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Chapter Four: Your
Little Pony
Dear Stephen:
Listen, I
am so, so sorry for the last letter. I didn't mean to lay it on so
thick, and I didn't even know I was doing it. I worry about you, out
there, and I just miss my old best friend, that's all.
If you
feel the Human Liberation Front has something important to say, then
I fully support you going to their meetings. We've been friends for
years, and I trust your wisdom and compassion. I won't try to sway
you one way or the other any more. I'll stick to writing about my own
life. I am really sorry I made you so angry.
Months
ago, before my Conversion, you and I were wondering about where the
heck something like Equestria came from. I have some theories about
that, based on what I have seen so far.
During the
past two weeks -I'm sorry I did not write sooner, but I was kind of
unsure how to respond to you- I've spent some time really looking at
the world I am in. I started thinking about the fact that they have
dandelions here, pretty much just like earth does. Dandelions are one
flower I know, because they somehow have survived the ecodisaster,
even in the Hazardous Exclusion Zones, even in the nanodumps and the
Sludgelands. 'The last flower', some call them, and for most of
humans, dandelions are the only flower they ever see anymore.
Certainly they were the only real, alive flower I ever saw, back
when. Remember how I used to stop whenever I would find one, and make
you wait? Sorry for that. I guess I just found them amazing.
Now I find
them delicious, but that is another story.
The issue
here is that they are the same in Equestria. A little bigger, a
little brighter, for all I know a little tastier, but as far as I can
tell, they are the same flower. I would have no way to tell with
things like trees, or grass, or other things like that - who ever
sees those anymore out there? But dandelions, those I know.
We've
already discussed how the constellations in the sky, as far as I know
them, seem the same, more or less. Mostly. I've seen them change a
few times now. Maybe they are some kind of projection, or maybe our
sovereign Luna really does somehow control the night of this realm. I
don't know such things. But mostly, except for when they change, they
are the constellations I remember.
I am
starting to think the connection between Equestria and earth is
somehow fundamental. There are too many things here that are too
similar to things from earth's past. I think that at some point, long
ago, Equestria and earth were in contact somehow, and that the
emergence of Equestria is not a singular event. Or maybe the
connection was more subtle.
I've
described my impression of Celestia - that she seemed like something
both more, and other than a pony. Like she was some kind of sci-fi
energy being just pretending to be a pony. I think I wasn't on
exactly the right track. I think she and Luna are fairies.
Now don't
get all huffy. Think about it with me here - throughout history,
there have been endless stories of Alfheim, Fairylands, Faery Queens,
and roving fairy bands. 'Thomas the Rhymer' comes to mind. The
Eurussian Zone had a long history of such stories. So did lost Japan,
before it became uninhabitable. The Panasians, even the Northamerican
Alliance has stories like that.
What if
there was some truth to them? What if there has always been a
subworld to the earth, a related but thinly connected realm where
beings of thought and will and - magic- existed. Maybe that is where
all the stories of fairylands and fairy queens came from. Maybe such
a realm, ruled by immortals, has taken many forms. Maybe a land of
intelligent ponies is the latest experiment, or fashion. Or maybe
this is just one such realm among many. Or, as I am beginning to
think, this is the last fairy realm left.
Maybe the
others died out, or separated too far from Earth to ever make contact
again. Maybe Celestia and Luna are the last of their kind, the last
immortal fairies of history, and this is their private cosmos, their
magical land. And maybe the reason they have returned to salvage the
earth, as I see the point of the emergence of Equestria, is because
they feel they owe humanity something. Or if not humanity, the world,
Nature, the rest of the living things of earth.
Now it's
just a theory, and I don't have a lot to back it up, but something
did make me think of it. I'll tell you about it, maybe you can tell
me what you think. You were always better with the cosmic stuff than
I was.
I was
helping Perspicuity sort out her basement. Before you give me the
usual, it isn't like that. I'm not being a sucker for a pretty flank
here. Things are getting serious for me with Perspecuity. I really
care about her, and I think she may just feel the same about me. I
hope, anyway.
She lives
in her telescope shop, upstairs. But downstairs, underground, she has
quite the basement. The place is filled with stuff, things I never
expected I would see in Equestria. An old-fashioned record player,
the kind they had back in the - I don't know for sure, but, maybe the
1920's or so? It had a crank on it. I couldn't believe it. It looked
for all the world like something from the human world. And maybe it was.
We were
trying to find a box filled with gemstones. Like I said, the economy
is kind of unfathomable to me, at least right now, and apparently
precious jewels are fairly common. Still, they aren't on every
corner, and she needed more to finish a telescope she was building
for somepony in Hoofington. She reckoned that she had a spare box of
gems somewhere down there, so we spent the day going through her basement.
In a
corner, I found a set of shelves. They looked like they had been
carved out of a single, huge slab of wood. They grow some incredibly
big trees here, or so I have been told. On the shelves were boxes and
knick-knacks and not a few books. One fell off the shelf when I was
poking the boxes with a hoof, looking for gems.
The book
was in English. Maybe. Sort of. Old English, I think. Really, really
old. The only time I have ever seen writing like that was in holos
from museums back from my college days. The book looked hand-made and
hand-bound, and I mean to use those words rather than hoof-made or
hoof-bound. It looked like a human world book, and it wasn't written
in the Equestrian Script I am desperately trying to learn.
I asked
Perspicuity about the book, and she hadn't a clue. It had just been
in her family, she figured, for generations. Likely before Luna's
banishment to the moon - don't ask, I'm not sure I understand any
Equestrian history yet. I don't know what to take as real or fiction
or what. For them, it's all real history, like the Great Economic
Collapse, or the first Nanoplague. The basic thing I got from her is
that the book was over a thousand years old.
It looked
pretty good for being that ancient. Things don't seem to fall apart
here the way they do on earth. I think entropy is different in
Equestria, somehow. So the book was in pretty good shape.
I tried to
look at what it was about, but I just can't read that Old English
script stuff, if that even is was it was at all. I mean, I'm no
expert, and maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it was just some ancient
Equestrian script from a by-gone age. But it looked familiar to me,
it really did.
I asked
Perspecuity what she thought was the reason that Equestria was
letting all of us newfoals in. She told me that Celestia had
announced, some time ago, that Earth had been detected again, and
that the creatures there needed the help of the Equestrians to
survive. I thought about that a lot. Not detected, but detected
again. That kind of supports my theory, don't you think?
What if
there has always been hidden worlds affecting human culture and
mythology - gods, demons, stories of monsters, and legends of strange
and beautiful fairylands - and there is some ancient bond between us?
Maybe this is all just so much foolishness. I don't know anything,
I'm just a simple, working pony. But I thought I would tell you,
because I thought you might find it curious. I mean, there are a lot
of things here that look way too close to something derived from the
human world. It makes me think.
Maybe it
is just that Form Follows Function. A book or a pitcher is the same
anywhere in the universe -or other universes- because the job they do
defines what they have to look like. A table is a table because
table-ness is a matter of practical need. That could explain
everything right there. A barn is a barn is a barn, because that is
what works.
Well,
enough of all that heady, mane-shaking stuff.
Let me
tell you about my son, Rocket.
Naw, he's
not my son, but I just about feel like I somehow ended up adopting
him. He really needs a father-figure, he never really had one I
guess, and he's latched onto me like a Vanderwaals clamp onto
plastcrete. He's changed a lot over the last month, I have to say,
and he is no longer the whiny little colt he used to be. Pretty much
now, if I say jump, he's in the air before the word leaves my mouth.
He really wants to matter to someone, and that someone seems to be me.
It's not
so bad. In fact, I guess I kind of like a little hero-worship, which
is what this kind of feels like. I don't know what I did to deserve
him thinking so much of me, all I did was have a talk with him after
the telescope incident, and listen to him a bit. Maybe that was
enough, I don't know. But he isn't a bad colt.
Right now,
in pony school, we are pretty much near the end of class. We still do
drills on Equestrian script and basic words and phrases and such, and
we aren't done entirely with the basics of tool use, and, like I
said, I don't know what to make of Equestrian history. It's clear
though that things are winding down, because we've been having visits
from job counselors, trying to help us find our place in society.
I want to
find something I can do in Greater Fetlock. I want to be close to
Perspicuity, that much I know for sure. She's been hinting that she
could use a strong stallion around the shop, but I don't know how I
feel about that. I'd rather have a job of my own. I don't exactly
feel comfortable with that situation, considering my feelings about
her. So, I've been a little concerned about what to do.
That
darned colt ended up causing a mess again, but the mess found me what
looks like a job. Maybe Rocket is some kind of Luck Pony or
something. I'm expecting a four-leaf clover to appear on his flank at
any moment, the way things go with him. His disasters are better than
most of my plans. Dang.
Rocket and
I were trotting around Fetlock - Greater Fetlock, not the small one -
and once again he sees something 'cool' and gets all excited and
dashes off without a thought. This time it was a fire truck, or
rather cart, the first one I've seen here. It makes sense that
Equestria would have fire departments, I mean the buildings are wood
and thatch and all renaissance fair like I've said, so fire is going
to be an issue.
The fire
cart was red, which was really odd, since I am used to seeing
emergency vehicles as only bright yellow fluorescent things. But red
works, and the cart had some kind of mechanical pump and a big steel
and brass tank. It looked like steel and brass, anyway.
The cart
was made so that ponies could pull it, and we soon met the fire
chief, or the equivalent of a fire chief, for Greater Fetlock, and he
seemed pretty proud of his station and his team.
Of course,
the reason we got to meet the chief was because Rocket managed to set
off the hose, blasting most of the street and several passers-by, not
to mention the inside of a bakery and... well let's just say that
there was a mess.
Long story
short, some of his team were retiring, and before I could say neigh,
Rocket had already volunteered us both to be Fireponies.
So, if the
tryouts go alright, it looks like me and the colt might just have
ourselves a new career, and a pretty heroic one at that. I'm
certainly going to do my best. Rocket and I have resolved to put in a
little practice before the tryout. We figure that there will probably
be a lot of pulling the cart really fast, pumping water, and holding
hoses, not to mention knowing the streets. So we have set up a little
practice area near the newfoal barracks where we try pulling ropes
around and hauling heavy things in a cart we borrowed. I bought us a
map of Greater Fetlock, and we try to memorize new routes every time
we go visit Perspicacity, which is a lot.
Glimmershine
- our pony school instructor, remember? - is pulling for us.
Apparently we were the first in the class to show initiative to find
our own way to fit in, and so she's sort of holding us up as an
example of how ponies, working together, can do anything.
What has
this dang colt gotten me into?
I suppose
it's some sort of luck and all, but, well, no pressure, right? I
don't know what I'll do if we fail the tryouts. I'm trying not to
think about that. As best I can.
On another
topic, I've been thinking more about taking an Equestrian name.
'Noah' just doesn't fit in here, and it makes me sound like a
foreigner, and I don't exactly like that. It's not that anyone treats
me badly for being a newfoal, it's just that there is this distance
that comes from being a stranger... from a strange world. I don't
feel like anypony distrusts me exactly, for having once been human,
but... I think I would just feel more comfortable letting my past
species kind of settle into being a complete non-issue.
I am
thinking that if I make the tryouts, and become a proper Firepony, I
will go with the name 'Wildfire'. According to a lot of old movies,
that is a great name for a pony, the best. It would really seem to
fit the job, too, plus it is kind of classy.
Now, if I
don't make the tryouts, then I'm not so sure. It's kind of a toss-up
between 'Old Glue' and 'Horsemeat' at this point. no pressure, no
pressure. That colt. What am I going to do with him?
Oh! I have
managed to find out the answer to your request. I think it is really
incredibly open-minded of you, after all of my annoying preaching
about how you should join me in Equestria (as at the beginning of
this letter, sorry, again), that you would want to hear the other
side of the issue. I can't think of a better pony to hear about the
non-HLF viewpoint than our own ambassador Twilight Sparkle either. I
can see why you want to hear it directly from her. And I am more than
happy to help.
It wasn't
easy, but I managed to find out her schedule, so you can see her in
person. My new pegasus friend Skysinger knows a pegasus that knows
one of the Royal Guard. I vouched for you, and explained things, and
in the end he helped me out.
Apparently
she is taking a tour of most of the Northamerican Conversion Bureaus,
with one other of the original six ambassadors. According to my
source, they are going to start with Los Pegasus -what used to be
called Los Angeles- and then go on to Albuquerque, Memphis,
Bloomington, Hamtramck, Lancing, and finally, New New York. Since you
live in Michigan already, maybe Hamtramck or Lancing might be the
best places to catch up with her.
I really
feel that if you hear it directly from the horse's mouth, (I'm still
me, as you can see), you will find that the Human Liberation Front
may not necessarily have the best view of what is happening to the
earth, or what is best for it, or for the human race. I am very
excited to hear what comes of this.
Also, I
wanted to congratulate you on finding a new ladyfriend. Hannah sounds
like a wonderful woman, really nice and very smart. Wow, my old
flyboy pal Stephen dating an actress! That is pretty awesome, my man.
You should take her up for a tour of the city in your copter, if you
can get clearance. That is pretty awesome, my man. I just hope Hannah
turns out to be the one, you know what I mean. Maybe you could take
her to see Twilight too. While nowadays seeing talking ponies is
nothing special, how often do you get to meet a famous pony? I envy
you that. Nobody famous goes through Fetlock. Not even Greater Fetlock.
I look
forward to your next letter. I really appreciate you keeping up
correspondence with me, Stephen, especially since we have to do this
on actual paper and all. Well, you have a printer, but still. It's
isn't as easy as just using the hypernet. I just wanted to let you
know how much I do appreciate it.
Until next
time, your little (fire)pony (I hope!)
Noah / Wildfire
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