."

"Of course; thank you for your time."

"Not a problem." The man walked out of the room, leaving the mare alone with her thoughts.

Author's Note

As one of my friends said, the real best answer to these questions is;

"People get worse the further we get from Faith/God/Truth, and get better when we get closer to Him!"

Thanks for reading this chapter, and I hope to see you guys again soon. Though with me, soon could mean anything from "a few months" to "over a year." Hopefully the next chapter comes out much faster this time.

Chapter 4; Society

In her dorm room, Celestia allowed herself some relaxation. Since she had no roommate, she didn't have to worry about being disturbed or found out here.

She went over the notes she had taken on her first day. Although the number of classes she would have to do this month would be stressful, it wouldn't be anything she couldn't handle.

Better than doing endless paperwork... much of it being sent in by nobles trying to gain more privileges.

So far the classes had revealed much... and left her with perhaps more questions than answers. Although humanity had clearly done terrible things in its past, there was much good mixed in, and it was hard to say what opening up Equestria to the rest of the world would do. She wanted to do good for that world, of course; to help struggling nations with farming, to open trade deals, and allow for... maybe not immigration, given the limited land that not only ponies but ALL sapient species from the homeworld had to utilize, but some cooperation and foreign workers.

Celestia found herself not hating humans, despite their history; but she knew that there were bad nations, or at least ones with bad leaders and leading parties out there, and her need to know personally how much she could trust this (to her) completely alien species was paramount.

Alien? We're on their world, she thought with a mental laugh. If anything, we're the aliens.

It was a humorous thought that allowed her a moment to breathe more easily.

Upon the stamping of a metal-shod hoof, she looked carefully at her shoes; all the nails pounded into her hooves were still in place, and there was no sign of rust or damage; Equestrian farriers utilized tremendous skill, as well as utilizing a level of magic to make sure the nails stayed in place. She'd have to rely upon their work for months at least; going to a horse farm or somewhere similar made her shiver a little. While Earth horses and ponies were clearly animals, they were much too similar to Equestrian ponies - and Saddle Arabians - for comfort.

She had actually been asked why Equestria still used nail-on horseshoes, along with asking whether they hurt. The question to the latter was no; the hoof wall, the part that was made of keratin, couldn't feel anything at all, and while the frog and fetlock could, there was no more sensation among them than perhaps the weight and slight displacement, neither of which caused pain. As for why such an old technology was still used, the answer was that it was a simple and effective solution, especially for city ponies, farmers, and those who used the roads often, such as post and delivery ponies and movers. While magic could theoretically be used, glue spells often lost their power over time. A pony consciously holding a horseshoe to their hoof was also impractical; the ability to hold things in the hoof didn't extend to the hoof wall, and a pony could easily stop thinking about holding the shoe on and lose them; back hooves couldn't hold things anyway, so that solution didn't really work. Boots and other hoofwear might be good in limited situations, but failed to deal with hoof damage, and such hoofwear could easily come off or be lost in mud and other sticky conditions.

While a bit time-consuming, a good shoeing ensured a pony's hooves would remain uncracked and undamaged so they could go about their lives without constant pain when walking. Even pegasi, who often resisted being shoed, usually had to go in every so often. Of those who had lived in cloud cities, this hadn't mattered... until the Transition to Earth. Now, Cloudsdale and to an extent Las Pegasus were the only sky cities, and given the limited amount of Equestrian clouds that had been brought over, more pegasi were living on the ground, and they had to undergo shoeing much more; even Rainbow Dash had eventually consented - unhappily, until she was actually shod and found that the process hadn't hurt at all. With increasing urbanization, and many hooved species that had lived outside cities now living either in or near them, others, such as yaks, buffalo, and hippogriffs, were looking for nail-on shoes of their own to protect their hooves as well.

That thought process done with, she levitated a letter Luna had sent her.

Dear Sister,

Greetings. We miss thee badly, and hope ye will return to us with all due haste when thine mission is complete.

Celestia hadn't realized how much she missed her sister's old-speak; while Luna had gotten lesson in modern Equestrian - or English, as the inhabitants of this world called it - she often fell back into medieval speech. It didn't bother Celestia at all; she had once spoken the same way. It did, however, often confuse modern speakers, who, for instance, had sometimes thought that Nightmare Moon was still present in Luna due to her reference to herself in the plural form. It was a problem that had largely gone away after a few years, though the rumors still persisted. For a moment, she allowed her sisterly love for Luna to envelop her - a few tears streamed down her face - before continuing.

We still wrangle with the Council; We still wonder if it was a good idea to allow such a body into existence. With the reduction of Our power, it becomes obvious how much We had taken said power for granted, despite not using it regularly. The dragon representatives are still demanding more mining rights, and the diamond dogs likewise, though each party refuses to endorse the other's proposals. Clearly each desires their own to be the ones to whom We give the privilege. How absurd that two species with the same interests will reject each others' proposals rather than cooperate and share, which is the obvious solution. Idiots Please ignore the latter word; upon looking on it hours later, We realize that it is inappropriate. However, We still feel great frustration at the bickering. Nonetheless, We agreed to accept that other species had their rights and their obligations and that they ought to be represented within the body of government, and part of Us feels content in the right of this decision, despite the folly of others.

On a better note, the hippogriffs and griffons agreed to aid one another in building a navy and air force for Our beloved nation. The hippogriffs will be responsible for shipbuilding, based upon those designs we know of from the humans, and the griffons will largely stick to designing aircraft. Each faction agreed to aid the other if those on one side of this venture were faltering. We have much confidence that Our country will have the military it needs, or at least the backbone of one, upon which a stronger body will be built upon. Much testing is required.

The dragons did agree to stop harassing Klugetown, and it is more than time that they did so; idle, foolish dragon youths have so often preferred taking over working. We are sorry to say that a bill that would arrest all without a legal, paying job after a period of 6 months has been proposed by the council, and Klugetown and the Abyssinians are pushing hard for it. We may have to accept it; it would solve the dragon problem, though We fear insurrection among them if it is accepted. Strangely, the more elderly, mature dragons have not objected to this bill, and one even expressed his secret sympathy for it to Us after that particular meeting was adjourned. Perhaps there is hope after all.

Finally, on a less happy note, meteorologists, both among us and the humans in Brazil, have detected a cyclone forming. It seems headed towards Brazil, and indeed woe unto them should this be true. However, with this world's radically independent weather, We are not sure at all if it will not change direction on some scientific whim. We have managed to calm the people, but their fears remain beneath the surface, such that it was tenable in Klugetown when We went there on a tour advocating unification for our peoples. As ye know, beloved Sister, our Saddle Arabian cousins, along with the dragons, took up lodging within the deserts there, and our port cities in what used to be the south are still rudimentary; such a storm would easily destroy what we've built over the past year, and that's not even mentioning the lives it would destroy. The Saddlers who are used to living nomadic lifestyles are already trekking northward, with much distress as they move toward more crowded areas. There have been... incidents. Ones of near violence as those already established in the new cities south north of the Macintosh Mountains fear their supplies of food may be in danger. We again managed to calm the situation, and have promised more food, so that all may eat. This again was another Council headache, but in the end they did agree, although the hippogriffs and those representatives living in ports added an amendment that would expand fishing in the nor south. A curse upon these reversed directions Please ignore that as well.

We wish we could speak face to face, and not by letter; no paper or ink can express how much We miss ye, nor of our anxiety and fears deep down for the survival of Our people, whether they be ponies, dragons, yaks, or any of them. The unity of our forced-together nation is another thing that has hindered Us in tackling dreams; how can We help others when We ourselves are in a nightmare each day?... or is daymare a word? Regardless, we hope your mission goes well. We shall write again as the situation permits. May whatever divine authorities exist be with you.

Sincerely,

Your loving Sister.

Celestia held back tears as she allowed memories, both happy and sad, to play themselves across her mind like pictures on a human television. While Luna was more than willing to rule alone, or with help from Twilight, Shining Armor, and Cadence, she understood politics, especially in a modern sense, more than her sister did. Not surprising, given that Luna had been banished for 1000 years.

All because of Celestia's own negligence.

Luna had, before her possession and banishment, been getting more and more angry that her had work in raising the moon and giving ponies a beautiful night was being shunned. Yes, Celestia had explained that nighttime, being darker than day, was the more natural time to sleep, and more scary given that the dark made it easier to scare - or worse, ambush - someone. She had also tried to convince Luna that her night was indeed appreciated, by the thestrals - bat ponies - if by no one else. She had argued against extending the night in particular, which Luna had time and again demanded, becoming more and more upset each time she was refused. She would eventually agree each time with her older sister, but she became more distant with each rejection.

It had culminated when Luna, without Celestia's backing, had gone on a tour, during the day and during the night, extolling the virtues of the stars that the moon and night made visible, and calling upon ponies to appreciate both night and day.

It had been received very badly. Most ponies refused to even get up during the night to see her on the tour, and more than once an irate pony trying to sleep had cursed her and told her to let them sleep, not knowing who they were addressing. Even her speeches during the day had gone badly, with many ponies just not listening or giving it a polite audience before leaving without committing to the cause. And while her well-loved thestrals had loved what she had to say, for Luna the rejection of the vast majority of the ponies she ruled was too much to bear... as was the chewing out Celestia had given her sister upon learning what she had done.

It had culminated in a duel in the old castle, and in Luna's banishment.

Luna had, for years after being freed of Nightmare Moon, done all she could to redeem herself. It was a shame she carried to this day, even though her friends had managed to prevent her from torturing herself every night with the tantabus.

Part of the reason Celestia had decided that she would be going on this mission, besides wanting to find things out first-hoof, was to give Luna some time to rule on her own, without her bigger sister there to interfere. Perhaps it would have been a better idea if their world hadn't been destroyed and they hadn't been forced to flee. With various species all wanting to be represented in government, with all their competing interests, in a democratic Council that the Diarchy had never had to wield... perhaps leaving Luna, even with friends to help her, hadn't been the brightest idea.

However, the needs of the nation - the new Equestria, the one that now represented every survivor of the Disaster that had ruined their world and made it uninhabitable - required action, and required knowledge that would better inform those actions. Somepony had to go out there and bring back direct information about the world beyond, one who had power. Twilight, as brilliant as she was, was needed with the other Element Bearers in Equestria in case there were any crises. Luna wasn't the most experienced with disguises or diplomacy. Cadence still had a preteen filly to raise, as did her husband. That left Celestia.

She could have left it to plenty of young minds curious about the outside world; Sunburst had wanted to go on an expedition to England, and later to Brazil. Both of these proposals were vetoed, though not unkindly. The royals needed one of their own, one with experience with others and could process information well, to go. Any other pony, or member of any of the other species for that matter, might, accidentally or otherwise, reveal Equestria's status before the rest of the world. In the wrong hooves - hands, rather - such information might lead to disaster.

And so, Celestia had gone. A few plane rides later, from Equestria's newly constructed airport near Manehattan, she had gone from Brazil, to Puerto Rico, to Florida, and finally to Maine.

There were certainly other colleges she could have gone to, most of them much larger and more prestigious, such as Yale or Harvard. But she had deliberately chosen a more out-of-the-way college in a less populated state in order to draw less attention.

Perhaps a changeling, reformed or not, might have done better at spying. That was what she was technically doing; the false identification, the magical and physical hiding of her wings, all of it was done to allow her to enter a college and learn about humanity and its history. She had no intentions of harming anyone; battle and physical harm didn't come naturally to her, and she almost always preferred to solve problems peacefully. But no human secret service that was at all competent would buy that, nor her mission to learn about humans in order to help her country to make an informed decision about them.

She looked at a Maine State flag that was flying outside. That had been another surprise to her; that American states considered themselves somewhat-autonomous entities within a federalized republic. It had been a bigger surprise to learn that they had once had much greater autonomy. Equestrian provinces, as much as they differed (sometimes to the point of having their own buckball and hoofball teams), each answered to a governor, usually a noble, appointed by the Diarchy. While they could run themselves, they mostly lacked democratic systems, except basic ones for local mayors and officials. All ponies, or at least the vast, vast majority saw themselves as one big country, without major differences. That a country had regions that had real, intense local politics and any considerable autonomy from the national government would have surprised many back in Equestria; kings, princes, queens, and the occasional emperor or empress had reigned supreme before the Disaster; a few merchant republics existed, but only nobles of great wealth had any say in them. A couple of peasants' republics existed, both as nominal vassals of bigger states, but these were the exception, and both of them were small and relatively unknown.

"Dirigo," she murmured. The word meant "I direct" or "I lead." Without context, she would normally have questioned why the Latin word wasn't more common in government; used within context, of the North Star giving direction to people by night, the question was answered.

It wasn't the only word she had learned of during her short stay. "Bug" referred to lobsters, "Ayuh" was a another way to say yes, and "Wicked" meant "very;" to hear someone say, "That's some wicked good coffee right there," had been a bit confusing to say the least, and would probably take some getting used to.

She filed all this away into her mind and thought again of Equestria. Aside from Luna's letters, she received newspapers from Spike every day. The Crystal Empire wasn't continually threatened with annihilation by the winter anymore, although it was usually very cold and snowy there regardless, and only the Crystal Heart kept any of the land down there arable. Dragons and diamond dogs, as Luna's recent letter had mentioned, largely worked as miners, but in many cases both were very greedy and refused to cooperate from one species to the other, and it was often difficult to wrangle the various industries' and treasury's worth of gems, gold, silver, and other valuable metals out of them. Not all were hostile; a number of dragon students were in Equestrian schools, and a number of dragons had been hired to fight fires (ironic given their destructive history, but their hides were nearly invulnerable to heat), as smiths, and even a few engineers. Some diamond dogs had come out of their underground hideouts to discuss their history and lore. But sadly, most of their younger populations remained against civilization and change.

Yaks faced the same problem, though Prince Rutherford was doing his best. According to some reports, some yaks had learned to speak full sentences in Equestrian/English, and others would soon follow. Kirin, hippogriffs, and griffons most easily adopted the new society, although the different interests - kirin loved the arts and crafts, hippogriffs loved the sea, griffons loved money - meant that each group often came into conflict with another at some point. Saddle Arabians weren't fond of living in more northern areas of Equestria, being used to living as nomads or in desert cities, and as such were difficult to both accommodate and feed given their often remote locations. Zebras were the most interesting; many chose to live in savanna areas (though there weren't many of those) and in jungles; Zecora had often complained that she was getting crowded within her home, although Fluttershy and Applejack had given hints that she wasn't being serious and was secretly happy to have her kin with her. The Everfree Forest had lost much of its magic since the Transition, so it wasn't as dangerous as it had been for centuries.

Shining Armor was making some strides with the military; designs from the human Cold War had come through, and although these were long since out of date, they provided a bridge between the modern and the past in regards to military rifle, tank, artillery, and airplane design. Already, Equestrian engineers - including ponies, kirin, and Saddle Arabians - had constructed a hull for a jet-propelled aircraft; it was only an unarmored, unarmed prototype, but it was promising, especially with Twilight leading the project. Working automatic rifles had been tested already; not as good as the most modern weapons, but good enough to provide a stopgap for the military. Artillery hadn't been so hard to figure out, but there had been a number of near-accidents in testing breech-fired guns. A tank had been made, based on a combination of American designs; there was no reactive armor, but magically-reinforced steel and a potential shield generator - which was also in testing - might give it some viability on the battlefield. Hopefully, that would not be put to the test by a war with external or internal forces.

Basic gyrocopters had been built, and looked promising, but as of yet none had been built that could reasonably hold, aim, and fire rockets. Airships were clearly out of date when it came to military service; missiles and gunfire could easy destroy them. Pegasi harnesses with machine guns were in testing, but so far, the prototypes were heavy and the added machine gun fire threw off those pegasi who were brave enough to fly in them. On the other hoof, plans for a navy were a success; smaller steel vessels were already in service, with a few destroyers and frigates having been constructed. However, plans for a battleship, even one with a massive shield generator, were delayed. Partly, this was due to the size of the project and the sheer amount of magic and material it required, but also because the past hundred years or so of human history had shown that air power could easily defeat warships, and as such this put the "Las Pegasus Project" in doubt.

Trying to unite numerous different species, with different cultures, beliefs, and practices into a single army was difficult; many griffons made it clear they were on for pay, dragons because they were allowed to utilize their destructive powers (they tried to distain firearms, but Shining had threatened to kick any dragon who refused to use their weapons out of the army). Zebras, kirin, hippogriffs, and ponies usually fell in line rather quickly, although most hippogriffs preferred naval service to that of the army. Yaks and buffalo were difficult to assimilate into the army, given their gigantic size; Shining had solved the problem by giving them heavy weapons to carry and fire along with heavy armor, in essence turning any one of the enormous creatures into walking tanks to provide heavy firepower in battle. They wouldn't be able to stand up to actual tanks, but, as super-heavy infantry, they would still be useful.

As for anything to ward off potential nuclear attacks...

It was unlikely; nuclear weapons were so destructive that no human nation had used one against another since the Second World War. But the explosions themselves were extremely destructive, and that was without figuring in the radiation. While it might be theoretically possible to intercept bombers, ICBMs would simply come in too quickly to be shot down by anything Equestria had. Only a continent-wide shield might block such a weapon, but even the detonation of one such weapon against said shield would likely break or crack it; Twilight had run the math, and even with every skilled mage in Equestria backing up such a shield, it would be unlikely to stand up to multiple hits. Or, even if the shield were somehow made unbreakable, the radiation that would seep in might doom the nation anyway. Again in theory, the Elements of Harmony and the Crystal Heart could protect against both... but no one sane in Equestria wanted to try that theory.

Fortunately, as noted before, nuclear attacks were unlikely; while many African and South American nations were furious over their coasts being damaged and many people dying when Equestria had displaced untold amounts of water upon Transition, they lacked nuclear weapons, and as Equestria was working hard to repair that damage and make it up to those nations, they probably would not be a threat.

Another problem were industrialization and social clashes. Different species were now living where one alone had largely dominated. The various cultures, religions, and political ideals often had differing views. Unreformed changelings tended to despise their reformed brothers as traitors, while the reformed saw their unreformed kin as blind to a better reality at best and as brutes at worst. Dragons weren't used to living in clustered locations, and their varying sizes made it hard to accommodate all of them. Kirin and hippogriffs had generally assimilated well, although this was largely due to positive relations with Equestria before the Transition. Zebras found the climate in many places difficult to get used to, and their strange language and customs made many of their equine cousins anxious, although Zecora had been able to patch up a number of incidents. These were just some of the social problems.

Another was class. Most species had a higher and lower class system, usually based on historical feudalism that had developed into rule by kings and nobility over commoners. In wealthier places like Equestria, a middle class had emerged due to many commoners spending money to make money. Nobles often scoffed at both the lower and middle classes, who in turn loathed the nobility's ignorance and disregard for them. Dragons and zebras didn't have class structures; most dragons did what they had wanted prior to the Disaster, unless the Dragon Lord used their scepter to give a command, while zebras had been tribal, with chiefs either inheriting their titles or being elected. That title of chief wasn't an invulnerable one; no zebra chieftain could impose absolute rule without his being overthrown by his own people. By and large, zebras had also followed their own pursuits, though in the interest of their particular tribe as opposed for their own greed. Most zebras lived outside cities in small communities, but around 15% or so were in cities trying to make money for their respective tribes, which meant change for them as well.

Limited industrialization had existed in Equestria prior to the Disaster; now it was being, not exactly forced, but highly promoted and backed by the governing authorities. Equestria needed to supply its own weapons and munitions, and be able to compete against global market. While some Ma-and-Pa businesses - Sweet Apple Acres, for instance - were able to remain afloat (and indeed prosper anew after the Transition), many previously small farms and businesses had been bought out by the wealthy; blacksmiths were largely absorbed into factories, with their former owners now toiling as part of assembly lines (most blacksmiths who had made their business as farriers had taken up their trades at hospitals and spas, although some independent smiths, mostly working for the Royal Guard, survived). The railroad network was expanding, pushing many wagon businesses out of work. Airships, on the other hoof, had literally taken off as an alternate mode of goods transfer; previously, they had mostly been used as pleasure craft and aerial cruise liners. A nascent automobile industry had started six months ago, with subsidies from the government. While the latter was only just now producing prototype trucks to transfer goods (no pleasure or personal vehicles were being designed or tested yet), it looked as if it would prosper if things worked well. Oil was another industry getting off the ground. Hippogriffs had hunted whales for their oil and sold the excess for centuries. Now, with oil deposits being found in the ground by team surveys, it was likely that Equestrian industry and vehicles wouldn't be limited to steam power in the near future.

Naturally, most of those driven out of business were angry, and there had been protests. A waggoneers' protest had blocked the construction of a new railroad line for a week before Royal Guards had arrested those who interfered with the work. A group of blacksmiths had gone even further; they'd tried to destroy a steel factory, succeeding in damaging numerous machines before being caught and jailed. Angry ex-farmers continued to picket their old farms, and some had turned to banditry, robbing trains carrying foodstuffs and selling it to whoever was willing to buy. Other protests had taken place in harbors, as old wooden ship companies were displaced by ones building steel ships. Again, there had been sabotage and arrests. While this issue - of old businesses going out of business - wasn't explosive yet, it was clear that a large portion of the pony lower classes were upset; ironically, not at their princesses, who were ultimately the ones behind the efforts of modernization, but at the billionaires and millionaires actually financing most of the changes. Perhaps that was to be expected in a society that often worshipped the alicorns; the claim of "evil councilors" who were guiding the princesses were making the rounds. Celestia knew she and her compatriots weren't gods, but their subjects persisted in that view.

Changelings hadn't complained much; they were used to massive work projects within their old hive, prior to the changeling reformation, although the reformed were a bit more squeamish about using heavy machinery. Dragons got to use their fire to heat forges, which helped to decrease their appetite to destroy things, but they again weren't comfortable living and working so closely with others. Kirin, in their natural love of the arts, continued largely in those traditions, but a number of them did find themselves low on funds, taking up jobs within factories (the fact that kirin often became flustered and turned into niriks was a major complaint of factory owners). Some ponies were able to adjust, but the change of an Equestria that had largely been agrarian and whose cities had been centers of commerce and beauty was shocking to many.

Fortunately, Luna had been able to keep things remarkably in check; factory owners had to pay an honest wage, provide pensions to injured and retired workers, and had to ensure their jobs were as safe as possible; however, radical rises in paychecks were rejected, and those convicted of destroying, or attempting to destroy, factory machinery were sentenced to five years in prison and a hefty fine, with community service and hard labor being given in a few cases to make the point. A Council Judiciary was set up to deal with clashes between species and to keep the peace in matters both large and small, and so far it had mostly succeeded, although there was still considerable grumbling.

The fact that they had all survived the Disaster and that they were in a new and dangerous world where war, despotism, and nukes were all too real helped to keep thing calm; few wanted to survive whatever was responsible for the destruction of their homeworld only to die here. Luna continued promoting unity in the face of both internal and external problems, and this was helping to keep the various species on the same side. At least, for now. But that might not last forever as internal pressures increased.

There was a "Fwoosh!" as a scroll appeared in front of her, momentarily ablaze with purple fire.

A letter from Twilight. What does my faithful student have to write to me about?

She found out quickly;

Dear Silver Mane,

I write to you regarding the Council and our R&D efforts. I assume your sister told you about the failure of the diamond dogs and the dragons to agree? Well, I'm glad to announce that, after some negotiations, that failure is no more; the two sides have agreed to a joint mining venture, with a 50/50 split of profits between the companies taking part. Additionally, the enforced employment bill has been struck down, though only after the dragons agreed, upon being... muscled by the rest of the Council to take up resolutions to encourage employment among their own people. As for the cyclone, it seems headed north, and may even miss Brazil; a pity we can't manipulate clouds anymore, I'd love a good chance to show our human co-inhabitants of this world some goodwill. Finally, after a police detachment from all affected species took part, the riots in the north have been quelled, and the refugees are either being fed, going home, or continuing their nomadic wanderings. So far, the current crises have been resolved, or in the case of the cyclone, sorted themselves out.

I do worry, however. Our new government hasn't even been around a year, and we've faced severe challenges already. I earnestly hope these compromises are a sign of the system working, and not bad omens.

On a more positive note, I'm pleased to say that scientific research is proceeding quite well. Moondancer, Sunburst, and Starlight are exploring a way to turn crystals from the Crystal Empire into power sources. Sunburst is on his way to building a crystal battery that can hold massive amounts of magical energy. So far we haven't found a way to connect it directly to our intended power sources; we've only managed to send magic directly into it by unicorn horns. But work continues, and this project is in its earlier stages. Fortunately, we've managed to confirm that a crystal that is properly powered can project energy efficiently, but getting it filled without exhausting our science staff is the tricky part.

On the military front, we've begun designing a missile that is powered, and can track its target by, magic. Unfortunately, it's been two steps forward, one step back; the first missile we used nearly killed the pegasus pulling the real target, and while the second did hit what it was supposed to, it lacked sufficient explosive power to destroy it. At least firearms are easier, and don't require magic as part of their use; we're catching up to more modern designs there. But we're still way behind on tanks and aircraft. In addition, while we've tested shield devices successfully, they're way too big for personal use (not to mention they regulate an enormous amount of heat), and are likely to remain so; the best shields we can use on a battlefield will be the ones unicorns can cast, and those can be overwhelmed by enough firepower. My brother's shield is a case in point; our artillery took the shield down after about three minutes after the two batteries we had on standby commenced firing. Even a combined shield by numerous unicorns can't make an invulnerable shield, although it lasted about nine minutes longer under the same firepower.

Diplomatically, in regards to the other nations on this world, we've been negotiating with NASA, the United States' Space Program. I... admit this is partly due to my own interests, as well as Luna's; the latter wants to explore the stars themselves, and see what living on, as opposing to being imprisoned in, the moon is like. But we're also hoping that a bit of cooperation between us and the various human nations might lead to a peaceful spirit between us, and cement our goodwill. Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, South Africa, Namibia, Angola, and Equatorial Guinea have all agreed to the reparations we've offered, as well as to recent continued offers of assistance in rebuilding their damaged coastlines.

I do still worry about our future. I want to believe we can not just survive in this world, but make many, many new friends here. It's fascinating that while many species in our world are sapient, only humanity meets that criteria in this one... and, I admit, a little creepy, given the comparisons of their analog species (Earth horses and ponies compared to us, their cattle vs cows in our world, their zebras vs ours, et cetera). I doubt they will see us the same way as they see the native analogs - that is, I doubt they will treat us as livestock. But I do feel a bit worried as to how this happened, a little nudge at the back of my mind or a small feeling of frost in my stomach; not enough to derail my dealings with humanity, not at all, just the kind of oddity that one finds upon seeing one's own species' analog being non sapient. I believe that the best I could compare this phenomena to is the human film Planet of the Apes, wherein humans are essentially slave creatures and livestock.

I do look forward to your rejoining us, though I know it's potentially years away. You've been like a second mother as well as a mentor to me, and I'll never forget that.

From your student,

Dusk Spark.

Celestia allowed herself a moment to chuckle at the nickname Twilight had made for herself, not that it was unfitting. She also allowed herself a sigh of relief; at least things hadn't gone too badly. In fact, progress was being made.

Still, she needed to get a feel for humanity itself, or at least determine how human beings lived and thought, in order to give Equestria the knowledge she needed for her survival in this new world. Unless their homeworld ceased it's self-destruction - something that seemed less and less likely every time she or Luna scryed the place - this was their home now.