Tasted like Heaven

Chapter 2: Every Mile a Memory

It was a fact.

Twilight Sparkle was feeling awkward and happy at the same time.

She was happy because she was returning home, Canterlot, so of course she was happy.

But it wasn't home. Or was it?

That was the awkward point for Twilight Sparkle, protégé of the ruler... scratch that, co-ruler once again of the land of Equestria.

It had been a week, only seven days (she could give you the exact number of minutes from the top of her head), and for the first time of her life (very young, thank you) she came back to Canterlot not from a travel to a ruin or another school, but for a visit, not to stay.

The purple mare didn't have second thoughts about her decision of staying in Ponyville, after meeting her new friends she felt a hole inside her chest when the idea of returning alone to Canterlot. At this moment she turned to her side watching the baby dragon that was licking a topaz gem as if it was an ice cream cone, although considering that Spike was A dragon it was for him.

'Well, maybe not alone' she thought with a soft giggle. Sure, the small dragon have been her constant partner since she became a student of Princess Celestia; but until she met a group of ponies (with the sugar rush that was a certain pink pony on the front) she never realized how lonely she was and how much she enjoyed talking, joking and living alongside other ponies.

Sure, they were very different from one another, they had different hobbies, habits and personalities but the true power of friendship came to light with the group they formed. So much that after receiving a message from Princess Celestia calling her to Canterlot made the studious pony slightly worried. What if Princess Celestia changed her decision? It didn't always happen, usually what the Ruler... make that, Co-Ruler of Equestria said was practically wrote in stone, so Twilight didn't have anything to be nervous about... right?

The sound of hooves on stone paved streets, the smell of freshly baked cinnamon rolls right at the corner, the clink of tea cups being lowered expertly on the beautifully crafted porcelain outside of the best tea shop she have ever known was like a hit of remembrance to the purple colored equine. All the aromas mixed with the sounds and sights to make the young unicorn smile after coming back home.

Sure, Ponyville was her new place to be but it hadn't been that long for her to erase so many years of walking through the streets of the city, it made her feel comfortable and happy, especially with the small weight currently sitting on her back.

“Hey Twilight, think we hit Pony Joe's shop before going back?” She didn't need to turn around to know that the small dragon was grinning from spike to spike so she chuckled at the image.

“Yes Spike, we can go, once we finish with Princess Celestia's task we can go for a donut, nothing against the Cakes and Sugar Cube Corner, but nothing beats a hot chocolate and a glazed donut from Pony Joe, maybe we could invite Mom and Dad”

“That's a great idea Twilight!”

“I know… and Spike? No sprinkled donuts for you” she didn't want Spike to become too inebriated like the last time he had the bright idea to ask for extra sprinkles on his donut.

“Aw shoot” Spike said scowling, but when twilight decided something it was nigh impossible to make her change her opinion “so what do you think Princess Celestia asked you back? I mean, didn't she let you stay in Ponyville?”

“I'm not sure, you saw the letter, Princess Celestia usually writes differently” Both youngsters knew quite well how the Princess wrote considering the direct communication both parties had at every time; also her letters, unlike official documents, was pleasant to read, you could almost feel Celestia's soft smile on the words and the warm feeling of talking to an old friend. Instead, the letter that Spike had burped sounded... mechanic, even rushed, although considering that the letter had less than twenty words it wasn't that strange.

“I mean, come one, 'Dear Twilight, I need you to come back immediately to Canterlot, Princess Celestia'... maybe Princess Luna returned to be Nightmare Moon?!” The young drake said almost biting his claws at the idea of the return of the ebony mare, but Twilight simply chuckled at the hyperactive imagination of her companion.

“Come on Spike, I'm pretty sure things would be a lot darker if that had happened”

“Then what do you think?”

“Truthfully... I have no idea” Twilight said looking at the doors of Canterlot Castle.

After expending almost all her life in the castle, that left Twilight in the envying position of having all the servants and guards know about her and be received as if she were a noble herself, not that she was unless her parents were omitting something about her family history. Thanks to that she met Princess Celestia in the throne room almost immediately after stepping through the doors of the Castle.

Sitting on top of the usual pillows and throne was until a couple of days ago the ruler of Ponydom, the Eternal Sun, the light that brought harmony to everywhere the Sun touched, at least that was how poets and dignitaries always put it, to her she was her Teacher and until a certain old mare's tale appeared in Ponyville, her only friend.

“Princess Celestia!” Tossing protocol aside Twilight trotted quickly to her mentor's side, stretching her neck to nuzzle the taller Alicorn with Celestia returning the gesture with pleasure.

“Twilight Sparkle” the voice spoke of warmth and true happiness quickly dissolving the worst of her worry “I'm so glad to see you, these last few days have been so hectic, so many nobles and government members trying to see my sister immediately, I haven't had so much job in centuries” The princess said sitting on the marble instead of the opulent throne.

“How is Princess Luna? Is she alright? Any side effects?”

“Everything is alright, well, except for poor Luna not recognizing anything in  the palace, a thousand year... hiatus left her without any idea of current events. It will be a slow process to re-integrate her, but I'll be there for her as I wasn't before the darkness consumed her” Twilight could almost hear Celestia's throat closing and the intake of breath while mentioning Princess Luna's descent, obviously Celestia put some blame on herself, but Twilight knew better than to ask “but enough about my sister, there is more urgent matters to attend to”

“I came back as fast as I could, what was so important that the letter was so short?”

“Is not that the letter was short due to time, but because I cannot let what I am about to show you reach the outside. Twilight Sparkle, when you and your friends where battling Nightmare Moon it seems that not only the Mare in the Moon was the only creature that came to Equestria” the princess said mysteriously.

“Wait... what?”

The stone stairs were a part of the castle that Twilight had little to no knowledge, she have never been in the necessity of going downstairs into the holding cells, until now that is. It was a good idea that she left Spike with Princess Celestia, the small dragon telling the Alicorn all about their new home, thankfully that will keep him busy until she discovered what was so amazing that left Princess Celestia so astonished.

Little by little she got closer to the cells, the torches leaving enough illumination and the stone walls keeping some coolness without reaching cold levels, and that's when she heard it, a singing voice.

“I know a song that'll get on your nerves,

Get on your nerves, Get on your nerves:

I know a song that'll get on your nerves,

Get, get get on your nerves”

Twilight's eyebrows raised up to her hair line at hearing that, for some reason it reminded her of something that either Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie would do, but whoever was singing was doing an atrocious work.

Walking inside the area of the cells she could see two guards at each side of the steel bars, one of them was suffering of a terrible eyebrow twitch, who knew for how long it had heard that song; quickly trotting in front of the bars she completely froze not quite believing what was in front of her eyes.

There, lying down on the cot, which seemed a little short for... it, was a creature that made her think of a minotaur but with many differences. The lower part of its body was more straight, at least what she could determine from here, the upper body instead was much more slimmer than a minotaur, with long arms that seemed to have no fur on them ending on hands with five digits and a head that had fur only in the top.

“Do you guys know when dinner is going to be served? Or breakfast? I mean, I don't even know what time it is, you guys don't even have a window in this place, is so dreadful and depressing, I mean, I know this place is supposed to be a dark and depressing dungeon of doom and disaster, but what is wrong with some light? Maybe you could do some feng shui a little and add a little color; anyway, do you guys know when food is going to be served? I didn't care much for those flowers, but at least the sauce was nice, kind of spicy, is a shame you guys are herbivores because it doesn't give many options in the menu, well, maybe pasta, but you cannot spend all your time eating pasta, unless of course you're Italian, are you guys Italian? I mean, no offense but you kind of look Italian, and what's with the color? White is so boring, in a land that apparently popped rainbow colored ponies all of you guys are white, I've seen like eight of you and all of you look the same, boring! I mean, I saw one... unicorn that was blue, another green and a girl that was bright neon yellow! Well, I think it was a girl, or mare, but she really looked cute with that color and I don't usually like that color”

Oh, and apparently it could TALK.

“Um.... excuse me” The purple colored mare raised a hoof interrupting the rant of the strange creature to the obvious relief of both guards”

“Hey, look, another rainbow colored pony, yay, so what's this time? Blood? Tissue sample? Torture? Want to dissect me and show me in a freak's show or something like that? Tell me if I'm getting closer” the creature turned sitting down on the cot and looking directly at her. To hear those disturbing words out of him accompanied by a calm smile made Twilight shiver.

“Wait, what?! Did somebody did that to you?!” Twilight's voice was not quite reaching screaming decibels but it was getting close, in answer the creature simply laughed aloud.

“Of course not, I just wanted to see your reaction, no one has tried to do that, well, besides initially trying to treat me as if I were a simple animal, there was this guy... what was his name... Frost something I heard”

“Frosty Glare?” Twilight said trying to help him.

“Yeah, that was his name, carried himself oh so important and started to explain his 'colleague' how brutish I was due to the form of my skull and due to my form I was obviously lacking any sign of intelligence” The creature said rolling its eyes making Twilight seethe; Frosty Glare was a very famous biologist, utterly brilliant, but it was his ideas of 'pony superiority' that was putting him into dangerous position with the Princess, that he had been the first to check on this new creature (which was obviously even more intelligent that one would think of) left a bad taste on her mouth.

“Let me guess, you started talking”

“Well, if I remember correctly I asked him if he was going to hurry up or not and take any of my vital information or ask any questions, I have never seen someone jump so high in my life” he said making Twilight chuckle a little at the image of the arrogant scientist being scared due to the 'stupid' creature suddenly talking in a civilized form.

“Well, seeing that you already saw some of the worst in our scientific society let me start by introducing myself, my name is Twilight Sparkle”

“Twilight, wow, so cool, you ponies have such amazing names, really fitting, me, well, we don't have names as good as you, well, unless we are hippies” after hearing the creature's name she had to be correct, his name left something to be desired of “Anyway, you said your name is Twilight Sparkle, right?”

“Yes”

“Have any ancestor called Twilight Twinkle?” he said almost expecting something, which he got watching Twilight's eyes get bigger immediately.

“Yes, how did you knew that?“ She asked obviously surprised that her important ancestor and starter of the Twilight house was mentioned in the talk.

“Oh, it was only a hunch, so... what's gonna happen to me? I mean, I've been here for... three days?” He said looking at the ceiling making Twilight wince slightly, it was true that he was a yet unknown creature, but he seemed to be quite well, a little bizarre that's for sure, but nothing wrong with that, it would be a crime to simply keep him behind bars.

“I will try to do something about it, that's it if you don't mind answering some quick questions?”

“Nah, no problem, you have been treating me as a... well, intelligent being, I must say this has been the best talk I had with a pony, so sure, shoot”

“Thank you, now, excuse me for asking this, but, what are you?”

“... cliché, even for this author” he said whispering a bit.

“What?”

“Nothing... um, I'm a human... and by the look of your face you have never heard of me”

“Uh? Oh, no, is just that... well... I guess I own five bits to somepony; okay, ext one, where are you from?”

“Want to hear the truth? Usually I'm bad at the truth but hear me out... I'm pretty sure I'm not from here, either I traveled to another planet, I time-traveled to the future or, dun dun dun, I came from another universe, pick one, with my luck it is probably all three” he said shrugging his... shoulders it seems.

“Well, seems like there are a lot of theories but little information... guards, would you please release him under my custody? Let me be the one that welcomes you into our land of harmony, Equestria!” Twilight said making the guards ready to comment on her decision, but both knew what she was capable of doing, they were no match for her, so there was probably no danger in releasing the creature in her hooves, hey, if it free them from the constant singing and annoying questions they will give her their life savings.

“Equestria... that's so cute, but oh well, lead the way miss Sparkle, this sounds like a true adventure my dear” he said with a huge grin on his face, obviously he was ready for Equestria... the question was if Equestria was ready for him.