Chapters In Another Life I: Week One
Two pebbles gently tapped against the window. After a few seconds, two more pebbles followed. Finally, a rock was sent crashing threw, shattering the small old thing.
Twilight quickly jerked awake at the sound. Peering out her window, she saw all her friends right outside the house.
She tiptoed around the sleeping Spike and slowly crept down to the ground floor. Grabbing her saddle bag off the side hook, she gently shut the front door and jogged over to her friends.
"Seriously you guys, the window was-"
All five of Twilight's friends hushed her in unison. This was an important night, a night that could not and would not be ruined by some egg-head.
Gesturing to her friends, Applejack began to gallop toward Sweet Apple Acres. The rest followed right behind her.
When they got close enough to the farm, Applejack veered off along a less beaten path and into the orchard. After some time, Applejack skidded to a halt. Turning to her friends, she spoke.
"Alright y'all, this is where most of them apples have been disappearing. I reckon we handle this exactly as we planned."
AJ pulled from her saddle bag a large rolled up map of Sweet Apple Acres. She unfolded it onto the ground.
“So, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash circle around the sky and try to cover anything we miss while we search. The rest of us will split into groups of two. So ummm...I'll go with Twilight and Pinkie and Rarity can be a team. Any questions?
"Not a one!" chirped Pinkie.
"Then let's move out everypony!"
With Applejack's word, the group dispersed into their groups, and for the next few pre-dawn hours, searched the entire highlighted area of the farm.
The section they were in was on the northwest corner of the property. It was a very destitute part of the land, close to the Everfree Forest, frequented by coyotes and overgrown with weeds. Under such conditions, only rigid sour apples grew, not even the squirrels would eat them.
While walking through mazes of trees, Twilight couldn't help but ask Applejack some questions.
"Applejack, why exactly do you think some pony is stealing your apples? Couldn't it be any old squirrel or bird eating them?"
Applejack continued to walk while she responded.
"You ain’t seen some of the stuff here. Smashed apples, burnt apples, apple skins are all lyn' about. It's got to be the work of some pony!"
"Then why look for this mystery pony at night? They would be easier to find in the day.”
"Becaaaaause sugar-cube, that's when it all happens! Nothin' at sunset but a sunrise, the place is a pig-sti!"
Twilight shook her head in disbelief. “But this doesn’t add up, what about the-?"
Twilight was interrupted by Rainbow Dash yelling in the distance. Without a delay, Applejack ran in Dash's direction. Twilight followed in suit.
The shadows and trees rushed past AJ as she sprinted. She could here Dash's voice getting closer. The intruder was somewhere nearby, she could just feel it.
Applejack came to the edge of a creek. She was just at the rim of the farm, right next to the Everfree Forest. Hearing something below her, she slid down the muddy slope, into the creek.
It was dark and quiet, but she could still feel and hear the soft water running through the rocks and small patches of dirt islands. It was just the water she had heard, a red herring, but still…something was nearby.
She continued to listen for the noise; it was close, getting closer, a rustling, heavy breath, cracking of twigs, more breath, and a silent curse. Applejack looked up.
A hooded pony stood at the top the slope into the creek. It waited there for a second, looked to its right, looked to its left, looked to the sky, then quickly dropped down. The pony landed with a tiny splash of water over its hooves then slithered over to a nearby rock and sat down.
Catching its breath, it pulled something out of its pocket and began to drink greedily a bottle of something. Done, the pony tossed the bottle back into its pocket, it continued to breathe heavily and rest.
Minutes went by and it didn't see Applejack.
Silently, she tossed open her saddlebag and pulled out a flash light. Steadying the heavy metal tube, she pointed just in the pony’s direction. She flipped it on.
The beam startled the figure and they took off galloping, water madly splashing underneath their hooves. Applejack went right after it, determined as ever. She held her flashlight as steady as she could in her mouth, while yelling to her friends:
"The varmint’s right here! I got'em!"
The pony weaved and ducked through the creek as best as they could but there was no shaking an apple-bucking earth-pony!
AJ was closing in. Just a few inches more and she'd tackle the vandal.
She could see a large cliff was approaching. It was drop off, leading straight down into the Everfree Forest.
Applejack could see what the pony was going for and she wasn't going to follow. As the pony ran up the cliff, Applejack screeched to a stop.
Taking a running leap, the vandal thrashed its legs madly in the air, then plunged down into the black abyss. There was no way to see through the tangle of vines and massive trees. The mystery pony was gone.
The Mane 6 regrouped at the orchard gates. The sun was just peaking over the mountains as dawn began to shine on all of Ponyville. Applejack was covered in mud and leaves as she met back with her friends, but she didn't let that bruise her spirits.
"YEHAH! I think we've seen the last of that pest! No more apple destruction for us, no sir!"
"But darling" cooed Rarity, "You did not catch the perpetrator, only scared them away. If one would be so determined, they would simply try again."
"Rarity you didn't see. That varmint took a fall all the way down to the Everfree Forest! If that didn't hurt em' it would at least scare em', no pony would ever try somethin’ so foolish and not learn from it.”
Applejack turned to all of her friends.
"Thank you all for helpin' with this little crisis. It sure was mighty sacrificen' for y'all to come here in the dark of night. Now *yarn* I think I'll hit the hay. I reckon y’all should do the same. See y'all tommorow!
And with that, the ponies went their separate ways, back to their homes to get some proper sleep.
In Another Life I: Week One
Day One
For the next few days, all was well. The harvest of tough tart Taloopa apples was going splendidly with Applejack. Rarity’s new line of duct tape dresses and suits were making a smash with adolescent ponies and their school proms. Pinkie’s daily party seminars at the community center had moved from an attendance of three ponies to seven and a half ponies. Rainbow Dash was still attempting the near impossible challenge of balancing a spoon on her nose. And Fluttershy was looking into the possibility of having mind control on account of her stare becoming more powerful by the day
Every pony continued on with the normal activities as always, except Twilight.
Since being told by Applejack of the disturbances, she could feel that something was off. It didn’t feel right, she didn’t know why and she didn’t know how, but the entire thing bothered her for some reason.
She had no idea what it was, but her gut told it was something important. Relying on bare instincts and intuition was totally not her style, but right then and now it felt necessary She knew something was up, she just couldn’t figure out what it was.
One foggy morning, Twilight decided to ease her tensions by going to the one place that could, the book store. The lemon scented air and cool rush of fresh pulped paper would hopefully calm her nerves.
The large store bell dinged as she pushed the railed door open with her head. She surveyed the room, as was her tradition, and found a comfortable area on the ground to lay out camp.
She set her saddle bag down with her books from home and briskly went off through the store to look for others. She browsed through the sections that interested her (mainly realistic fiction and fantasy) but found nothing new to her. The shipments must be delayed.
As she began to make her way back to the comfortable patch of carpet she had claimed for herself, an overweight employee, carrying a large box of books, bumped into her, spilling some of the contents.
Uttering a quick “sorry”, she began to pick up the spilled literature, strewn across the floor. She tossed all of them back into the employee’s box, one by one, until none remained on the floor.
“Thank you ma’am!” said the overweight pony. “That was very kind of you, pickin’ up all that stuff. Hey! In fact…” The employee quickly snatched into the box and pulled out a black and yellow hardback. “Here take this, for helping me out. Most of these are on clearance, I’m sure my manager won’t mind.”
Thanking Twilight once again, the employee handed it to her, and then quickly shuffled off back to work.
Shrugging her shoulders, she trotted back to her set up and sat down. Placing the stiff free book onto the floor, she began to examine it.
The front was mostly a large yellow smiley face in a black background. A single drop of blood was splattered on one of the eyes of the face, creating a major contrast between the two images. The title of the book was placed vertically on the side: Vigilantes.
“Ugh!” she grunted, sliding the book to her side in distaste. This was one of those, “graphic novels”. A really long comic book with childish drawings that took itself too seriously and almost was always about super-heroes. It was stuff like this that made her sick.
A cheap story can’t call itself a novel, especially when it’s just a bunch of stupid drawings involving goof-balls dressing up in Nightmare Night costumes.
Twilight shoved the “graphic novel” back into her saddle bag and pulled out a real book. Holding it at her eye level with her swirling pink aura of magic, she began to read.
_______________________________________________________________________
When she got outside a few hours later, the weather hadn’t much improved. The fog had evolved into a peppering rain and the slight morning chill had turned into large gusts of wind. The sun had gone down hours ago and most ponies where off the streets.
Stray leaves and paper where whizzing through the air while consistent specks of rain pounded against the ground. Large puddles where forming along the street sides, sending trails of muddy water across entire roads.
Twilight had to run home, even then she would still get soaked.
She galloped as fast as she could, through the town center, past the small shops, down the small dirt path, straight to her tree house of a home. The veil of rain felt like biting bats, stinging her as she sprinted as fast as she could. Her eyes were squinted shut as she dashed the last distance home.
About halfway down the road, just five hundred yards from her house, Twilight came across a pony in distress.
The pony was slumped down in the mud, their body in a puddle, completely motionless. This looked bad, real bad. No movement could be seen from the pony and they were undeterred by the storm raging around them. She called out to the stranger, hoping they’d yell back. No response. She called out again. Nothing.
Running closer, she arched down and swooped the pony onto her back. Sprinting the last distance home, she blasted through the front door. She had no time to wipe her hoofs or close the door, somepony needed help!
She gently laid the body onto one of the library benches and jumped back in horror.
She had heard about these moments in certain ponies lives before, the firsthand discovery of these animals had only been experienced by a select few, and now Twilight was one of them. She had seen pictures and read stories about the rare creature that was lying in her library. Not specifically about him, but about others of his kind, the silly looking travelers to Equstria.
She gasped in delight after looking at the peculiar creature a second time. A rare animal had just walked into her house (sort of) and now she got to study it first hoof! A chance like this, was a once in a lifetime opportunity, maybe even more! Containing her overwhelming giddiness, she began to inspect her guest.
It had all the features she had read about. Two legs, two arms, small nose, ears on the side of the head, strange apparatuses on the ends of both arms, and a small mane on the top of the head.
She took note of other unique qualities of this human, as compared to the other humans from Equstria’s past. This one had a large nose, fair skin, red blemishes on its forehead, and a cleft chin with a mole on it. It was of average height to most other humans, so still shorter then most ponies.
Of all the thoughts pacing through her mind, she started to think about the most important question, what should she do from here? Should she notify Princess Celestia of its arrival? Should she ask it a few questions? Should she just leave it there? What should she tell the ponies of Ponyville? Would he (it looked like a he) want to even stay in Ponyville?
The possibilities of the situation were endless for her and that made it even more spectacular! She started to spring up and down to let out some of her energy (which was overflowing at this point). Squealing, she hopped towards the ceiling, imitating Pinkie’s distinct style of moving around. But when she was halfway up, she froze in the air. She noticed something…off about the human.
Its right leg was positioned into a very unusual angle, like a crooked tree branch. Its brown trousers were greatly torn by the knees, with red stains dripped onto the sides. Faded yellow bandages were wrapped around many different parts of the leg, crudely applied, but still there.
The happy attitude had just changed. A sick and slimy feeling rolled into her stomach. A roll of sweat went down her face; a painful realization was coming into her mind.
The human’s body was badly mutilated. It hadn’t moved at all since she had brought it in, its breath was slow and unsteady, and she didn’t even want to feel its pulse.
Panic tapped at her slightly, then hit her like a twisted steel locomotive.
She had to act fast! There was no telling the extent of the creature’s injuries!
Darting into the upstairs bathroom, she pulled out everything from the medicine cabinet. Dashing back into the main area, her arms were bursting full of medical supplies.
She uncapped some disinfectant and poured the entire bottle onto the most bloodied areas and rubbed the clear liquid onto the largest wounds with a washcloth. Using her horn's magic, she gingerly removed the rotten bandages from the human's foot and then reapplied clean ones from the foot to the knee. A cut up leg was bad, but gangrene would be even worse!
The next part would be the most difficult. Breathing in deeply, she focused her magic onto the misshapen joint on the human’s leg. She held it there for a second, preparing, allowing the magic to focus into a single stretch of the human’s body.
With a single jolt of energy, she snapped the bone right back into place. A revolting POP was heard followed by silence. The human did not stir, not even a little.
Twilight was mortified at this and sprung her hoof forward to feel a pulse. Fitting her sharp hoof under his chin, she felt. A steady bump could be sensed, followed by another one and another one. The human was alive, thank Celestia!
Looking over her work, Twilight felt a swell of pride in herself. She had just saved a life and had done it all alone. Today was defiantly a productive one.
Once her adrenaline stopped pumping, she began to look over her work. She had just saved a life of a creature whose anatomy was entirely different from a ponies’ and not fully studied, working off guesswork, instincts, and a weekend’s course in first aid while staving off fear that her patient could have already flat lined. She had to hand it to herself, she was pretty good.
With some element of calm returning, she got back to thinking her situation over.
"How the hay had I not known about this?" said Twilight to no one in particular.
"Read about these kinds of things for years and well BAM there it is! I didn't even get to ask it anything. What's your name? Where are you from? Do you know the last human that was here? What do you like to do? Do you ever fall down? How are having two legs? Do you know about PRS? What about...”
Twilight continued talking to Twilight, trying to get some answers out of the tricky Twilight. But Twilight stopped talking to Twilight when the human finally made a noise.
“Ughhhhh” it grunted through its sleep, possibly realizing amazingly painful leg surgery it had just gone through.
Twilight again jumped back in horror, but this time yelping. She needed to get used to extra-dimensional visits from absolute strangers.
Pushing the bench (with the human on it) into the library level bathroom, she locked the door with a shiny yellow key and tied the window shut with a thick rope.
A fear of hers was the human walking out in the middle of the night, unaware of what was going on. Its ignorance to Equstria could possibly cause embarrassment and humiliation to itself over not knowing how the world worked. Either way, she didn't want that for him. She promised that she would do her best to prevent any form of discord while the human was in her care, partially out of anxiety and partially out of obligation.
Walking up the stairs she realized that through this entire ordeal, Spike hadn't woken up. Must be in another 'lost in a diamond mine' dream again, she thought.
Once lying down, Twilight hadn't realized how tired she was until everything turned black, and she heard herself snoring.
In Another Life I: Week One
He Lives
The human awoke with a large beam of sunlight hitting its face. The heat sizzling, it rolled out of the sun’s reach and slowly sat up on the hard wooden bench. He groggily looked around, not thinking much about his surroundings.
As he began to get up, the door hook conked him on the back of the head and set him tripping over his cloak. He fell backwards, nicked his head a the door handle, and crumpled down into a pile of pain on the cool small tiles. Today was off to a bad start.
The human grudgingly stood up and brushed itself off. With the weight on its legs, he felt the all too familiar moan in his right leg. “Ahhh!” he silently yelled, sitting back onto the bench.
Walking wouldn’t be an option for awhile. He’d have to perfect his crawling and limping abilities for the time being.
He began to lightly caress his hurt leg, and while dong so, noticed something…different about it. Perhaps it was the absent of blood stains, or maybe the bandages not being torn, or even the burning sensation no longer in his joints. His leg felt…better, and he hadn’t done a thing to it.
Well that was odd, he thought to himself. If I didn’t fix, who did? Had I done it absent mindedly, when I was thinking of something else? No that couldn’t be it, I never did sleep walk.
The options didn’t seem likely, which didn’t bother him much. The confusing overcast of waking up was still on his brain, preventing any deep thinking from actually being productive.
Willing to wait for his higher brain functions to return, he decided to sit on the nice oak seat for awhile.
It was perhaps five minutes in that he could think clearly again, and with that, he started to assess his situation.
From looking around…wherever he was, he could easily tell that he was no longer in the forest. Ok, ok, nice, nice. No more scary dark muddy nights. That was definitely an improvement.
He could also tell that wherever he was, he liked it.
A nice contemporary bathroom surrounded him with homely flowered wallpaper and neat vanilla tiles. That fact that it wasn’t covered in grime was an outstanding achievement in itself. But being stylish too? That put the icing on the cake.
Closely peering around the small room, he spotted a large wooden door.
Curiosity being curiosity, he was suddenly filled with an interest in getting closer to the door. It looked it important, but he wouldn’t do anything harmful. Maybe just look at it for a little bit, touch the frame, and possibly turn the bright shiny knob. No harm in that, right?
Limping over to it, he instinctively tugged at the knob as soon as he got in proximity. Nothing. It was bolted and locked shut from the outside. He would need a wrecking ball to put a dent on that thing.
He looked around for anything else interesting. There was a nearby window at the end of the room.
Approaching it, he saw that it was latched close and tied down with a very big rope. He could feel his heart beating a little faster and his body becoming a bit more twitchy. It seemed like he was…trapped.
Trying the door’s knob once more, he yanked hard and harder on it, to the point of his fingers reddening and sweating. It was useless, it wouldn’t budge. He decided to start knocking on the door, maybe someone might hear him. After three seconds this knocking turned to pounding. And that pounding turned to shouting.
"H-H-Hello!" he called out, "I'm, s-stuck in the bathroom! Is a-a-anyone out there!?! Hello! C-Can anyone hear me!?! I need some help!”
On the other side of the door, a crash and then quick steps could be heard. Someone tried to turn the knob, but to no success. A female voice responded to his calls.
"Attention! I'll be getting you out in just a few- wait a second. SPIKE! Where are the lock keys!?! No the brass ones...golden. Next to...do they have a little leaves on it? Ok yes, that one!"
The voice moved its focus back onto him.
"I'll be opening the door in...just...a few...THERE! Got it!” A muffled click came from within in the door.
The voice got serious. “Now I want to be frank with you, do not by alarmed from what you see beyond this door. It may seem a bit odd, maybe even crazy. But I want you to know, that what you see is normal. You aren’t experiencing any sort of brain damage or hypnotism or mind control or anything of the sort. It’s all one hundred percent genuine, ok?”
“Ok” He muttered.
The voice took in a deep breath. “Alright…here goes.”
The door slowly swung open, the human gasped as his eyes became massive dinner plates. There was something standing in front of him, something he wasn’t particularly sure what it was. He quickly inspected its features.
It was a few inches taller then him, had a horn on its head, was purple, and had a massive patch of hair that was a technicolor mass of purple and pink. It resembled an equine creature, mostly its body shape and head. It resembled some kind of horse, at least parts of it, but the rest…jeez.
He had seen horses back in the Realm of Solitude, but this...this took the cake... and ate it…with a fork.
He didn’t exactly know how to react in a situation like this. He had never had good social skills mainly in part to him never meeting another intelligent creature before, if you didn’t count woodland creatures.
All of this…was weird. For the few seconds he remained conscious, his body told him he didn’t like what he was seeing. It was new and odd, uncomfortable to a creature of habit such as himself.
He was used to silence, silence that was normally broken up by sounds of nature or himself talking…but…wait a second. It occurred to him that the voice through the door had…talked…to him. This creature could speak…and it spoke his language.
This just opened something for him. He felt a spark of an emotion run through his body. He didn’t have time to tell what it was, but it was meaningful no less.
It made him want to say something to that creature and to hear it talk back to him. To engage in a…conversation in the first time since…ever! Was it…yes it was wonder, wonder is what he felt, wonder in realizing something new, something amazing!
He was about to open his mouth and say something to the horse and to hear the horse… say something back. But then his brain had other plans.
His vision became blurry. Objects and sounds started to float past him, like a rollercoaster in a tornado. The creature said something that he couldn't make out, it sounded far away and twisted. The world began to shift back and forth, losing its sense of balance. At this rate the world was going to trip.
Everything was spinning and he wanted it stop. He said something be he didn’t know what it was. He legs began to buckle and he knew what that meant. It was time for a fall!
In Another Life I: Week One
My Interview with Alistair
He lightly collapsed onto his bottom, right at the foot of the bench he had slept on. The pony backed away, jumping right into action.
"SPIKE!" it yelled, "WATER!"
A blurry mass of purple and green darted across the human's eyes into a spinning tunnel of orange. It came back with a shifting oval of something. The pony laid the glass of water at his feet.
The oval of water was in at least five different places at once. After grabbing at four of them, he grasped the real one and began to drink.
“Are you ok?” asked the pony, bending its head down to his level.
He didn’t respond, but continued to sit with his arms on his knees, staring at something.
Twilight called for another glass, and set it at his feet. He slowly downed the glass and thraped it against the floor, like a salt chugger in a saloon. She put another glass at his feet. He drank that one as well.
With some strength regained, he was able to scoot on his butt into the main library section. Twilight and Spike wordlessly parted a way for him.
Normally Twilight would have laughed at something this silly. A mute monkey-man sliding on his rear with a placid and serious expression on his face, it was one for the books. But Twilight knew that giggling at this moment would be the worst possible thing to do. Any fault in her interaction with the human could cause disaster for her, him, and Ponyville. First impressions were everything as she always knew.
He crawled onto a bench quietly and shifted down into lying position. He was in no mood to talk.
“Spike why don’t you go upstairs for a little bit”, whispered Twilight.
“But I wanna stay.” Whined Spike, indignant against letting the walking weekly news special be alone.
Twilight glared at him angrily and he immediately bolted upstairs in a whiz of wind.
With Spike gone, Twilight could give her guest some time to adjust to seeing a miniature dragon and a talking pony in the same room.
Quickly trotting upstairs, she decided to approach the human with her prepared questions later in the day. For now, she had to wait, awhile.
Her work table was surprisingly clean today, no doubt Spike’s handiness with a rag and soapy water. She quickly flipped through the books she had collected the night before at the book store.
Tossing each book she had read already, her list of reading was quickly narrowed down. All she was left was a single hard back book with a yellow smiley face and a red drop of blood on it.
It was now late afternoon, and Twilight was still waiting. The hours had passed quickly, thank Celestia, but the inactivity was killing. She had an extra-dimensional immigrant in her house, and she had spent most of her day, reading a comic book.
It disgusted her that such a wonderful and opportunistic day had been ruined by her own politeness at not being assertive with the human downstairs. She understood that small interactions like this were important, but her craving for an interview was killing her. She had to ask it something, soon!
The entire day had been thrown off by the human’s arrival the night before. A new schedule would have to be made to fit in her lost time of book keeping the books in the library, not to mention the façade repairs and dusting of the basement.
She sighed deeply and crossed her hooves in anguish. This was taking forever! Was she supposed to wait all night? Should she pull up a cot while she waited for the human to…
No, this had to stop. The time of waiting was over, it was time to get to work, sitting from the side lines was no longer an option, the world needed saving, the clock was about to run out, it was time for some action.
Twilight grabbed her notepad and pencil, and gingerly trotted down stairs. She was just at the second step when she was detected.
The human craned its neck around and stared at the descending Twilight. She smiled and quickly continued her way down the stairs at a quicker pace. He didn’t take his eyes of her.
She approached him as non-threatening as possible, keeping to the side of the wall but still moving diagonally towards him. She felt like the wolf and him the rabbit. He made no resisting gestures to her movement, only sat with his face looking at hers, breathing attentively from his mouth.
Twilight stopped a few yards away from him. Fearing any more dreadful silence, she nervously cleared her throat and spoke.
“Hello.” She cheerfully welcomed, covering up the uneasiness of the situation with charm. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, the owner of the library/tree house were both currently in!” She paused, clearing her throat once again. “What’s your name?”
His face lit up amazingly with Twilight’s addressing. This was his moment. History was about to be made. He was going to speak to something and it would speak back to him!
“Um, A-A-Alistair is my n-name.” He said, quickly finishing the last part of his sentence.
“Well, hello Alistair.” Responded Twilight respectively. “I am very pleased to make your acquaintance.” She extended her hoof in friendship.
He got up from his seat and slowly hobbled towards her, his left leg dragging his right behind him. The closer he got he could see that the pony was much taller then him, maybe by four to five inches. He felt uncomfortable getting this close to something this large, but he quickly pushed these feelings down as he extended his hand and met her hoof.
Her hoof was thick and solid, but alive with something, like a heated stone. He could slightly feel the fur near her hoof as he shook. It was very thin, assuredly not as thick as a bear, but still present.
He continued to shake her hoof, until he realized she had stopped shaking his hand. He bent his head down and moved his hand back into his pocket, all while stupidly smiling up at her.
He couldn’t tell for sure, but he assumed the pony did not like being so close to him, he assumed the same likewise. He stepped backwards and took his seat back on the one of the benches. She smiled brightly at him and sat down a few yards away from him, it looked like she had something planned.
“Now, Alistair, I want to ask you a few questions, basic ones, just to get a good summary of you. Is that ok?”
He nodded, still smiling like an idiot. He couldn’t help himself, he was the happiest he had been in years.
Twilight floated her notepad in front of her and quickly flipped through the pages.
“Alistair…do you know how to read?”
Although the context of the question did seem rude, she legitimately needed to know if he was literate. Any pony not knowing how to read would be an incredibly significant disadvantage to the rest of the world. She had read that the older you got the more difficult it became to read. So if his answer was “no” then lessons would needed to be started pronto.
“Y-Y-Yes, I c-c-can read very well i-i-in fact. A-Actually, I once r-read an m-m-memoir that was over ten th-thousand pages long. Sure, It t-took me a few days, b-b-but you would not believe the s-satisfaction I felt.”
Twilight bobbed her head in agreement and scribbled something down in her notebook. An obvious problem was already present with her guest.
Although she could understand what he said, the human’s stutter was already an unbearable impediment to his speech. It wasn’t the sound that was bothersome, but the time it took him to complete a sentence naturally got on her nerves. He sounded so slow a lumbering; she felt the impulse just to finish some of his sentences for him.
“Um…Alistair, may I ask you something?”
“S-Sure, I’d be h-h-happy to answer anything y-you ask. I h-haven’t had a c-c-conversation with anyone in f-f-forever!”
“Well thank you I’m very flattered but…are you ok? Your voice, how you say things, it sounds…off.”
The possible insult flew right over his head. He kept up his jovial and comfortable attitude as he answered.
“Oh, it just an s-s-stutter, m-most the time when I t-t-talk I can’t even t-tell I have it. B-B-But since I’m s-speaking with you in s-such long i-i-intervals, that’s n-noramally what causes it.”
“So you’re not nervous or anything?”
“Well…s-s-sort of. My s-s-stomach feels a bit a-achy and my ch-chest kinda hurts. B-But it’s not the kind of p-p-pain feeling, like w-when y-your hurt o-or something. I-I-It’s a pain o-out of fear.”
“Your pretty good at hiding it.” Remarked Twilight.
“Y-Yeah…I guess so.”
Twilight nodded and wrote down more notes into her book. She flipped away from the basics page of questions and moved into more important territories.
It had become mandatory for info on humans to be recorded when they arrived in Equstria. They where strange creatures with consistent inconsistencies in their lifestyles and ideals. To date, not a single human had ever come from the same place as another. Always, they would have come from a different plain of existence and would always have some fantastic story to tell.
“Where are you from, Alistair? Like a town or a city or something?”
“W-Well um…i-it’s a uh…p-p-place that k-kinda…l-looks like…here.” He said ‘here’ like a first grader would say an answer that they weren’t sure was correct but just decided to blurt it out.
“Can you describe it any better?”
He started scratch the back of his neck and tap his foot rapidly. “I-It like…r-r-re-resembles everything a-a-around here, y-ya know? Like…it has t-trees, flowers, rocks, b-b-b-blue sky. Even the a-animals k-k-kinda look…y-you know, th-the same.”
“Interesting” she said, while writing this down in her notes. “So, same animals, environment, climate, everything?”
“S-S-So far, y-yeah. W-W-Well…some little stuff but that d-doesn’t really matter much.”
She felt like it did. No way could an alternate dimension be similar to Equstria in that many ways, it wasn’t possible. She had looked at the assorted information of different dimensions, all compiled from human travelers, and none of them resembled Equstria.
They told stories of metallic super cities, pitch black caves, ruined warzones, mile-high forests, icy tundra’s and much much more. No way could the environment of one of these worlds be as mild and peaceful as Equstria, no way at all.
The human was more then likely lying. A falsity like that could never pass by any intelligent pony and not be questioned. And besides, if his world was so much like Equstria, why did he come here, why didn’t he just stay?
“What motivated you to come here, Alistair? Was something wrong at home, was it an accident, was it just an urge?”
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, his hands began to wring against each other. “W-W-Well, um…s-some stuff happened back home…b-b-bad stuff and I-I wasn’t e-exactly keen on s-staying, y-y-ya know?”
“What do you mean?”
“I-I mean, b-bad stuff can happen and eventually when things g-get bad enough s-s-some people…they just decide t-t-to…leave.”
“I’m sorry Alistair, but I don’t understand what you mean.”
He sighed, both out of nervousness and annoyance. “C-Can I please not finish this q-q-question? I r-really don’t l-l-like it.”
“That’s alright” she comforted “Completely fine, no problem.”
He smiled sincerely. “T-Thank you”
She smiled back and wrote down what she had just heard. So far head been resistant on the whys and hows of his actions, but maybe he might open up about himself. She’d have to take this slowly. Build up through smaller questions until reaching the ones that she wanted answered.
Twilight scrolled down her list of topics. She beamed at the sight of one of her favorite questions.
“What is your favorite book?” She asked, with a cheerful exalt.
He didn’t even have to think about the question. “Alistair’s Adventures!” he shouted, “No d-doubt about it! B-Best book ever written!”
Realizing his word choice, he quickly corrected himself. “B-But it’s not about me! I f-found it, a long t-time ago. And I have to say, you will never find a more p-pulse-pounding r-read then this! The settings and the stuff that he does are amazing! R-Really top notch! Here, I th-think I have it on me!”
He began to loudly search through the two pockets on the shaggy brown cloak he wore around his back and sides. It didn’t look like much, just a large brown piece of cloth draped over him with a hood on the top. Underneath the cloak, Twilight could partially see a crudely made green shirt and a ragged pair of pants on him.
“J-Just let me…it’s g-g-got to be…hold on a second.”
Alistair quickly pulled off the cloak, turned it upside down, and began to wildly shake it upside down. Only a ball of lint and a cork fell out.
“Rats” he defeatidly remarked “I r-really th-thought I had it in there.”
“What did the book look like? Could you have dropped it somewhere?” Asked Twilight, alarmed herself at the loss of a book.
“Na, i-it’s fine. I s-still remember p-parts of it.”
“Are you sure? We could go look for it.”
“It’s not w-w-worth the effort. A-And besides, I w-was wondering, what’s your favorite book?”
Stars twinkled across Twilight’s face. A question like that could never possibly be answered in a single sitting! The multitude of genres and timelines that books were published in could never be fully recorded as to what were her favorites. She had been thinking of compiling a list of her favorite books through all categories, but it seemed unlikely that she would ever be able to make up her mind about the top 100.
An idea popping into her head, she dashed upstairs into her room. She pulled from her nightstand a special leather lined book she had made with all five of her closest friends that summer. Whiffing in the lovely smell of the paper, she dashed back downstairs into the library.
She trotted over to Alistair, and held out the book with her horn’s magic. Slowly reaching forward, he snatched the floating literature item out of the pink aura and held the front close to his face. He didn’t seem surprised by the use of her magic but instead looked at the title. Memories: Version 2.0 Second Edit. The cover page had a large photograph of Twilight and all of her friends together in a large pile, smiling happily towards the camera.
“W-What’s this?” He asked, a bit confused.
“It’s my favorite book, just like you asked.”
He quickly brushed through the pages, chuck full of photographs. “But…it j-just has pictures, n-no words or anything.”
“Not every book has to have pictures, Alistair. Sometimes it could be an art book or a photo album, like the one you’re looking at.”
“Y-Yeah, but a think a b-book should always have…n-never mind.” He closed the book and placed it off to the side. “We still have an in-in-interview to get through.”
“Exactly!” Agreed Twilight, turning to another clean page of notes. “Now let’s see what we can…ah, here’s a good one.” She cleared her throat. “How old are you?”
He opened his mouth to say something then quickly shut it. The chipper expression was gone from his face replaced with one of intent study. His eyes moved around the room, looking for something to give him a clue, but he couldn’t find one. The gears were turning in his head but no idea energy was being made.
He looked down at his hands, inspecting them to tell him something, like an old man would. “Jeez…I d-d-don’t know. How old do I look?”
Twilight sputtered at this question. “Well…your face looks young; kind of like a foal or a teenager. Your voice sounds deep, sort of; no doubt you’ve gone through puberty or almost done with it, maybe a few more years, it least in pony standards.” She paused “Here let me get you a mirror.”
She trotted over to the bathroom and pulled out a small hoof mirror. Walking back over, she handed it to him.
Alistair quickly snatched the tiny piece of glass, and began to peer into it, looking for answers. He studied his facial features, his eyes, his nose, his cheeks.
“I c-can’t really tell” he said, putting down the mirror in defeat.
“But that’s just crazy. You have to have some record of yourself, maybe a birth certificate?”
“N-No, I don’t have one. I can’t really recall ever r-r-recording my age or having someone else tell me. I mean, it isn’t that big of a deal but-” He cut himself off. A waver of desperation was coming into his voice, but he was trying to stay calm.
Twilight reached over her hoof and placed it onto his shoulder. He didn’t flinch at the action (like she expected) but instead looked up at her, his eyes soft and hung-down.
“Alistair…we don’t have to answer anymore questions. Would you like that?”
He shook his head.
“Well then would you want to answer at least one more question, then we’d be done for today?”
He shook his head in agreement, and then sniffled a few times.
“Alright…I’m r-r-ready.”
“Ok. Do any of these names sound familiar to you: Wince Redbird, Ozymandias, Sember Co, Auric, Blaze, or Skip Stop?”
He shook his head “N-Nope, never heard of them. Sh-Should I know them?”
A look of disappointment went across her face. “No…you shouldn’t.” The balloon of chance had just been popped.
“W-What’s wrong?”
She signed “It’s just…I was hoping you’d know who the people are.”
“Why?”
“Well, they’re humans, like you.”
“There’s people that look like me?”
“Yes, of course. You sound surprised.”
He leaned back in his chair. “I am, well, j-just a little bit, but still…”
“You didn’t know there were others?”
“N-No, I didn’t, at least not till now.”
He didn’t seem particularly amazed at her reveal. She was expecting a gasp, or a faint, or a very loud “WHAT?” But instead he took the news pretty calmly, more so then she would have expected.
Alistair didn’t seem like a particularly high strung character, at least by appearances. But after seeing him faint and down a pitcher of water, she had the right to make assumptions on his reactions to things.
“Are th-there any…humans around where you live?” He asked, emphasizing the word ‘humans’ a great deal.
“No, not recently.”
“Did they die o-out? Like extinction?”
Twilight chuckled at his question. “No, no, nothing like that. No humans are native to Equstria. Every single one who has been here was not born here.”
“Where d-d-do they come from then?”
“All over really. About every single one has come from a different world. Sure some have come in pars and even in a large group once, but most arrive alone. Their worlds are…odd to say the least.”
“But e-every single world is different?”
“Not precisely. Some have similar qualities, not most, but some. But others are drastically different, like no resemblance what so ever to other ones.”
“Except f-for the species.”
“Now that’s something I myself have wondered before. If the worlds are so different, why do the species still resemble one another? I would imagine genetic difference overtime, especially in worlds that are covered in lava or have eternal night, but it doesn’t happen. I mean sometimes I think that maybe if-”
Twilight’s introduction to her lecture on genetic mutations in hostile climate was interrupted by her wall clock to bonging on the other side of the room
“Oh shoot!” cursed Twilight, peering over at the clock. She bolted over to the stairs “SPIKE!” she yelled up, “WE HAVE TO GO!”
The small…thing he hadn’t clearly seen since that morning zipped down the stairs and stopped right next to Twilight, his scaly hand in a salute. He stood in his military attention before realizing Alistair was sitting in the room.
Spike happily smiled at him, “Well hello. I’m Spike, apprentice, associate, and assistant to the very unicorn that stands before you, I don’t think we’ve met.” Spike extended his hand (it looked like one) towards him. Alistair shook it, smiling likewise.
“Now we’ve b-been introduced in consciousness, I feel so complete.” Alistair grinned at his own joke.
Spike chuckled, he turned to Twilight. “I like this guy. I think we should keep him around for one more day, before we chuck him back into the Everfree Forest.”
“Oh Spike.” Chided Twilight. The two walked towards the door, about to head out.
“Hey, wait Twilight!” Alistair shouted, getting up from his seat, then sitting back down when his leg reminded him it was hurt. “W-Where you guys going?”
“Oh, just a meeting. Don’t worry, we’ll be back soon.”
“But w-w-what am I supposed to do while you’re gone.”
“Why don’t you read something? I have a large collection of literature down here.”
“But w-what about when I’m done?”
“Why don’t you eat something, are you hungry?”
“Sort of.”
“Then there you go. Help yourself to whatever you find. I’ve got to get going, we’re going to be late.”
“Ok…bye.”
“Bye.”
The door slammed shut.
In Another Life I: Week One
A Hint at Things to Come?
The meeting had run longer then expected. Spike and Twilight weren’t able to get back home before street lamps and windows became the only source of light on the roads. They walked in silence, mainly for the reason that Spike was asleep on Twilight’s back and she was deep in thought.
Her carrot based conjuration spells had been going exceptionally well in the past few days. But recently, the insides had been mildly swapped with that of cabbage and lima bean. Although the mixture was impressive, she wanted to first work on different types of vegetables before mixing and matching.
She also took note to examine the Tobar Nebula that night. The blue clouds around it had been shifting into a strange green and yellow pattern that appeared to be in some kind of weird symmetry with each other. If that was true, then it was just as possible for comets and other space bound anomalies to form shapes at random as well. That is to say, if the Tobar Nebula was random. It could be just as well manipulated by some kind of higher force, possibly a wizard along the south of Equstria?
Twilight fumbled for her keys out of her saddle bag, and turned the lock of the door, swinging it open with her horn’s magic. She wiped her hooves on the floor mat, and brought Spike upstairs. She laid the sleeping little lizard into his basket and folded the comforter and sheets over him.
With Spike in bed, that left Twilight with another hour in the night to read her new favorite book, “Vigilantes: The Graphic Novel”. She wasn’t accustomed to reading really long comic books that masqueraded as legitimate works of literature, but this read had interested her from the very start.
It told a story of super heroes in the real world, trying to do good in a dark and depressive version of Manehatten that was almost on the brink of war with the rest of Equstria. Although the premise was bitter, the artwork and storyline were amazing.
She trotted over to her nightstand and found the table’s drawer slid open and the book gone. She looked under her bed, under the carpet, behind her desk, in her closet, but the book did not turn up.
Walking back into the main foyer of the treehouse, Twilight began to scratch her mane. Had she left it at Town Hall? Was it back in the library? Did Spike know where it was? Who could have…
Twilight froze. A thought cracked into her brain and sent her eyes frantically searching through the room. Where was Alistair?
Her handy human sidekick, whom she had just spoken with a few hours ago, was nowhere to be seen. She began to run through the house looking for him, calling out his name, each time becoming more frantic.
She hadn’t given him any direction or idea of what to do when she left for the meeting, so now whatever would happen to him would be, by transitive property, her fault!
The entire library and second floor had been cleared. No trace of him could be found on any of the levels. However, Twilight did discover that a block of cheddar cheese and a bowl of raisins had been gorged into while she was gone.
Each room was checked again just to be sure she hadn’t missed anything, and still no Alistair could be found. Every square inch of the treehouse had been searched everything from bottom to…top.
Twilight bounded up the stairs once more and continued to climb till reaching the roof access. She rammed the door open with her head, sending the wooden door crashing against the wall.
She found Alistair asleep on the small chilly balcony floor, overlooking all of Ponyville. “Vigilantes” was folded open over his sleeping face. The twinkling lights of the small town, made the night glitter with artificial light.
Grabbing the book with her horn, she lifted it off him. Mumbling something, he turned over on his side, still asleep.
She peered at the page he had been on. The picture was of one of the main characters, Horsechach, walking out of a saloon. The thought bubble on the upper right read: “Never despair. Never surrender. I leave the pony cockroaches to discuss their salt cubes and sports magazine covers. I have business elsewhere, with a better class of person.”
Twilight shivered. That book had that affect on the ponies. Although deeply grim, it was amazingly cool at the same time.
She draped a blanket from her bedroom over Alistair, still sound asleep in the open night air, and walked back down the long stairs, the graphic novel floating behind her.
Sitting down at her work desk, she opened to where she had left her bookmark and began to read.
“Cleared throat. The colt turned, something rewarding in his eyes. Sometimes, the night is generous to me…”
In Another Life I: Week One
Close Encounters of the Pink Kind
Pinkie Pie knew something fishy was up, and it wasn’t the salmon sandwich she had for lunch. Something fishy was certainly going on and she would have to get to the bottom of that fish. If she didn’t, then that fish’s fishiness would make just about everything seem fishy and then the fish would be lost, caught up in swarms of fish.
The fishy fish would be an illusive fish, no doubt. Squirming and swimming out of any net Pinkie would set down. Its slimy belly slipping across the surface of the ocean until it was a 100%, free fish.
Fish were born free, as archived by scholars over the years. The independence of fish was clearly evident in their goal of covering every surface able object with its fishiness, a militant expansion effort that almost always succeeded. Yes indeed, would this fish be hard to beat, one that would require sly, cunning, and wit.
Needless to say, Pinkie Pie was sure that there was a fish on the roof when she heard the ceiling grown under somepony’s weight. Flying fish could jump miles away from any body of water. Who was to say one couldn’t have landed on the roof of Sugar Cube Corner?
Slipping away from her studies of Pumpkin and Pound Cakes’ books, she skittered up the stairs on all four tips of her hooves before reaching the roof hatch. With an oversized butterfly net in her mouth, she unclipped the latch and opened the hatch.
With a single bounce, she arrived on the red shingled roof. She was directly behind one of the bakery’s chimneys, so if the fish was up there (which it most certainly was), then it would not be able to see her.
Pinkie’s eyes curved around the fogging chimney to inspect the area. No fish to her left, no fish to her front, and no fish to her-
THERE IT WAS! A massive shadowy trout wearing a cape and standing upright was on the right end of the roof looking at something. Possibly a fountain to swim in or some kelp to eat.
She measured that it was a few inches shorter then her and had a predilection for super hero imitation. Pinkie had never seen a trout so big before in her life; no doubt did this trout break a few world records.
Pinkie Pie wondered if the trout was even aware of its world record status. Its other trout friends would have told him by now or they could be keeping it from him as a joke. No, that wouldn’t be possible; some other fish definitely would have come out and told the trout, no doubt about.
Her eyeballs continued to be twisted around the chimney, staring at the trout, waiting for just the right minute to strike. She didn’t know what she’d do with the trout when she caught, but that wasn’t important now.
Pushing around the corner, Pinkie’s body met in the same position as her eyes. Her entire body was completely around the corner at this point, and the trout still didn’t see. It must have been looking at something important.
Pinkie began to put her weight into her back legs. She crouched her torso down and continued to look up at her target. The fluffy ball of cotton candy she called her head, bent slightly down. She breathed once, then struck.
She sprung full force toward the trout, rocketing herself into the air. The fishing net was in her mouth as she torpedoed to her target. In the air, she swung twice with her net. The first was too early, swinging past the bi-pedal trout harmlessly. The second however, notched it in the side.
The trout doubled back slightly from the force and stepped onto its cape. Slipping on the fabric, it flipped backwards. The trout’s entire body lurched back. One of its feet slipped away from the roof, the other foot followed.
Its legs flew upwards into the air and slowly plummeted off the roof with the rest of its body.
________________________________________________________________________
“Oh my good golly gosh! Are you ok!?!” said a pink tuft of fur.
Alistair groaned slightly. His vision was blurry, his ears rung, and his back was sore. His cloak had dirt on it and a stranger was talking to him, one challenge after another he supposed. Getting to his feet, he brushed himself off.
“Y-Y-Yeah I-I’m ok” he responded
He shook his head a few times to ward off the evil spirits of concussion, then turned to what was staring at him.
It was a pony. With pink fur and a pink mane topped off with extreme pink fluffiness on both. A tattoo marking (like Twilight’s) was on her side. It was a picture of multi-colored balloons flying. He wondered what that meant.
“I’m sorry!” said the pony, a heavy regret in her voice that some how also sounded cheerful. “I didn’t mean to hurt you, it’s just that I saw you climbing up the bakery and I wanted to say ‘hello’, because most ponies don’t usually climb up roofs and start staring at stuff, so I wanted to surprise you, but not in a bad way but then I thought I should just go up and say ‘hello’ so that’s what I did, but then you got scared and I kinda of made you fall off and then I asked if you’re ok and you said yes and now we’re right here talking about how I didn’t mean to hurt you, its just that I saw you climbing up the bakery and I wanted to say ‘hello’, because-”
“No, n-n-no it’s f-fine” he interrupted “it’s j-just…uh…I h-have to go.”
“Woooooooooooooaaaaaahhhhhh” marveled the pony. “What’s wrong with the way you taaaaaaaaaaalk?”
He blushed in anger. “It’s j-just a s-s-stutter, there’s nothing wrong with w-way I talk! N-Now I have t-t-to go, goodbye!.” He turned around to walk the other way, when the pink pony grabbed him by the shoulders.”
“What!?!” she cried. “You can’t leave, I just met you and I want to introduce myself and possibly throw a 8:07 P.M party since your new in town and everybody likes a party when their new in town!”
“H-How do you know I’m n-n-new?”
“Oh that’s easy, I now everybody in Ponyville! Whether they be: pony, pegasus, unicorn, donkey, mule, griffon, or…you, I know everyone. Now come on, I want to throw a quick party, nothing to posh, just a simple shin dig.”
Alistair was starting to sweat. “Well…uh…I-I-I don’t…l-like…parties.”
The pink pony’s face turned into an expression of absolute disbelief. She jumped into the air while gasping louder then a sonic boom.
“Don’t like parties!?! Why that’s more loco then saying you don’t like…PARTIES! Here, follow me!”
The pony grabbed his hand and dragged him into “Sugar Cube Corner” and sat him down at a table. She threw on scholars cap, then pulled out a long chalkboard and a pointer with an apple on the end.
“The definition of party by most official dictionaries is ‘a social gathering of friends for a special occasion, involving entertainment and refreshments.’ So, considering that this is the first time we have ever met, one would definitely consider this a special occasion. So for your own experience, I have quickly set up this mini party for your own enjoyment.”
The pink pony pulled from behind her an entire table cloth with cake, decorations, and party hats and tossed it onto the table. The party was ready.
“Bu-But I don’t even know y-y-your name!” Alistair stammered.
The situation was growing more uncomfortable by the minute. A completely random individual was talking to him! Not only that, they wanted to…”party” with him! Al hadn’t been this scared since first meeting Twilight. It was awful!”
“Pinkie Pie at your service” said the mare, bowing and extending her hoof. Alistair shook it, and slowly began to eat the cake in front of him.
He had to admit, it was pretty good. In fact, it was probably the best thing he had ever tasted! He normally didn’t eat sweet stuff, mainly for the fact that he never had the option to. There was sugar cane in the Realm of Solitude, but it was rare and he had to grow and refine it himself. He normally just ate fish, bread, and water with the occasional vegetable.
“Wellllllll, how do you like it?” Asked Pinkie, her eyes full of expectation.
“It’s p-pretty good I have to say, it has a n-n-nice consistency and the form of it holds up well. Really kinda sweet too.”
“Good!” said Pinkie as she snatched up Alistair’s plate. “Now that you’ve mastered the first element of parties, it’s time we move onto the second and third. Put on your party hat!”
“Ok” said Alistair as he put on his party hat.
“Now, stand up and wait right there!” Pinkie rushed into another room of the bakery and came out with a large phonograph on wheels. She scooted it into position and flipped a record onto it, a song began to play.
“You have finished the second element of parties my fine bi-pedal bro, hat wearing. Now it’s time for the final part, dancing!”
“But I really don’t like to dance that-”
“DANCE!” yelled Pinkie Pie.
Immediately Alistair began to dance. His arms and legs flopped around like a dying earthworm to the wacky record playing. He was uncomfortable at first, making a clown of himself in front of a stranger.
After awhile, began to slightly enjoy himself, and started to flop his arms and legs more uniformly. He was now looking like a gelatin soldier, but at least he was happy, and Pinkie could tell.
She stood smiling a giant grin, as Al began to get completely into the music. He shut his eyes and just moved to whatever the music felt like, it was amazing. Once it stopped, he was still flopping about, happy as ever.
“Well, well, well, who doesn’t like parties now hmmm?” chided Pinkie.
“Ok” said Alistair as he hung his head, “Y-You got me. It was a lot of fun. Thank y-y-you for showing me. I’m Alistair by the way. S-Sorry I forgot to introduce myself.”
“Oh its ok Ally Wally, it happens to all of us. But now that you’re into the groove of things how about I play another record but this time-”
Pinkie Pie was interrupted by the sound of infants crying upstairs. Yelping, she galloped up the stairs. Near the top, she called down to Al.
“I have to go, babysitting calls, but maybe we can hang out later. See you!”
Pinkie disappeared up the stairs. Alistair stood in the empty room for a second. So much had just happened in the past few minutes, it was pretty overwhelming. He had met a new pony, partied, enjoyed a sugar frosted treat, listened to music, danced and conversed with a pony with only mild stuttering.
Everything seemed perfect, except for one thing. He had a question on his mind, a serious one. One that had recently came into his mind and was unsure if any pony could ever answer it. It was a complex question and he just had to know the answer to it.
He was worried that his question could never get answered. That it would lay on his tongue for eons and he would never unlock the mystery that he wanted to solve. This bothered him, and the more he thought about the more anxious he became. Unable to contain the philosophical context any longer, he said it aloud.
“Why would anyone sit on a baby?”
In Another Life I: Week One
Small Talk, Big Subjects
Twilight sat comfortably on her thick woven quilt. The heavy wool density protected her from all the horrors of lake side grim but still offered her a lovely view of the surrounding land.
The surrounding land was none other then the fantastic Wishbourne Lake, a tiny little stretch of water that would normally pass for a pond, but the Ponyville Tourist Agency felt that calling it a lake would attract more visitors. Never the less, it was still a fantastic place to look at the stereotypically serine moments of sunrises, sunsets, bird migrations, forest fires, and fraternity parties.
True to its name, the lake was offering a jar dropping scene of the massive orange sun slowly setting over the tree-line of the surrounding Everfree Forest. Its bright fading light illuminating the small embankments next to the “lake” and casting shadows behind the trees being drenched in its heavy beams.
Twilight had been waiting for over an hour for Alistair to arrive and he still was nowhere to be seen. “Perhaps I was too cryptic”, she thought to herself. Leaving a single note on the countertop saying: Wishbourne Lake, don’t be late really wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but it seemed noir-ish so that made her feel kinda cool.
The day had gone swimmingly to say the very least. Twilight’s conjuration spells of vegetables had finally been perfected, and now she could move onto fruits and eventually starches.
Her further examinations of the Tobar Nebula had proved that the apparent symmetry and patterns of light projecting of it had just been an error on her part. Upon inspection of her telescope, a large glob of strawberry jelly had landed on the lens piece, obstructing all credibility of her studies of the nebula.
Twilight’s ears perked up when a familiar voice was heard in the distance. The sound was echoing from behind but she could still partially hear them. They were yelling something but she couldn’t tell what it was. She listened closer.
“Twilight! It’s me, Alistair! I got your note! Where are you!?!”
Turning around, she cupped her hooves to her mouth and shouted back.
“I’M OVER HERE!!!!!!”
A loud snapping of twigs and rustling of branches was heard. A few seconds later, Alistair burst out of the forest and tumbled onto the dry grassy clearing.
“Hi Twilight!” He happily greeted, quickly hopping up from the ground. “I s-saw the note on the countertop and got over as quickly as possible! I had to drop off a few things at your tree house, b-but now I’m here!”
“Hey” she immediately remarked, “Your stutter’s getting better!”
“Th-thanks” he responded. “I’ve been noticing it too.”
“Well…that’s good to hear.” She awkwardly remarked. “What did you have to drop off?”
“Oh, j-just some brochures and maps I found around town. Different papers and flyers, anything that looked cool really.”
“Why don’t you tell me about them, and your day?” She started to walk back over to her quilt and gestured for him to follow.
The two moved back over to her small encampment and sat down, his legs sticking straight out across the quilt and partially onto the grass. She took a seat next to him and curled her legs into her body for maximum comfort.
The two didn’t speak immediately, but instead took in the environment for a bit. The sun was now half below the tree line, and with it, light was diminishing from around the lake. Soon it would be dark.
“This is very scenic.” He commented; wonder lingering on his last word. “Surprised more ponies aren’t here.”
Twilight looked out at the lake. “I think it might be a ‘see it once, seen it all’ kind of thing. The ponies that’ve lived here all their lives have probably been here thousand times before.”
“But th-that being said, how could you ever get bored of…this!” He flung his arms up in the air to further emphasize his point.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. All ponies have their opinions, I guess.”
“Yeah…”
They again took a long pause, without a single word being uttered. Between the two of them, they both couldn’t decide if it was tension or bashfulness that was doing this. It didn’t feel weird being around each other, it’s just conversation felt…weird.
For the time he had been with Twilight (maybe six, or seven days?) most of their discussions were either small talk or Alistair telling her where’d he was going and when he’d be back. And this wasn’t at all out of hostility or aggression toward each other, they just didn’t have much to talk about.
It made Twilight feel odd (minus the circumstances of inter-dimensional encounters) that she couldn’t connect with a new friend. It felt easy enough when she was around other ponies in Ponyville or with the rest of her little gang. But when she was one on one with Alistair, she didn’t feel like there was any potential between them.
It was negative way of thinking, but something nagged at her that maybe it might be true. He didn’t seem to have any dislike of her, in fact, he seemed drawn to her in a way. Not in a relationship kind of way, Celestia no, but in levels of comfortably. She was probably the only pony he saw as friend for the time being. Everypony else was part of brave new world that he didn’t quite understand.
“Twilight, what’s affectations mean?
“Hmmm?” Her bubble of thought sprinkled to mist at Alistair’s random question. He had a tendency to do that.
“Affectations, what does it mean?”
“It means: an effort to appear to have a quality not really or fully possessed. Why do you ask?”
He turned to her, half of his face becoming shadowy with the dwindling light. “I read it in that Vigilantes b-book of yours. The character Horsechach says it at one point.”
“Oh…yeah he does.” She paused. “Did you know they made a movie out Vigilantes?”
He tilted his head in confusion. “Movie?”
“Moving pictures.”
“Ohhhhhhh, cool. Sounds like something I’d like to see sometime.”
He looked back towards the lake with the sun now 99% down, when he noticed that lightening bugs where now glowing along the shoreline. This wasn’t anything new to him (his cabin in the Realm of Solitude was by a forest) but he still was impressed.
Twilight laid her head back onto the edge of the quilt’s fabric, almost touching the overgrown grass surrounding them. Alistair continued to sit up, watching the sun finally peak down below the forest. Small sprinkles of gray light still shimmered in the absence of the sun, but for the most part, night was upon them.
More lightening bugs appeared as all natural light disappeared from the sky. They wizzed and weaved around the trees, blue and green light trails following their invisible bodies in the open air.
Twilight was still laid back on the quilt when she decided to talk to him.
“Alistair, you remember that conversation we had, a week ago.”
“Yeah” he responded. “When w-we first met, what about it?”
“You remember how I asked you some questions about why you came here and how you came here and you where a bit uncomfortable about answering them?”
“Mmm-hhhmmm”
“Well…” She moved back into her sitting position. “I’d like to ask you those questions again. The Princess, scholars, I, we need to know these things. They’re important to archive, not just for the fun of it, but for a higher purpose. All the information on your kind…it needs to be recorded.”
“Is that what this is all about?” He asked with a sense of disapproval. “You didn’t want me to come out here and chat like friends, but just to finish this interview?”
“Alistair, it’s not completely-”
“Oh I know! I know w-what you’re all about, at least with this.” He got to his feet and began to rub his hands together. “You want to know how I got here, Twilight? I’ll give you a little example.”
He continued to rub his hands together, then began to stretch out his arms and crack his knuckles. He looked at Twilight, now a dark silhouette, then looked back at his hands.
“Here goes.”
Alistair raised his right hand into the air and began to breathe in deeply. He focused on his hand as he breathed, sending all available energy in his body to that exact point on his hand. In just the center of his palm, a blue dot appeared.
The dot stuck there for a moment and then began to grow. Within seconds the blue dot had encircled his entire hand with a bright blue fizzing of light and electricity. It was like firework had gone of in his hand, it was like his fingers were a capacitor, it was like…magic.
He threw his glowing hand farther into the air, illuminating the small clearing in his minor action of triumph. He then moved his hand back down and pointed it at a nearby tree. With a slight movement of his fingers, a single leaf was plucked off the tree, a light blue aura surrounding it.
It hovered slowly towards his hand until he held it in place, inches from his index finger. He had it hover there for a second, carefully floating the small green strand up and down over his palm. He seemed to be having fun.
Then, as soon as he had started his light show, he ended it with a single snap of his fingers. The aura switched off from both his hand and the leaf, and the shoreline was once again black.
He sat back down next to Twilight, a grin of satisfaction across his face. It was too dark to make out her expression, but he predicted her jaw had fully dropped.
“Alistair!” she gaped, not incredibly flabbergasted, but still moderately surprised. “You can perform magic! That’s amazing!”
He grinned even more. “Thank you.”
“No really, that’s wonderful! There’ve been other humans who’ve had magic before but still, this is a very nice surprise! Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
His mouth was twisted in a smile as he responded. “I didn’t really know how to say it, I guess. Me getting angry (sorry about that by the way) just kind of…instigated me.”
“Well don’t feel bad about it! For the first time ever, I’m happy someone I know got angry…no offense.” Her giddy expression fell dark for a moment. “But if you can perform magic and you said that’s how you…oh my gosh.”
“What, what, what!?!” He frantically shouted, mortified over Twilight’s sudden mortification.
Twilight quickly began to roll up the quilt and tossed it onto her back. “I’m sorry for ending this abruptly Alistair, but we need to get back to the tree house as soon as possible. I have a letter to send the Princess.”
He nodded his head in agreement and was about to say something when Twilight took off into the forest. He followed after her; shadowy tree branches and bushes swatting him on all sides.
They continued to sprint through the pitch black woods until they jumped onto the dirt trail and ran back towards Ponyville. Alistair had no idea what was going on, but he felt like he’d get some answers when he reached Twilight’s place. For now, he had to run.
In Another Life I: Week One
Introduction to Finality
Minutes later, Twilight sat at her work desk, fiercely writing onto a piece of fancy parchment. Alistair stood a few paces behind her; looking increasingly worried with each passing minute of Twilight writing more and more onto her letter.
Several parts of the parchment had been ripped by the strong strokes she made with the quill, and every mistake that was made was followed by a loud “Shoot!”, Excess ink splattered between the spaces of the words, making the letter appear incredibly dishelmed and difficult to read.
But even then, Twilight went on. Writing paragraph after paragraph of what looked like scribbles, but was actually in depth descriptions and retellings of Twilight’s recent findings to the Princess.
After some time, she dipped her quill into the near empty ink well one last time and wrote in large curvy handwriting: From Your Student, Twilight Sparkle. She then rolled up the thick yellow paper with a lovely little silken bow and yelled for Spike.
In a flash, the little lizard bolted into the room, breathed green fire onto the note, saluted to Twilight, then ran out as quickly as he had entered. Alistair barely got a glimpse of the little guy.
“So…um…are you done?” He asked, a little unsure with the question he was asking.
“Yes.” Nodded Twilight. “My letter to the Princess has been sent and finished.” She took off her low hanging librarian’s glasses and stiffened herself out of her work chair. “And now I think I owe you some answers to what just happened, Hmm?”
Alistair responded by jarringly bobbing his head a few times in agreement.
Twilight trotted over to a nice stretch of hardwood and crumpled down onto the ground in exhaustion. She took a few breaths then focused her attention back to Alistair.
“Now you saw how I was very…surprised when you revealed that magic, your magic, had been involved with you arriving in Equstria? Well, I had good reason to be a bit alarmed with this…reveal on your part.”
“Why is that?”
“Well…you’re a bit different in a sense, Alistair.”
He rolled his eyes. “Well, no duh Twilight. I mean, I am-” He gestured to his face, hands, legs, torso, and entire body, “-A bit different in more ways then a few.”
Twilight giggled. “Yeah, you are. But not only in a physical sense. I meant in a magical sense.”
One of his eyebrows rose. “Go on.”
“Alistair, you possess a very unique form of magic within yourself. Now this magic has its benefits, but it also has its setbacks. And not only to the user can these setbacks apply, it can also affect the ponies around you.”
“You see” she continued “You possess something called: Dimensional Marginalization Transpiration Relocation, or DMTR, for short.”
He half cocked his head in surprise. “You mean the spell I cast…to get here?”
“Yes!” Encouraged Twilight, snapping her hoof. “That and the same.”
“But how can that be special? I just m-moved from one place to another.”
Twilight shook her head. “It’s not that simple. When you cast your spell, you didn’t just teleport; you broke through barriers, barriers to a different dimension.”
He tightened his brow. “What are you talking about?
“Different realms of reality. Alternate plains of existence created by shifting possibilities of both the inhabitants and environment. It’s kind of complicated, but that’s the jest of it.”
“B-But…this place…it looks so…similar to how everything looked before…” His voice trailed off. His speech was starting to become sluggish and sick. Twilight worried he might faint again.
She quickly sprung up from the floor and trotted over to him. “Alistair, are you ok? You don’t sound well.”
“I’m…fine” He mumbled, as he stumbled past Twilight. “This is j-just…a lot to take in…again.”
“Are you sure?” She asked, attentively and still worried.
“Y-Yeah…I’m fine” He maneuvered his lumbering body towards a wall. He grasped the flat surface with both of his hands and positioned his back against it for support. His torso was lurching forward, like he was all ready to fall.
Twilight walked a bit closer, her eyes wide with concern. “Do you feel sick? Does your head hurt? Do you need some water? Do you need me to leave the room? I can leave the room if you want.”
Alistair smiled a shaky grin. “No…please…stay with me. I feel fine.”
“But your body, your face, you seem…distraught, Alistair.”
He continued to smile. “Twilight…I’m not distraught…I’m happy.”
Her face became one of disapproval and her voice was in a scolding manner. “Alistair, right now is not the time to be joking. You look legitimately ill and I can’t have you playing game like this, so please stop it.”
He responded with a sense of desperation. “No really, I’m happy! What you just said, what you told me, it’s amazing.”
“B-B-But you sounded hurt! Like you where about to have an emotional breakdown of some sort.”
“Twilight, I sounded at peace. What you told me…it put some things to rest. And I am grateful for you doing so.”
Her face suddenly became lifted with jubilance. “Wait here a minute.” Twilight bolted up the stairs into her room and quickly jumped back down the stairs. She flipped open her notepad. “What things got put to rest?”
Alistair chuckled at her willingness to archive every thing he said. As he answered her question, he was no longer afraid to tell her the truth, to reveal and retell what he had seen just two weeks prior.
There really wasn’t a proper way for him to tell Twilight; it was that kind of story. It was the kind that you take a long pause to begin with and you quickly fly through it with your mouth jarring off at a mile a minute. A feeling of discomfort fell into his stomach as he was about to open his mouth. He ignored it and pressed on.
“Remember how I told you about my…realm being a lot like yours? Same flora, fauna, and environment?”
Twilight nodded her head in agreement.
“Well it was like that, for awhile. I wasn’t lying to you. The weather was nice and mild, food was easy to get, I even had a nice little cabin down by the river.” He sighed deeply. “But that changed just a few months ago.”
Twilight was scribbling down into her notepad. “How so?”
“Well…first it was the animals. They got, uh, mean to say the least. Snarling all the time, foaming, sometimes even running up and biting me.”
“Sounds horrible.” Remarked Twilight.
He smiled weakly. “It gets worse. Then the sky started being real…real nasty. It’d rain a lot and the winds would be consistently tossing things around. But most importantly, the sky itself, turned black! That’s right, pitch black, like coal. You’d think it was the end of the world, and it kind of was.”
“And after all of this, the ground decided to be mean too. The dirt became rocky and coarse, almost like grey diamonds. And with the soil being like this, most of the trees died. And all those dead trees standing around in the wind…wasn’t a good mix. Going outside at that point wasn’t even an option, unless I wanted to be crushed by flying chunks of wood or cut to ribbons by flurries of splinters.”
“I sat in my cabin, praying that this spell of chaos would be over, that I’d be left alone and things could go back to the way they were.” He sighed once more. “You can see it didn’t turn out that way.”
“I scraped by for awhile, living off stored up food and old jugs of water. But once I got to that last bag of dried beans, I knew it was time to go. I just couldn’t wait any longer.” His voice became chipper, this was now the hopeful part of the story. “So, I concentrated long enough, get the energy built up, preformed the spell, and well…here I am!”
Twilight put down her notepad. “Wait, hold on a minute. Where did you learn the Dimensional Marginalization Transpiration Relocation spell?”
He looked at her, confused. “What?”
“The spell, where did you learn it?”
He paused. “What?”
“The-spell-where-did-you-learn-it?”
Alistair stared at her blankly, still not quite understanding the question. “What?”
She sighed deeply and caressed the bridge of her nuzzle. “Nevermind.”
Twilight wasn’t in the mood for digging any deeper, at least for tonight. Her normal hunger for knowledge and intrigue was being overcome with sleepiness, stress, and “What?”. She figured that at some point, sooner or later, he’d tell her more about himself. Alistair seemed to be pretty awful at keeping secrets, if he was even keeping secrets.
There was still the possibility of him not knowing where he learned the spell or he could’ve just been born knowing it. There’d been stranger things that had happened, especially with magic. For now she’d have to wait, and for once, she was kind of ok with that.
Alistair walked over to the edge of the staircase and stuck his leg out, about to walk down. He stopped himself a moment and turned around to face her.
“Twilight?” He asked, his voice on the edge of something.
“Yes?”
“Thank you…for everything.”
He turned around and walked back down the stairs. Once he had reached the bottom, he waited for a moment then called up to Twilight: “Good night!”
She responded with a returning: “Good night.”
Alistair waited a moment at the foot of the stairs, listening to her familiar hoofsteps go up the small flight to her room and then the normal click to her flimsy bedroom door. Hearing both these things, he slyly double taked, one to his right, and one to his left.
He tiptoed madly toward the front door. Checking over his shoulder, he made sure that nobody in the tree house was following him. “Can never be too careful” he mumbled to himself.
He gently wrangled the door handle with his shaky hands. Little by little, he creaked it open to see if his rendezvous was waiting outside. Seeing her pink mane through the crack, he threw open the door in a burst of energy and excitement.
“Pinkie!” He yelled, immediately realizing his volume and then correcting his greeting in a whisper. “Pinkie!”
“Hi!” she chipperly greeted. “Are you ready for the ultimate display of pyrotechnics this side of the continent!?!”
“You know it!” he shouted.
Pinkie Pie held up her pink box of firecrackers, sparklers, bottle rockets, smoke bombs, sky rockets, Crystal Empire candles, flares, and a mysterious small case full of ‘blasting caps’. “Then let’s go!” she hollered.
The residents of Ponyville were treated to an early sunrise that night, one that showed up at two in the morning, and was full of color…and explosions.
In Another Life I: Week One
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. In Another Life I: Week One
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. 