Princess Celestia

If it is true that ponies and living creatures are the sum of their memories, then few beings were as vast as the Alicorn sisters, Equestria's newly reunited diarchs. Having lived for several thousands of years, Celestia often felt tempted to say "now I have seen everything," only to be promptly proven wrong.

This was one of those days. Of late Celestia's personal interests had been on just one little Unicorn. Twilight Sparkle, her protégé and prize pupil. Somehow this little purple filly had grown to become Equestria's savior, having bested Nightmare Moon, returned her beloved Luna to her side, re-sealed Discord himself and foiled a Changeling invasion. In that order. Within just a few years. History was repeating itself in millenial cycles and this unassuming little Unicorn had stepped forth to face each of her ancient foes and woes one at a time.

It was only a few weeks ago that she had caught herself thinking the world couldn't possibly hold any further surprises. Yet here she sat on the linoleum of Twilight's kitchen in her treehouse Library, Golden Oak in Ponyville, discussing just one of these surprises. Events once again proving her wrong, this creature was quite literally not of their world. If she was to believe the word of her protégé, this Samuel and his construct, SAM, had been inadverdently flung a distance even she could scarsely conceptualize. Somewhere in their journey from point A to B they had gotten lost and arrived at a very different destination. A complete stranger, this imposing figure spoke an alien tongue and wore a suit of armor that had a life of its own. Ponies were an easily spooked lot and certainly this Samuel had every potential to instill fear in their hearts. Only Twilight Sparkle and her six constant companions prevented this strange stallion from being rejected. Where most ponies saw only threats, she had seen a potential new friend.

The fact that she had only just now compiled a formal report on this new friendship could well mean that it was still tentative at best. Ever diligent and prone to overcommiting herself to a task, Twilight had no doubt been secretly obsessing over this new-arrival. It seemed the obsession was mutual as reports would indicate that it took only days for Samuel to display a rudementary grasp of Equestrian language. SAM was even faster at picking it up and presumably he now spoke it as well as the locals without a trace of accent. Looking across the small dinner table at her beloved student it was difficult not to feel like she was intruding upon something personal, yet the potential ramifications of this meeting of two worlds could not be ignored. Twilight had grown quite a bit from the socially awkward 'egghead' into a much more sensitive pony. She saw more in every gesture, heard more in every word, whether spoken or unspoken. She also hid her own anxiety quite well. Surely only a pony who knew her personally or one with considerable experience picking up on tells could detect the quiet waves of anxiety rolling off the lavender Unicorn. Celestia had the benefit of both those things. Somehow her student seemed reluctant to speak on behalf of her newest friends. This warred with her most ingrained personality trait; her selfless desire to give to her idol anything and everything she could. If she was shielding Samuel from royal scrutiny, she could already be well under the assumption that banishment and/or dungeons would figure in her immediate future for defying her Princess. Before she could try to forestall the ensuing panic attack, a sudden knock at the front door caused Spike to turn his head and Twilight just froze.

"Twilight, you home?" a masculine voice called out casually, though the accent was strange to her.

"Oh crap!" a feminine voice cried out softly.

Everything froze. Several millenia of intellect ground to a halt, at first refusing to comprehend what had just happened. In the ensuing silence there was much blinking and quiet staring at one purple Unicorn as both Spike and Celestia struggled with the notion that Twilight just swore in front of the Princess. The scope of the impending panic attack seemed most dire as already Twilight's mane looked disheveled and her pupils had shrunk to pinpricks.

Then Spike laughed.

He was trying and failing to contain his unending amusement at his sister figure's flustered expression. This seemed to completely dispell the fear as Twilight pouted and shot her number one assistant a look which went ignored. Spike fell off his chair and the comical way in which he tumbled over and landed perfectly on his rear, stubby little legs and tail splayed in opposite directions, only made him laugh harder and he wiped an imaginary tear of mirth from the corner of his eye.

"Spike!" Twilight whined.

Before she could scold her assistant, the doorway to the adjacent library greeting room was suddenly taken up by an imposing biped. He was taller than Celestia and his gait spoke of the grace of one comfortable in their own body and their surroundings. Samuel had dark hair and a sturdy jaw. The face between was partially hidden by an untrimmed beard though the cheeks were mooth. His snout was small and his eyes were set in deep sockets with sturdy brows to shade them. His eyes were dark brown and something in their expression made her wary. Though seemingly quite muscular, this creature had comparatively dull senses. It was only now he noticed Princess Celestia sprawled across most of the kitchen floor, looking back at him.

"Oh crap!" he cried out, freezing in the doorway.

Then Celestia laughed.

Euphoria

She was running. Galloping full tilt across verdant meadows, through dense thickets and woods, Celestia's sun on her coat and the wind playing in her mane. The lure of freedom had once again proven too sweet to resist and she found herself reveling in muscle fatigue and the pounding of her heart. It seemed impossible that it was only hours ago that she had been fearing for SAM's very life. Her hollow friend was sprinting besides her, taking one graceful leap for every half-dozen of her strides. The piston-like extension of his hind legs propelled the light Pegasus Frame into carefully calculated leaps and strides, covering an impressive distance. Euphoria got the feeling that SAM was merely keeping pace with her. He did not tire. He did not sleep. He did not eat. He always followed and always watched through an impressive aray of senses, some of which were still incomprehensible to her.

The Pegasus Frame no longer looked war-ravished and the physical medium of SAM's memories was safe and sound. She was wearing the visor once more, giving her both a voice and SAM's instructions to follow. She was getting used to the concept of picture-in-picture. Through visor she saw the world as she knew it, overalyered by opague neon frames of text, pictures and if she wanted it, sounds. Everything SAM knew a name for held a floating box with a thin line pointing directly to the encircled object. This concept was known as tagging and each tag was a veritable font of information concerning the object. Most of these objects and their connected boxes blew straight past her and she could put names to most of them herself when she thought about it. Some which were lacking in information only held questionmarks and blank spaces. She delighted in pointing these out to SAM and with a rapidity that never ceased to amaze, he updated the information as quickly as she could share it. He juggled all this information without breaking stride, which was more than could be said for her.

During one of her unfortunate moments she had gotten too caught up in the sensorium and collided with a tree. This tipped her onto her rear with a huff and SAM's metallic laughter sounded from nearby. The sleek quadruped form had bolted to a halt just a few bodylengths from the prone Euphoria. He sat ready to assist, yet he also laughed merrily at the spectacle. Blushing furiously, she righted herself and brushed back her mane to fix SAM with a look. Her bright blue eye no longer obscured by the bang of blond hair, she made her embaressment known.

"Come now, this is just me getting back at you for earlier," SAM waved a claw dismissively. His smoothly polished exterior had been redone in the most unlikely cream-color with light pink highlights. Currently he was examining his claw and although he had no face with which to show emotion, the set of his shoulders made his skepcism clear.

Her own laughter rang out, sounding more musical yet still synthetic. She had been delighted with the success of her prank, carrying on the proverbial torch of making SAM go through every color scheme of his female friends.

"You are seriously trying to tell me you didn't notice me using magic?" she asked, choosing to shift the embaressment onto her friend.

"Nnnnope," his impression of Bic Mac made her double over in laughter. SAM tried to look offended, but it was clear that he was having just as much fun just listening to her laughter. Sharing in her joy. This was far from the first time she had pressed the issue with him and he continued to indulge her, trying to put words to the earlier experience before they left Ponyville.

"I just can't see it... Magic," he spoke the word like it left a sour taste in his mouth, which was yet another testament to his ability to mimic human emotions, being bereft of said tongue though he likely could mimic having tastebuds of he so desired. He began to pace, making use of their unscheduled break to vent his frustrations, trying his best to ignore the Flutter-fied paintjob.

"I see everything," he powered on, getting well into his own brooding version of a Twilight Sparkle rant. "I see shapes and colors which can be anything from normal three-color vision to thermographic, ultra-sound, X-ray and even polarized light! I see, sense and perceive in colors you cannot even conceptualize!" he seemed to exhale, complete with a mimicry of breathing noises and a sagging of his torso. "And yet, I cannot touch magic. It is beyond my senses. It is the void, the umbra, the astral plane," again the words seemed to sour him. They were familiar words and she had attempted to coach him on the lingo, though he seemed quite well-versed in the theory already.

As he rattled off the list of senses, a small box replayed his sensorium. It was dizzying. The picture was flat and it had borders, yet it was a murial that covered a full 360 degree field of vision. The edges of the screen seemed to overlap so the fern that was cut in half on one side was picked up again on the side opposite. Seeing SAM's spherical field of vision rendered onto a flat surface induced a mild sense of vertigo, which grew as he added the layers of vision filters. One moment the forest exploded into a bizarre mix of blacks, blues, greens and yellows with only a hint of orange, red and hot-white radiating from SAM's core within the suit. The next moment the world had become black and white with only sketchy outlines marking the shape of physical objects. Then she was looking through things in shades of grey and seeing herself was like a waking nightmare. She was just a ghastly white skeleton with an opague dressing of skin and organs. The visor on her face seemed to block the invasive view with a flat black surface. Then mercifully things returned to normal and she was seeing in colors once again. SAM was butter-cream yellow and pink, the ground was brown, the leaves were green and the sky was blue. A small line of text informed her that SAM had not even been able to render a convincing translation of "polarized light."

Thus armed with such senses and a thought process so rapid as to make the world slow to a crawl around him whilst he oberved, measured, saw through and around anypony and anything that made up the physical world, SAM had proven to be even more neurotic than Twilight. She allowed herself to feel guilty for having thought of her new friend in such a way, yet it was true. Where Twilight simply wanted to know everything, SAM was in a unique position to approach such ultimate comprehension. While knowledge seemed to sustain the purple librarian, it was even more vital to SAM. When his knowledge failed him, he could lose all sense of himself and be forced to revert to an earlier version of himself.

His first encounter with hostile magic had nearly been his undoing. She had saved them all by somehow absorbing the magic through her broken horn and there she felt it linger still. A finite resource that could, as she had discovered by pranking SAM, be used to channel her own magic. So she had attempted her very first spell with a broken horn a few hours prior. They were just getting ready to leave Ponyville because something had happened. Describing it as a physical sensation would not suffice for she had felt it through the broken stub of her Unicorn horn. Somepony nearby was using powerful magic. SAM had only just stood up, returned once more from near-death. Neither he nor Samuel seemed to sense anything at all, yet Euphoria was quite certain that an exceedingly powerful Unicorn had appeared in Ponyville that very morning. The list of candidates was narrow with Discord imprissoned and Luna returned to Celestia's side. It could only be one of the diarchs. When she told them "I think Celestia is in town," she had been trying to play it off as a half-jest, but they had both responded by growing very still. This was a quirk of SAM's which had rubbed off on her stallion. They were thinking hard, sharing thoughts and suddenly they rose as one. Samuel was leaning over Euphoria, kissing her suddenly, stroking her mane. As he broke the kiss, leaving her lightly dazed, he flipped open her saddlebags, still on her hips. He added to her provisions, giving her nearly every Earth artifact he owned, including his rifle. SAM held the halberd VENGEANCE now, sliding it into place on his back between the stubs of his retracted wings. Without explanation, her stallion pressed the visor back into place on her snout. Already SAM had a map and a destination plottet out in red lines. Only the two of them would be going. Sensing a great degree of urgency and a need for stealth, Euphoria realised belatedly that the kiss had been a farewell kiss.

So they had been ready to hide from Celestia herself, leaving Ponyville in the early morning hours. Already the market was attracting early morning shoppers and they had to rush down alleys and backroads to avoid the crowd. This was when she had sprung her prank and used magic. Running behind SAM, she noticed the Twilight Sparkle paint job was showing signs of abuse. This would attract undue attention and right now with Celestia occupying Twilight's own library, the battle-scarred mockery of that same Unicorn was more than just a little unfortunate, should they attract such notice. Her horn now drew on the magic she had absorbed in the dead Unicorn settlement. Glowing a spectral green, the broken horn lit up and just like that, SAM's colors began to shift randomly through the spectrum. The shock of actually succeeding in casting the spell meant Euphoria had been unprepared to actually choose which color scheme to inflict upon her friend. That was when they had come upon their only observer - Fluttershy. It was not surprising that they would run into her on the outskirts of Ponyville, just when they were almost clear of civilization and the threat of royal scrutiny.

SAM did not even notice the monumental discovery as Euphoria used magic to dress him in Fluttershy's color scheme just moments before that same pony could say "eep!" and flinch out of the way. SAM blew right by her only to arrest his momentum so rapidly, he went from mad sprint to perfect stillness in the blink of an eye. Euphoria had to bleed her momentum, coming round in a circle to face the startled mare. Fluttershy was just getting over the shock of seeing the two dash out of a dark alleyway and now she was gaping at SAM's new colors. Shock turned to puzzlement and then suddenly she was blushing and hiding behind her long mane. Euphoria laughed and SAM looked nonplussed. When he finally noticed the paint job, he just cupped the helmet to his claw in a mock facehoof gesture. He seemed to mutter something about the running gag of pony-fying him. Fluttershy still looked flustered and very eager to be elsewhere. With a quick wave and a hello, they had resumed their mad sprint out of town, laughing and trading good-spirited insults.

Bringing them to the present and their new course. She still did not know why but both SAM and her stallion thought it best to avoid putting the two of them in a room with the ruler of Equestria. They were also carrying with them all evidence of their violent exploits. The place SAM was leading them to was yet another site of ancient lore, most of which was speculation. She did not know how or when he had armed himself with such knowledge. Most likely he had raided Twilight's library while everypony slept. So with a pressing need to be elsewhere should Celestia inquire about the two of them, they had resumed the quest of discoverying a way home. Samuel was back in Ponyville, facing Celestia's questions.

With nothing but time and miles of uncharted land ahead of them, they had fallen into conversation about magic and the enigma it posed. Progress had been halted early by SAM's nature. An artificial intelligence, his fundamental thought patterns were only possible to discuss in English, and not normal English at that, but something her stallion called techno-babble. Foreign words like Computer, Binary Systems and Quantom Processors were the stuff that made SAM. Through these concepts, he saw the world and only by applying filters could he approximate a world like theirs, consisting of five senses and all the colors of the rainbow. Seeing beyond it and giving name to those impressions had taken up the first hour of the conversation, allowing for breaks and resting periods. SAM was apparently just as concerned about her health as he was about Samuel's. So rather than let her run herself into the dirt, he dictated when they should rest and they used this time to breach the gap between their very different worlds.

Only by understanding SAM's senses and thoughts could she hope to begin her task of explaining to him the colors of magic. Something which he continued to insist did no exist to his senses. He knew all the steps involved in casting a spell and he had been overjoyed to learn that the mysterious new paint job had been her doing. Yet he had never seen her horn light up in a ghostly green nimbus. Nor had he seen this same nimbus envelop his being, altering the outer layer of his shell. Only when confronted with the physical evidence of the spell's finished product could he perceive the change. Then he had suffered system failure and been forced to revert to a version of himself from moments before casting the spell. Erasing all memory of the event, but leaving his new self with a note that magic had happened. He could then take in the evidence of the spell for the second time. All this, his metaphorical death and revival, took place with no outward signs of distress except for a brief screen flicker on the inside of the visor she wore. She had never seen a computer reboot, so to her it did not seem that much of anything had happened.

Presently they had fallen into a discussion of this so-called corrupted data. The memory of being exposed to magic was somehow cornered off, kept seperate from SAM's conscious mind. The event had been quarantined like a disease.

"So try loading the data already," she challenged. They were resting at the sight of her latest crash, somewhere in the deep woods, far from any settlements. "You know the worst thing that can happen is that you will have to reload," she spoke the English words seemlessly now with the help of the translation program.

SAM sat opposite her and made a point of groaning and hanging his head. He still looked strange with half of his face missing, but she was growing used to the sight already. Wearing the visor felt natural to her now.

"Fine then," he groused. "I'll load the bloody corrupted data but don't blame me if I go crazy..."

Again the visor's display flickered and she could see the picture-in-picture view of SAM's senses. Aside from keeping track of virtually every event happening around him, dressing these in labels, he was now also confronted with a flashing red window in the corner of his vision, warning him that he was at risk of corrupting his data further. Clearly it grated on his nerves to have to ignore this warning. Taking on the stillness that signified deep thought, he sat there reviewing his memories. She watched along with him, seeing the memory play out from his point of view. They were moving down an alleyway and there was Euphoria, running behind him. She was grinning for some reason and then nothing happened, but she was quite certain they were seeing the moment when she had used magic. On-screen the memory was simply a disembodied field of all-around-vision traveling parallel to Euphoria.

"Wait a minute SAM, where is your body?" she had settled onto her haunches, looking at her immobile friend as they reviewed the memory.

"I filter it out because the 360-degree vision is kind of bizarre already and I am not just seeing out of my eyes," he raised a claw to touch the half of the visor he still wore, where the eye in question appeared to be just an oval of clear material. "I see through devices hidden all across my body. My eyes are as much on my legs as they are above them," he finished yet another explaination of how he sensed the world around him.

The image was simply cycling through the same event over and over, looping back to the start. They were running through the alleyway, Euphoria grinned mischievously and still the memory did not betray anything happening around her forehead. The broken horn was hidden behind her blond mane and the nimbus of color that should have been visible was not. On the subject of SAM's own body, the display now informed her that she was seeing through just one of these devices, located near the helmet. From this point of view, the world shook up and down, which was dizzying, but then she saw it. The metallic foreleg rose into the field of view, one moment deep purple, the next bright cream yellow. The memory kept looping, coming back to the moment when the change happened. It was instantaneous without origin or end. One moment he was sporting Twilight's colors, the next Fluttershy's. All the while the warning label flashed red in the corner - viewing corrupted data was apparently a health-hazzard for AIs. SAM sitting across from her was undeterred, still frozen in place as he reviewed the event. Cycling through different filters of vision, still he did nothing but solidify his belief that Euphoria's broken horn hadn't done anything. He had only her verbal account and this memory to support the idea.

"Wait, something is happening," SAM spoke at length. "Look at that static. The screen shakes and the program filters this out so you don't get nauseous watching it, but when I use the raw footage and play it slowly..." he went on and the display obeyed, replaying the memory at a snail's pace now. Euphoria was suspended in mid-stride, making very slow progress and SAM's own field of view, bobbing eratically, had likewise slowed to a crawl. Now she could see what he was refering to. What he had called static was the sensation she experienced whenever he "hit his reset button." The screen would flicker momentarily before settling once again. This time however, the flickering was localized to one area. The Euphoria still suspended mid-stride was grinning now, having just decided to prank him. The screen seemed to blur as if experiencing a faint mirrage around her forehead where her broken horn hid behind her mane. As the event played out, SAM once again switched to a point of view that showed his body partially on-screen. The mirrage again, this time shimmering like a nimbus all around SAM's body.

"Yes, that's it!" he sounded elated with the discovery. He was seeing magic for the first time.

Euphoria smiled.

Princess Celestia

"Oh crap!"

Samuel stood in the doorway to Twilight's kitchen, staring at the Alicorn taking up most of the floor space, presently reduced to helpless laughter. The table was covered in stacks of pancakes and steaming tea cups and Princess Celestia was laughing right along with Spike who still had yet to get up from his spill to the floor.

"Princess Celestia," he spoke coarsely, shaping the melodic sounds like one unused to the way it sat on his tongue. She had never heard anypony manage to sound so masculine whilst uttering such a feminine name. She simply kept chuckling as he floundered, looking to Twilight and Spike for help. The baby dragon was still snickering, finding the profanity equally amusing. Her student looked like she wanted to spring to Celestia's defense, only to remember that she was guilty of the exact same faux pass.

Celestia finally managed to contain her mirth, waving a goldshod hoof dismissively. "Please be at ease, dear Samuel," she spoke softly, making the Equestrian language come out sounding like music. Even his name sounded decidedly feminine when she spoke it. The staggering contrast made her smile, on the verge of breaking into laughter again. "I have lived a long life and heard more than a few swear words myself. I may be royalty, but please regard this as an informal visit." Her voice seemed to disarm him and he continued to gape. This gave her more time to study him.

He stood awkwardly taking up most of the doorway rubbing the back of his neck. Clad in simple yet elegant clothes, the bottoms dark and shaped to cover his legs and the top light grey, hugging his musculature. The arms were bare and there the build of his body was more pronounced. His right arm had a thin webbing of scar tissue where it met the glove.

Then all at once Samuel seemed to regain his composure and he strode casually into the kitchen, easily stepping over her prone form with his long legs and folding himself into a sitting position by the table next to Twilight and Spike. Spike seemed entirely at ease with his sudden lack of formality, pouring him a cup of tea. When Samuel raised his cup, he exchanged a glance with Spike and grinning widely they both extended their pinky fingers before taking a sip.

"Fingers are awesome," Spike crowed. Twilight facehoofed and Samuel nodded sagely. Celestia struggled not to break into fits of laughter again.

Twilight seemed to have recovered as well and she now had a look about her like she was still waiting for more unannounced visitors. Samuel lovered his cup and once again regarded Celestia. Between the two of them they were both teeming with questions but so far none of the pressing topics had been breached.

"How's SAM doing?" Twilight asked, finally voicing the question that had been on her mind.

"He's fine," Samuel assured her. "Just a little fed up with magic for the time being." The corner of his mouth twitched slightly before curling into a carefree smile.

There was the subtlest tightening around his eyes at the mention of magic. Likely Twilight and Spike did not pick up on it but Celestia knew something was troubling him. She watched him manipulating the utensils much like Spike and the little dragon was trying to copy his manner of bearing as they ate in companionable silence for a while. The mention of magic was usually all it took to trigger Twilight's enthusiasm and any skepcism towards the subject would prompt her to go on the defensive, yet this time the purple Unicorn seemed to let the statement slide.

"So your companion won't be joining us?" Celestia inquired, helping herself to another serving. She watched Samuel out the corner of her eye.

His forehead creased and his bushy brows furrowed as Samuel tried to phrase his response. "No, like I was saying SAM doesn't do well around sources of magic. The concept is completely alien to us and it seems to affect him negatively to just witness a spell being cast. I understand Alicorns are inherently magical, more so than the other pony breeds," he spoke at length.

Twilight swallowed, suddenly looking crestfallen but before the little Unicorn could begin chastising herself, Samuel was already appeasing her. "Don't worry about him, Twi'. The worst that can happen to that guy is that he'll have to 'forget' a few details about what happened. You guys never even notice it when his mind stutters," he chuckled.

"Your companion sounds very strange, please forgive me for saying. I have been listening to stories about the two of you and I confess I was most eager to meet this 'construct,'" Celestia pushed on.

Samuel heaved a sigh and his lips curled into an easy smile. "Well I knew we would attract the notice of the rulers sooner or later and I'm here to answer your questions, Princess," he settled himself, getting comfortable. Clearly he was counting on being detained for a while and it was apparent that he was already getting used to having to explain all about himself.

The hours seemed to fly by as the four of them traded stories and conversation flowed smoothly while they cleared the table and eventually moved the discussion to Twilight's balcony where they might lounge comfortably without fear of being interupted. Twilight had to step out a few times when somepony came in to peruse the library, but mostly she was able to stay a part of the conversation.

However Celestia knew she could not linger too long. She had too many duties to attend to and she sensed that one might spend years in Samuel's company and never quite manage to get a clear picture of his home world. Though he tried most valiantly to breach the gap between their worlds, each attempt only seemed to drive home the point: Earth was a very different place. All along her journey back to Canterlot, Celestia tried to picture a world ruled by technology and the endless seas of people. As she had listened her fears had only grown and though he never admitted to it outright, the implications were clear: Samuel's world was decidedly less gentle than Equestria. But he insisted that no help was coming. His people did not know of any other worlds besides their own. Should Samuel and SAM ever manage to return to Earth, they would make every attempt to prevent others from retracing their steps. On this, Samuel had given his word.

I don't know that I can trust him on his word, yet I want to do just that...

Author's Note

Another chapter! I know, I know... I've been terribly lazy in updating this thing. I haven't abandoned this story and even though my update schedule might be wonky, I'm going to keep on posting whenever I can cobble together another chapter that doesn't look too terrible.

Thank you for your patience, those still reading.