Author's Note

Hey, I'm back. Yeah I've been through a lot these past months. I won't bore you with the details, I'll just say that I'm back and more chapters will come soon. As usual correct me on grammar, writing stuff, and story writing stuff in general.

Chp 4.- Pre School Conversations

The sound of silverware clinking against porcelain bowls and plates rings loudly in my head as I sit at our table and think. Normally I would be uncomfortable being in such a setting but for now there are questions that plague my mind. Why is it that Twilight was able to see what I looked like as a human? It appears that no one else saw it, or else they would have brought it up as well. Why didn’t I notice anything? Was it actually a physical change or just some sort of illusion? I say it was an illusion, but what caused it? This will need further testing.

I look at the surroundings around me: ponies eating little to no food to my right, other patrons giving me dirty looks for being allowed to sit so close to the princess to my left. All the interactions one would expect at a get together like this. I then get into a hushed whisper as I speak to Twilight.

“I can’t really think of anything that would have caused something like this to happen. Maybe the music I played had something to do with it?”

“Well ponies often break into song and dance, maybe this is something similar?” Twilight says as she finishes up her mouthful of some sort of hay sandwich.

Dear god, I'm stuck in a musical aren’t I. Except instead of it going through a bunch of different acts and eventually ending it just keeps on going. Eh, this isn’t the worst kind of fate I could be subjected to. I’m still not entirely convinced I’m not stuck in some sort of hell. “So like, are there ponies with musical instruments around every corner or what?”

“Um, no. The music actually comes from;” she pauses and scratches her head for a moment. “I don’t know where the music comes from.”

Well that answers that, I wonder if I can figure out how it works and use it to my advantage? I should probably see a few examples first before I try to create my own.

More time has passed than I released because some of the ponies have started making their way over to a seating area for more announcements. So I scarf down my food like a new recruit at boot camp and follow behind Celestia while Twilight’s family finds their own seats. I find a seat in the back of the stage, with the hopes of not drawing any attention to myself while being here. Celestia then gets up on stage to talk about what to expect from her school’s teachings.

“But don’t take just my word for it, take the words of one my most upstanding student, Sunset Shimmer.”

Celestia’s star student is called Sunset Shimmer? Why am I not surprised by that in the slightest? I watch as she struts up to the podium like she owns the place, only to be momentarily stopped as she realizes that the podium was made for someone much taller than her. A stepping stool was then quickly levitated to the podium so she could see over the thing and see her audience.

“Greetings, ponies of the noble families of Canterlot.” Sunset spoke as she angled herself to better let the natural light of the sun reflect off her white fur, her red hair with yellow streaks really helping to sell the point of her namesake. “I am Sunset Shimmer, soon to be a ninth year at Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. You may have heard of me earlier this year in the Canterlot Papers when I was put in charge of raising and lowering the moon for a couple weeks.”

There was a sound round of applause that came from the audience, a slightly more prideful set of applause coming from I could only assume are some of her family members. Kind of hard to tell who would be her mother though, and no clear sign of where her father could be.

From my seat in the back left corner of the stage I can hear the mutterings of the other families talking about Sunset.

“They say she has been taken under Princess Celestia’s personal wing as her protégé.” A rather refined male voice says in a hushed tone. This immediately got the attention of a woman nearby.

“A protégé? But the princess hasn’t taken on a protégé in over 750 years. This girl must be something quite special indeed.”

“Of course she’s special, she’s from House Phoenix.” A dame voice responded in kind, being followed up by a mix of understanding murmurs and amused hums.

Should I have read Harry Potter? Would information from those books have helped me in this world? Damn my lack of an attention span. Well, and also my parents didn’t want me to read it while I was growing up because it was a book that talked about witchcraft. Then they binged the movies later down the line and had zero problems with it. I also never got around to watching the movies.

I look over at Celestia as she looks on at Sunset with glee. Sunset, glowing with the admiration she has gained with her lessons and the work she has done. Celestia, glowing with pride at the child she has taken into her care and made into what would no doubt one day become a unicorn like no other. At least, that’s what I think is going on. I literally don’t know how anything around here works. I spent so long making a considerably small generator from whatever spare rations of knowledge my brain could some up with for the damn thing.

While I was blanking out about how much blanking out my brain does they seemed to have gone onto one of the teachers from the school, I think they called her Inkwell. The teacher in question was old, how old I can’t say for certain, but old enough to not know where she was at the moment. She also started going off on a war story about how she was there with Princess Celestia to help defend against; shadow ponies? I mean at the very least she got my attention, I could believe her out right, given my circumstance. For much of the adult crowd though, many weren’t sure whether or not to believe her.

It is an understatement to say the least that I will need to start doing some research. Dear god, I’m going to have to sit down and read a book. It sounds hard, it will most likely be hard, but with no technology in sight I suppose I will have less distractions. At least that’s what I’d like to think, you never know with ADHD.

After about twelve more minutes of speaking, the whole ordeal was finally done and people started to converse with others. Most of the children just seemed to either stick with their parents or with the classmates they already knew. As I took a quick glance at the surrounding groups I noticed the floater of the party, Twilight’s family. It appears from the look of things that the family doesn’t have any connections to anyone here. The father is gently tugging on his wife’s shirt to try and que her in that they should leave but she seems to want to at least try to get acquainted with the other families.

Twilight for her part looked much the same, that is until she spotted me again. With a scroll in her hand and smile on her face the poor child was completely oblivious to the student that was walking in her path.

“Oof!”

“Ah fuck.” I begin to make my mandatory waddle towards the downed child and the mildly confused teenager now looking down at her. By the time I get there she has already been helped up and Twilight has levitated a few scrolls that fell back into her bag. The teenager in question who Twilight ran into being Sunset Shimmer. Now Sunset’s expression for the most part is pretty neutral to the small inconvenience, the woman standing besides her who I could only really assume is her mother is a different story however.

“Watch where you’re going little missy.”

“Oh I’m sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

“I could see that.” The woman responded with a huff. She looks over at Twilight’s now nervous family. Without even looking back down at her. “And what, pray tell, what kind of gift do you have that the examiners at the school found so interesting that they let you in?” Twilight's mother was miffed, her Father wilting, and her brother about to get on the defensive, but none were faster to answer than Twilight herself.

“Oh well I don't think the examiners actually said anything about my results, especially after I turned them into plants.” The way she said it with a smile gave me a few chuckles. But both the woman and the surrounding people gave gasps and started taking a few steps back.

“What in Tartarus are you talking about!”

“I turned my parents into plants too, but that was only after I hatched the dragon egg!” Twilight pointed out, clearly not catching the vibe she had just put into place.

“A dragon egg? Now I know you are making up stories, everypony knows that dragons are resistant to magic, especially dragon eggs!”

“Dude, I have literally been standing here this whole time.”

“Ahh!” Apparently she didn’t notice me, maybe it’s the fact that I stand at less than 2 feet tall. “Who’s familiar is this! I do not take kindly to these sorts of jests.”

“Hiiii, my name is Spiiike. And I was hatched about two weeks ago.” This seems to have pinged in the students' heads a lot better than the adults.

“Mother, it’s that thing I was talking to you about two weeks ago. The giant lizard head breaking through one of the observatories!” At this the mother then seems to go from one panic state to another as her eyes dart from me to Twilight.

“Wait, YOU were the magical outburst?! B-but, how?!” Celestia decided that now was the right time to reveal that she was standing just a few feet behind this woman.

“That is an excellent question, one that I am afraid to say that we currently don’t understand just yet. And there she goes.” The woman in question was now unconscious on the garden floor. Celestia then waved over some of the servants to help her off the floor and over somewhere safer. Celestia then walked over to Twilight’s family with an apologetic smile. “Sorry about that, sometimes some of the families here tend to get a bit competitive, which leads to a lot of drama.”

Twilight’s mother just shakes her head with a smile. “We are more than used to Canterlot’s competitive nature, your highness. I just don’t think I’ve ever met someone so, how do I put this? Imposing?” Celestia just gives a nod to this.

“Well that’s just House Phoenix for you. They’ve been the fire of Canterlot for a long time now. Speaking of fires, I believe you’ve met Sunset Shimmer now haven’t you.” Sunset takes this as her que and steps right up to Celestia’s left side with a wide grin on her face. “Sunset here is a fine example of understanding magical control.” She then leans down and whispers something into Sunset’s ear. Sunset nods and then steps away from the group.

I hear something, it sounds like a soft violin playing, but I see no band. As Sunset begins to cast a spell the violin only ever gets a little bit louder. Soon a light layer of orange light comes over the area and it soon morphs into what looks like burning magma. The crowd is left in awe as Sunset moves it around the place like a lava lamp. The other women who were a part of the Phoenix House seemed less awed at the display and more pleased with the work Sunset was doing. The violin slowly begins to come to a close as Sunset gathers the magma into a ball that safely disperses into a few sparks made to look like a sunset.

The crowd gives an applause to this unexpected performance. Celestia turns back to the family and leans down to Twilight.

“And with time you too could learn to control your magic enough to perform great feats of magic such as what Sunset just did.” She then gives Twilight a few headpats as the girl giggles under her. Soon after, the groups begin to disburse and go on home, Twilight’s family says their farewell and leaves. I give a sigh and turn towards Celestia.

“Letting her raise and lower the moon for a couple of weeks? You just wanted a break didn’t you?” She gives a chuckle at this.

“Not quite, I was actually in need of help with moving both the sun and moon during those two weeks because of my heat.” I raise an eye at this.

“Your heat? You’re telling me the princess of the sun needed help with her heat? You're the one who moves the sun, you should know when things get too hot!” Celestia just gives off a good laugh at my statement.

“Not that kind of heat. A different type of heat.”

“Plasma?”

“I’ll tell you about it, later.”

“Yeah yeah, just add it to my list of stuff I need to research about this place.”

“Well luckily for you we have a library in the castle.”

“Convenient things are convenient, well where is it?” Celestia then has the absolute gaul to boop my nose.

“I will show you, after we go out to get a treat, remember?” I rub my nose in irritation.

“I think you did mention that at some point. Didn’t think much about it though.”

“Well I did!” She says in a sing-song way that makes me think that this was probably on her mind for about half of the event. “There is this lovely cattery that you absolutely must try!” I start following a long as best I could with my legs while this mother fucker is skipping like a teenage girl who just got her first kiss in a Disney movie.

—-----------------------------------

“Ok so, I spotted like fifteen pantless dudes on the way here. A couple naked women, and I am now currently looking at a sea of nudists, trying to take a picture with you.” I am now sitting at an outside table at a bakery with Celestia, the umbrella above doing a piss poor job at keeping the sun off my back.

“What’s a nudist?” I facepalm.

“People who don’t wear clothes.”

“Ponies.”

“Fine, ponies who don’t wear clothes.”

“That’s very strange to put a word to something like that, but here in Equestria the vast majority of the population doesn’t wear clothes. Only nobles or fashion designers like to even wear clothes. Most ponies wear something for special occasions but never on the day to day. Which is why I found it a strange request when you asked for some. Tell me Spike, did a lot of ponies wear clothes where you came from?”

“A vast majority did yes, in fact not wearing clothes in public would in most places result in you being arrested. There are certain spots out there where that isn’t the case but for the most part it was illegal. And in other areas some people just don’t have enough money to afford the clothes they need. You see, humans don't have fur coats over their bodies, so in most cases we actually need clothes to protect our skin.” Celestia waits for me to finish as she sips her drink.

“I see, so does the sight of so many naked bodies disturb you?” I sit back and think about it for a minute as I look around.

“Partly I guess, but not in a gross way I guess, but more of a, something is missing kind of way. If I was a younger self I would be perving off trying to get a look at all the girls around me. Maybe start making stupid comments with my friends about who I’d want to ‘get with’. But now, I guess a little bit of that is still there, but for the most part I guess I just don’t care. Although, because of the clear view of anatomy from both sides I’ve gotten to see, I have been alleviated of a pet peeve of mine.” Celestia raises a questioning eye at this.

“How very strange, from the sounds of it you sound more like an adolescent filly than a colt. I wonder if your society has a reverse mindset in some situations. Because generally it’s mares who are seen as the ones to start perving on stallions. But what pray tell is your pet peeve?”

“It’s a long story you wouldn’t be able to understand without a lot of context. But long story short, when people draw other creatures they tend to just put human genitals on them, it seems this place doesn’t suffer from that kind of design logic.” Celestia just stares at me in bewilderment.

“Um, I think I understand what you mean. I’ve seen artists here in Canterlot put a mare’s lower bits on a female griffon and it very much is very off putting.”

“Hey I mean, at least ponies aren’t just having sex in the street right?” I give off a few chuckles and so does Celestia.

“Ah yes, no not since we banned that in Canterlot a little less than 100 years ago. It was just too distracting when you’re trying to make political bills. It’s still a thing in other places though.” She says with a little smile on her face. My face however is a cold neutral.

Dear god I’m stuck in musical porno aren’t I? Now the situation has gotten worse.

“Ok, getting off of the weird subject of creatures genitals and sex. Um, you mentioned griffons, are there other types of creatures here in Equestria?”

“What’s weird about talking about genitals and sex?”

“In most human cultures along with making sure that you cover up your lower regions, and females having to cover their nipples, it is seen as perverse to talk about stuff like sex in public areas, like this one.” I extend out my arms in a waving motion to the crowd of ponies around us. Celestia continued to look at me like a lost child.

“I’m very confused about everything you just said.” I give a sigh as I put my head in my hands.

“It’s a long story with a lot of things that just don’t make sense to even me who lived in it.” She just gives me a smile while more cake is placed on the table.

“We have plenty of time to talk about it, because I think at the very least it sounds odd enough to be entertaining.”

“Oh boy, where do I even start? So there is a lot of men in my world who see Women as nothing but objects to be won over so that they can give them sex and validation.”

“This is already a terrible start.” Celestia says flatly.

“It doesn’t get better from here.”