My Little Pony: Friendship is a Miracle

The morning sun slowly rose over the wondrous land of Equestria. The sun shone through the windows in the castle, its warming rays hitting the faces of all who were still asleep.

Graham woke up with the glare of sunlight in his eyes, causing him to squint as he sat up. Looking over to his side, he saw Twilight stir from her sleep as well. With a smile, he watched as the pony looked up, copying the same expression.

“Hey there, sleepy head.” Graham said softly, Twilight rubbed her eyes, still a little groggy.

“Mmn... morning...” she said as high as a whisper. While both of them were still waking up, they enjoyed the warmth of Celestia’s Sun. They stayed that way for several minutes until Twilight slowly hopped off the bed into the sunlight directly, her body relaxing a bit as the warmth hit her coat. Graham only watched her from his sitting position, not bothering to get up just yet. Suddenly the door opened with a big slam to the wall as Pinkie Pie walked right in, making the two jump in surprise.

"Gooood morning!!!" Pinkie shouted with a huge, shining smile, "I brought breakfast!" Right after these words she presented a tray of pancakes and waffles, an all but healthy meal for a breakfast.

“Jeez, Pinkie. Gimme some warning next time you do that!” Graham shouted between pants, as he tried to calm down from the fright he felt.

“Sorry, Graham, I just wanted to wish you a happy morning!” She said as she bounced and giggled. She closed the door behind her on her way out, leaving the breakfast for them to enjoy.

“How can a pony like her have so much energy?” He quickly slapped his face with his palm to realize it was a needless question, “Right, because she’s Pinkie.”

Twilight only laughed as she picked up a waffle on a plate and poured a bit of syrup on it, “You’ll get used to that. She’s just trying to be nice.”

“I know she is, but Jesus H. Christ it’s too early in the morning!” Twilight tilted her head.

“Who’s Jesus?” Twilight asked out loud as Graham looked at her.

“Ehhh...No one important. Back on earth, he’s supposed to my people’s god’s son. Those people are called “Christians.” He sighed, “And I’m not one of them. I’m what’s called an “Atheist”.

“What are those things?” Twilight only tilted her head.

“They’re people who do not believe in a god, or that kinda stuff. That sort of stuff gets in the way of your life. I lost so many friends back when I was still in school because someone told me to go read the “Bible” or “Become a Christian and save your soul from the devil”, or some shit.

“It sounds like you didn't really enjoy that at all,” Twilight’s ears folded back as Graham lied back down.

He took a deep breath before he continued, “It’s not that, it’s just...Religion in my view is unnecessary. A lot of people on our home planet follow some obscure religion because they lack faith in themselves and are incapable to pull through tough times on their own or with help from friends and family. So instead of becoming self-sufficient they become reliant on some religious figure head no one’s ever seen.” Graham said as he sighed again. Twilight’s ears folded again as she walked up and nudged him.

“Graham, everypony has an opinion on things, some ponies even believed Discord was our true ruler, some ponies still do! But we only try to keep things like that to ourselves so as to not hurt their feelings, or offend them.”

Graham opened an eye to look at her, “If only more people on my home planet were more like you, Twilight. The problem I have with all religions back home, was that people didn't know how to stop trying to convert me, and take no for an answer! All they did was try to shove their beliefs down other people’s throats like arrogant pricks!” Graham sat up during his outburst waving his arms in the air.

Twilight cringed as he held his mouth, “I’m sorry, Twilight, but sometimes I get upset over the whole religion thing...It’s not that I hate religion...it’s the people who follow it. I just wish that they would stop trying to convert others and just enjoy themselves for once.”

Twilight nodded, “I understand, Graham. It’s really okay. We don’t have to talk about it...” Twilight nuzzled him to reassure she would keep her word on the matter. Graham hugged her head gently before letting go to take a cupcake from the table.

As he ate his fill, he looked over to see Twilight looking at him in slight disbelief, “What’s wrong?” He asked her, eating what was left of the food on the table.

“I’m just surprised you could eat all of that so quickly! Do other humans eat that quickly? Or that much?” Graham could only chuckle, as he turned around in the chair he was sitting in. Twilight looked at him curiously.

“Most people that I know of can’t really eat as fast or as much as I can—well except maybe Aramis, but that’s because he’s been around me for so long. You see, there’s an entire world of different kind of eaters. Since we’re Omnivores, we eat all kind of things, from fish, meats, leafy greens, and even artificial foods. Some humans prefer greens over everything else, those people are called vegetarians...” He went on about all kinds of different eaters, including the ‘meat and potatoes’ kinda guys, the junk food eaters, and health nuts, who only eat what they believed to be organic.

“...As for the fast eating? Well, I think everyone has their speeds, and frankly, I shouldn't be eating as fast as I did just now. Don't wanna put on any more weight than I have to, ya’ know.” He said with a light laugh, smacking his gut to get his point across. Twilight looked as he performed his action and only looked at him in concern.

“Graham, I can tell you’re pretty depressed about your weight...How much do you weigh?” Graham blinked at her accusation, but he knew deep down he was a little upset about his lack of restraint over food, and how he didn't exercise much, even back at home.

“Well, um...about two-hundred and twenty-five pounds...” He practically whispered his words, but her keen sense of hearing able to pick them up just fine.

“I’m guessing that’s not considered a healthy weight you’re supposed to have? How much are your kind supposed to weigh?” Her question stung him, because of the fact that he was nowhere near the target weight.

“Well for someone as tall as me, I’m supposed to weight around one hundred and seventy five or so pounds...” He silently said as Twilight only frowned at him.

“Graham...are you really unhappy with your weight? I mean, you could exercise, possibly eat healthier.” Graham looked at her and sighed once more.

“I know I could, but...I don't know what’s stopping me! I know I can do it, but...”

“Is it that you don't have any inspiration?”

He looked at her blankly. Was it really that simple? He thought for a moment and looked back at her.

“I guess so, I mean I never really had any inspiration before...I know Aramis tried doing it once, but he’s not the greatest coach, you know?” He chuckled at his own joke. Twilight could only smile as she sat down.

“I know that I may not be the most athletic pony around...but if you wanted me to accompany you on a walk around Ponyville, I’d be happy to go along!” She looked into his eyes, which reflected equal excitement. A soft smile spread across his face, and Graham hugged Twilight gently, “I would love that very much, Twilight.”

After a few moments, he let go and looked at the outside world through the tall window, a cloudless blue sky streaked across the beautiful magical land. He looked at the vista for several moments before he felt a nudge at his side. He smiled warmly at Twilight and moved over a bit to give her room, neither of them uttering a word. They stood there for what could have felt to be a peaceful eternity, until a loud knock interrupted their comfortable silence.

“Princess Celestia has asked me to round you all up and take you to the court grounds where you will be flown back to Ponyville by chariot ride.” The guard stated formally, patiently waiting for a response from the two friends.

“Okay, we’ll get the rest of the group and be right on our way!” Twilight shouted back to the guard.

“Alright, but don’t take too long.”

“We won’t!” and with that Twilight and Graham made their guest bed and walked out into the hall.

They went around knocking door to door, and patiently waited for their friends to regroup. Most of them came out of their rooms, looking well rested and relaxed. Two particular friends had yet to make haste to catch up with the rest of the group as they were busy conversing.

Aramis’ eyes fluttered opened and he lay back on the bed, staring emptily at the ceiling.

Last night had proven to be very “food for thought”, with the background history of a god that abandoned the place he was in, only to be replaced by something made of pure evil. It was a lot think about, but he’d piece it together at his own rate.

Turning his head to the other side of the bed, he saw Rainbow Dash sleeping quietly, her monochromatic bangs shrouding most of her face. An occasional lock of her mane would drift upwards from how strong she breathed.

Reaching outwards, he gently shook her awake and waited. When her eyes slowly opened, he was greeted by her big rose colored eyes that looked fogged over, “Huzza whuzza mah...” Rainbow Dash grumbled incomprehensibly before turning over and falling asleep again.

“Rainbow,” Aramis called gently to her, “You need to get up, the rest of the group is probab—” He was interrupted by a loud, irritating knock at the door.

Rainbow Dash was startled awake, jumping unto her hooves, looking ready to fight, “Alright! Whose there!?” she barked loudly, nostrils flaring as she prepared to pounce an enemy.

“Hurry up you two! The guards are waiting for us in the courtyard and I rather get a chariot ride than walk back to Ponyville, IF you don’t mind!” Graham shouted, though his face betrayed his voice; a wide grin stretched across his face.

One of Rainbow Dash’s eyes twitched irritatedly, “Can you calm down!? We’ll be there in a bucking second!” she shouted.

Aramis looked at her apologetically, “Sorry Rainbow, I tried to wake you up and you didn’t want to,” he explained quietly, before grinning sheepishly, “At least until Graham decided to be the waking call.” She rolled her eyes and hopped off the bed, helping Aramis in fixing up the bed before promptly joining the group.

”Alright, were ready! Can we go now!?” Rainbow Dash asked impatiently.

Graham just nodded, and with that; the group diligently walked through the castle halls until they reached the court yard where both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna waited for the group, a chariot ready to take them back to Ponyville.

“Good morning everypony. It was very nice having your company here.” Celestia warmly greeted.

“It was certainly more...dynamic than most of the company that visits us here at the castle.” Luna commented, a smirk pulling at her lips.

“Thanks for letting us sleep over, princesses, it was definitely better than back home.” Graham said, going down on one knee to show respect.

“It was nothing, honest. You’re welcome here at any time.” Luna replied with a warm smile.

Graham thought about something about the meeting, that he wanted to bring up, and walked up to them calmly, “Just a quick question...It’s about Discord.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow, “Yes?”

“Well...I wanted to ask...If you and Discord had something going on before, do you still have feelings after all this time?”

The others looked at him as if he just said ‘jump off a bridge’ to the princess himself. Twilight pushed him away for a brief minute to say something, but was stopped by a big hand covering her mouth.

“Twilight, I know you don't necessarily care for him, but every single person, pony, or any creature deserves a chance at redemption. Sure he caused chaos twice, but who knows, he might have some good in him. I mean, you preached once that friendship is worth fighting for, so fight for this friendship!” Everyone heard this easily.

Those words struck them harder than anything they had ever felt before. It was like venom to their ears...but at the same time, it was all called for. All of them felt guilty for their previous actions, with turning him to stone, accusing him of harming other ponies, and all sorts of things. Celestia gathered the strength to speak once more.

“I...I never thought of it that way...” She was showing signs of her guilt, staring at him and then looking back down at the marble floor, “Perhaps...we were too quick to judge Discord.” She looked back at the two humans and spoke in a more serious tone, “I have a personal wrong to correct. For now, your chariot back to town awaits.” Celestia said, eyes burning in determination in righting a wrong that had made her lose a close friend.

Graham merely nodded his head in understanding, before walking past her, his friends repeating the gesture on their way to the chariot. The princesses said their goodbyes with the group, sending them off in the chariot that had been prepared for them.

“Sister, are you sure this is a good idea? Letting loose chaos once more, all for the sake of a friendship that might not even be there?” Princess Luna asked as the chariot left.

“If there is anything left of my dear friend, I will do anything to save him.”

***

The chariot ride back to Ponyville was comfortably quiet, and almost everypony found something entertaining to do. Graham and Twilight talked quietly in hushed whispers so as to not bother the rest of their friends. Pinkie Pie played ‘I spy’ with Spike and Rarity, who were beginning to get frustrated at how easily the party mare repeatedly stumped them at the game. Applejack meanwhile, stared at the window with Fluttershy who was talking about a favorite species of plant or beautiful landmark that peppered the landscape they traveled over. To the amusement of everyone else though, it turned out Dash wasn’t the only one who easily fell asleep on chariot rides, as many found it cute to see her recline her head on Aramis’ shoulder as they both quietly slept; her rainbow mane draped over the front of his torso.

An hour had passed by when the chariot set down in Ponyville Town Square. Almost everyone got off in a hurry, while Aramis took a few moments, taking a second to wake Rainbow Dash up from her little nap. The chariot flew off, and each of the ponies went back to their homes to start their duties.

Twilight and Spike were the only ones that didn't leave the two men behind as they shuffled towards her tree home. After getting inside, they were greeted by Gypsy, who ran around them, her tail wagging a million miles an hour. After Graham got her to calm down, he sat in the nearest chair he could find.

Twilight walked over, plopping herself down on the floor with a good book. Spike took the time to go upstairs into the bedroom for some sleep. She looked up at Graham and started to speak, “So what is it like being...well, human?” Graham looked down at her, obviously confused about why she was so interested. He didn't want to question her, so he went about with an answer.

“Being human? Well, there’s nothing really anything interesting about being human. I mean, we got hands.” He said as he flexed his fingers, showing them in front of her as he did so. She kept staring, as if entranced by them. He quickly pulled them back as he spoke again, “We’re able to build things, such as buildings and weapons.”

“Weapons? Why would you need any of those?” She asked immediately as the word was dropped. Graham only sighed.

“Well, to put it frankly? Kill things. Kill animals for food, defend ourselves from dangerous animals, and even kill other humans.” She only gasped in horror at his answer, her ears flopping down upon her head.

“Why...Why would you kill others of your kind? Have you...killed anypony?” He felt terrible about bringing up the whole “Weapons” thing, so he assured her that he had never killed anyone before. She calmed down after a minute and looked up once more. She figured that she walked right into it, since he was a whole other species, not found in Equestria’s lands at all. She wanted to learn a bit about his kind, and that’s what she was going to do. Graham continued after a quick yawn and a scratch on his belly.

“You already know that we’re able to walk on two legs, and along with that, we have toes on our feet, unlike ponies or minotaurs.” He pulled off his left shoe and sock to show her what lay inside them: five toes that he wiggled to show her that they weren't just a set of appendages. She looked at them and smiled,“You humans are so interesting... So many things about you that make me want to learn more. But one more thing, what’s on the inside? Do you have the same organs as we do?”

Graham scratched at his head. He really didn't know if pony anatomy would be the same. He remembered somewhere that horse anatomy is very similar, only a few organs were different. Thankfully, Aramis decided to drop in and save him the embarrassment.

“Yes Twilight, horses and humans share a majority of organs, including reproductive ones. Although there are some differences regarding the time it takes for the baby to develop and be born along with some key organs that equines have that humans don’t have and vice versa, we’re pretty alike on the inside.” Aramis intelligently informed Twilight to the best of his abilities.

Twilight and Graham blushed brightly at his wording, causing Aramis to smirk over his work. Aramis sat down on a nearby couch as the two shook it off and started talking again.

“U-Uh...too much information, Aramis.” Graham shuddered.

“So that’s what it’s like to be human...” Twilight said softly, looking at her book she was scribbling in. Graham felt a bit uncomfortable by this, but also strangely felt kind of nice about it: His favorite pony, being so interested in him all of a sudden made him feel good inside, despite the circumstances.

Twilight stopped looking at him and thought to herself. A few quiet seconds passed by when she looked back at the two of them with a small smile, “Could you both do me a great big favor?”

“Oh! Um, sure Twilight! What do you need?”

“I’m running low on food, and I need to do some research on something. I’m wondering if you could quickly go to the food stands a little ways from here and pick up all the items on this list I had prepared earlier?” She made her horn glow as a parchment flew towards them, and opened up for them to see. Aramis grabbed the list and smiled.

“Of course we can do this; this is easy as pie.” Aramis answered politely, nodding quietly to himself.

“Did someone say pie?!” Pinkie Pie announced as she popped up from behind the two, giving them a jolt of surprise.

“Jeez, Pinkie, this is the second time you scared me within a three hour lapse!” Graham said as he shook the fright off. Pinkie only giggled as she started bouncing around as she usually did.

“Silly, it was actually three hours, twenty-four minutes, and thirty-six seconds!”

He could only roll his eyes as the two started off on their little errand. As soon as they walked out the door, Twilight slammed it shut. A few thoughts formed in her head as she bolted towards her book.

“What’cha doin’ with that book, Twilight?” Pinkie asked, plopping down on the floor next to her friend with a confused expression. Twilight looked over as she diligently went through the pages in the book she was using.

“I was talking to Graham about being human and what it was like... His kind are so interesting, from their looks, to their bodies, they share many similarities to ponys. Did you know they don't have hooves inside those shoes of theirs? Yeah! They have these things called toes! Aramis told me a bit about the anatomy, but the one thing I found interesting...was Graham’s...”

“Graham’s what? Head? Eyes? Hair?” She kept going until she said hooves, and stopped her there.

“I believe he called them fingers.” Twilight said, a bit unsure of her pronunciation. “They’re just...so weird...”

Pinkie Pie could only wonder why she would want to study these two humans. Twilight suddenly became extremely focused on her work. She put the book on an able surface as she wrote.

“Humans are bipedal, which means that they are able to stand on only two legs. Balance is...”

She kept going until she was finished, which took only a matter of minutes. When she looked over her work, she smiled with pride as she sighed. "Now I need to study their behavioral patterns...but how..."

             Suddenly she had an idea. "Pinkie, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"

"I'm not sure, Twilight, but what does a sapphire taste like to a dragon? Blueberries? Or Raspberries?"

Twilight sighed and put a fore hoof to her face. “I need behavioral research. All I have to do is watch them in a controlled environment, which would take a few weeks to work out.”

“How’re you gonna do that, Twilight?”

“Simple, I’ll watch them closely, making sure I’m not seen. One of these days when I'm not busy, I want to record their daily life alone in a controlled environment. One that will be the most comfortable for them.”

“Ooooooh! Wait, how’re you gonna make them stay alone? And how're you gonna find out what they'll be comfortable with?”

“I’ll have to find a way, but for now, I think I’ll keep writing. I have more information I need to record for this book I've been writing about humans for a while.”

“Alright Twilight, then I need to get back to Sugarcube corner. Have fun with your book!”

And with that, Pinkie left Twilight to reflect on everything she had learned in her human research, as she eagerly awaited their return...