The Scales of Power
((Author's Note: Hello, all. I'm not sure why, but I've decided to peek my head into the world of fanfiction-writing, as well as reading. Bear with me, as this is my first time trying to write a real story. Heck, this is mostly experimental, so I may not even end up updating often, if at all (which is messed up considering how much I HATE seeing that, myself). I just want to see people's reactions to this first chapter, and my writing style. I know of some of my idiosyncrasies (preoccupation with ocular expression, issues with punctuation at the end of quotations, and excessive fondness for the idea of the subconscious), but I want to see how much they actually bother people, as well as see if there are any I didn't know about. Oh, and typos are fine to point out, too.))
((Disclaimer: I don't own My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, or any affiliated properties.))
Chapter 1: Hysterical Beginnings
"Ughh... thpew thpew-thpew!"
This, unfortunately, is how a tale of immense significance began for one man: waking up to a mouth full of dirt. After clearing his mouth of that unpleasantness, he looked blearily around, still half asleep and mostly wondering how the dirt got there.
The sight that greeted him was... odd, on several levels. First, there was the fact that he seemed to be lying prone on an unfamiliar, old-fashioned dirt road. It was long and winding, and he couldn't see anything of note in either direction along it, other than some unusually steep, faraway mountains (which he also didn't recognize) shrouded in clouds behind him. On either side of the glorified path were rolling hills of vivid green grass that waved in the light breeze as it soaked in the sunlight. Off in the distance, he could just make out some forests as well.
Now, he had never bothered with things like drugs or alcohol, and he never really liked going out to parties and such, so he was more than a little confused about how he could have ended up... wherever he was, without any memory of how he got there. After all, he couldn't have gotten drunk, or been drugged, and he was pretty sure that he didn't have any sort of obscure medical condition that could explain his current circumstances. Last thing he remembered, he was just reading a book at home!
Sighing in frustration (and, though he would hate to admit it, mounting panic), he attempted to turn his thoughts to the less obvious thing that struck him as odd; everything just looked... weird. The colors of his surroundings were too vivid, too solid. And whenever he tried to focus his eyes to see more detail in things, whether far or near, his head would throb. Honestly, it was almost enough to make him think he HAD been somehow drugged.
Finally sitting up, he looked down at his lap, and was further disturbed by this abstract visual strangeness when he got a glimpse of his own limbs. Nothing dramatic had changed in them- they retained their original shapes and everything, thank goodness -but they had that same unusual smoothness to them. In fact, even when he forced himself to focus despite the mounting headache, he could no longer see or otherwise sense the presence of his body hair, or even the intricate lines, wrinkles, fingerprints, pores, and moles that were supposed to adorn ANYONE'S entire BODY.
Confused and somewhat frightened at not knowing where he was, and fearing that something was wrong with his eyes or, God forbid, his mind, he started to hyperventilate.
"Wh-where am I? What's wrong with me?" he whispered to himself, as if expecting an answer to be forthcoming.
He shook himself, and did his best to shove his fear to the back of his mind for the time being. It was as he was taking several deep breaths, to help calm his racing heart, that he heard something from far behind him.
Turning around, he thought he caught a glimpse of something... landing?... on the other side of the hill that the road he was on went over. Frozen with indecision on whether to investigate, possibly getting some much-needed help from a friendly stranger, or stay where he was, giving himself a few more minutes to calm himself and remember (or at least think about) what was going on, the matter was quickly settled for him when a figure crested the hill.
When he was able to make out what the figure appeared to be, what little calm and confidence in his ability to handle his situation left him immediately.
'Is that... a pygmy, purple unicorn?'
Twilight Sparkle was feeling miffed. Scratch that, she was downright irritated. Her entire life, she had been a diligent and successful student and apprentice to her teacher, and her teacher had been just as good to her. She had never intimated that any of her questions were stupid or silly, and had even consulted with her on a number of occasions on important official matters. But today, of ALL days, her concerns had seemingly been cast aside by her royal highness, Princess Celestia.
Twilight had always been an academic, of sorts; she needed to know how things worked, whether magical or mundane. And though she knew that she had more of an interest in magical subjects, that didn't mean that she neglected her studies in others. It was just recently that she started to get herself more into folklore and myths. Reading them, she would always try to think of explanations for what happened in them, or, barring that, using the knowledge she had to conclusively determine the falsity and/or impossibility of them.
Things became a bit more serious when she happened upon the story of the Mare in the Moon. As she read more and more about it, she found that this was NOT one of those stories that she could immediately debunk, and when she discreetly mentioned it in passing to the Princess, her momentary serious, sad look had only increased her certainty; the story was true. There was once a being more powerful than Celestia- the Princess's sister, no less -who had almost taken over the kingdom and plunged it into eternal night.
If she were honest with herself, Twilight would admit to being frightened by this. The feeling only increased when she did some calculations from the dates and information she was able to extrapolate from the story, finding that Night Mare Moon would be returning within days! However, when she voiced her concerns in a letter penned by her faithful dragon assistant, Spike, they were waved away even as the Princess admonished her for secluding herself with her books. She even went so far as to send her on a royally official mission to help organize the Summer Sun Celebration in some obscure town and make herself some friends.
Emerging from her thoughts, Twilight sighed. She understood that the Princess wanted her to be happy, and she had read enough of the few psychological texts on ponies to know that friendship was important, but this was hardly the time! For Celestia's sake, if she was right, Equestria was about to be revisited by one of its darkest, most powerful enemies of all time!
"Oh, come on Twilight, cheer up!" Spike said, turning from the rushing scenery of the land far below and noticing her despondent state. "We're going to help with a celebration; it'll be fun! And if it makes you feel any better, we'll be staying at a library."
"Spike, the fate of Equestria is at stake, and I've been sent out to do busy work and 'make friends'." she responded, using a slightly mocking tone for the last part. "Since the Princess won't listen to me, I have to do something, but I don't know if I can without the informational resources of the Royal Equestrian Library!" She sighed again, shaking her head at her seemingly hopeless situation.
Spike still didn't know if he believed her, but whether or not she was right, he hated to see her so upset. Unfortunately, he couldn't really think of anything else to say to her, so he just patted her side as the royal pegasi pulling their carriage through the air started to bring it down for a landing a ways away from Ponyville. Twilight just flashed him a brief smile of thanks before reverting to her troubled look and preparing to exit the carriage.
Stepping down from their transport, Twilight (somewhat absentmindedly) thanked the pegasi who brought Spike and herself this far; it wasn't their fault that she had to go on this silly errand Princess Celestia had thought up. Waving as they flew off back toward Canterlot, which was currently hidden by the clouds, she turned around to start her short trek to Ponyville.
"Don't worry, Twilight. I'm sure that everything will be fine. And you might even make some friends here after..." Spike trailed off at Twilight's annoyed look. "Well, I'm sure that things will get better. So come on, just try to enjoy yourself. Please?"
Feeling somewhat exasperated, she nodded, if only to placate him. She had basically raised him, after all, so just as a mother wouldn't want her foals to be burdened with her adult problems, she didn't want Spike to be troubled because he saw her being troubled.
Cresting the hill they had been climbing on the path, it took Twilight a couple moments to notice something sprawled on the path ahead. Slowing down to a slow trot, she looked at it, and she honestly couldn't tell WHAT it was, though she did notice that it was staring at her. A battle ensued between her inquisitive nature and her determination to get things done quickly so she could try to save the kingdom; it took a few seconds, but her duty to save everypony eventually came out on top, as much as it caused her inner scholar weep, and she decided that she would have to just pass it by.
He couldn't believe what he was seeing. There, walking down the hill, straight towards him, was what looked like a miniature purple unicorn. It had a lavender-ish sort of coat, and a dark blue mane and tail, both of which had one pink and one darker purple streak going through them. It had extremely large eyes, kind of like a human's, only a bit more cartoonish, that matched her dark purple streak, and that he could somehow see the intelligence in. Its four legs seemed to just end in flat stumps, with no hooves to speak of. The most notable feature (other than the startlingly intelligent eyes), though, was its short purple horn, sticking out from under a part of its mane that hung over its forehead like bangs.
'I've cracked. I must have cracked.' he thought. However, even in his shock, the at-times-irritating logical part of his mind scoffed and laid things out for him. 'We can't rule out completely that this is all a hallucination of some kind,' it said, 'but this is far too random to be a probable product of our mind. We never would have thought this up in a million years; we're not that creative. Whether we're crazy, dreaming, or something more fantastical has happened, it remains true that we have to try to operate as best we can according to and within whatever circumstances we find ourselves in.'
All of this passed through his mind in an instant, and his subconscious conclusions did little to comfort him, though they did at least keep him from completely freaking out and fainting, or something like that.
As it came closer to him, he started to panic. He could see that it was more than a bit curious about him, but by the angle it was walking at, it seemed that it was going to pass him by. Just as it came up alongside him and was about to continue on, he took a shot in the dark based on what he saw in its eyes and desperately declared, somewhat louder than strictly necessary, "U-um, excuse me!"
Twilight stopped. Again she struggled with herself, but this time her inner scholar had back-up: compassion. Even with her limited social skills, Twilight could recognize the fear and desperation in the... creature's voice. She sighed, frustrated with herself for allowing herself to be sidetracked from her more important self-appointed mission of saving the world, but turned to face the creature, nonetheless.
"Yes?" she said. "Can we help you?"
The creature looked confused for a moment, until it noticed Spike and its eyes widened. Seeming to shake itself out of its thoughts, it turned back to Twilight. "Um, yes." it said. "Could you... possibly tell me where I am?" It really did look lost as it asked that.
Twilight was confused at that request, but answered all the same. "You're just outside of Ponyville," she said, before elaborating a bit, "just a couple hours southwest of Canterlot, as the pegasus flies."
"Oh." it said. Strangely, its shoulders seemed to slump, and its voice sounded even more lost and heavy than before as it continued. "Thank you for telling me. I really appreciate it." it gave its polite thanks with an extremely forced smile, the look in its eyes not having improved at all.
Twilight nodded and started to walk away, figuring that her little bit of help was enough to sate her need to help others in this case. However, when she glanced back, she saw him- she figured that it was probably male, based on its voice -sitting in the same spot, sort of staring into space, still wearing that strained smile, though it had slackened slightly and seemed to waver.
Feeling a pull at her usually academics-impeded heartstrings, she stopped once more and walked back towards him. Spike asked her what was up, but she just shushed him as she approached the poor creature.
Standing in front of him for a moment, she finally got up the courage to speak.
"Hi. My name is Twilight Sparkle. What's yours?" she asked with as pleasant a smile as she could muster. She felt pretty awkward and unsure, but she couldn't help but feel that the poor thing needed some help, and she wanted to give it to him if she could.
Throughout their entire exchange he was having trouble believing that he was talking to what was apparently a unicorn. Luckily, his logical side had finally gotten through to him, and he was able to at least not make a fool of himself. He was even able to feel incredibly fortunate, deep down, about the stroke of luck that was their having the same spoken language. The purple, yellow, and green lizard had thrown him for a bit of a loop, but that wasn't nearly as odd as the pygmy purple unicorn, so he got over it quickly.
After he had gotten his answer from the unicorn, he had felt even more crushed than before. He had been hoping that, somehow, he may have heard of wherever he was, so he at least wouldn't be in a completely alien, unfamiliar world. Even as troubled as he was, he didn't want to burden the creature that was kind enough to talk to a thing that it, as far as he could tell from its expression when it first saw him, had never seen the like of him before, and so didn't know whether he was even safe. So he did his best to smile as he thanked it as politely and sincerely as he could...
Unfortunately, it became apparent to him that he didn't do a very good job at it, since it came back with concern clear as day upon its face, suddenly introducing itself to him. He sighed mentally, once again reminded that he's not always as good at hiding his feelings as he usually is.
"Hello Twilight Sparkle. It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Eddie." he said in response to her (he decided to think of it as a her, since its voice seemed pretty feminine, and he felt it was both troublesome and rude to think of this kind creature as a mere 'it'), subconsciously amused at himself for trying to only be known by his nickname even in a situation like this. He smiled; for some reason it made him feel a little better, talking to someone friendly when he WASN'T desperately fishing for information.
Twilight shifted from side to side, unsure of what to say or do next. Eddie was no better, glancing everywhere but at her face, being both inept at starting conversations in general and being worried that anything he said or did could coincidentally be taken as rude or bad by Twilight, since she was an entirely different species, with possibly entirely different body language cues and customs. It seemed that two socially inept beings were trying to interact, and, surprise, it wasn't going very smoothly.
"Ummm... so, Twilight Sparkle, huh? That's a pretty name. I haven't heard of many people with names whose meaning was so... apparent." Eddie finally commented, that being the first non-heavy topic of interest that came to mind.
Twilight smiled at the compliment, though she gave him a slight look of confusion at the same time. "Thanks. I like your name, too. But having a name like mine, with a meaning, as you put it, is pretty normal. Yours is the same, isn't it? Eddy; a swirling of air, water, or anything that moves fluidly, right? And what did you mean when you said, 'peepull'? What are 'peepull'?" she asked, the floodgate of curiosity having been opened somewhat with his ice-breaking compliment.
"Uhhh..." he started, a little nervous at the sudden shift in energy and expression that Twilight had gone through in just a couple seconds. "Thanks. Really? That's normal here? That's kind of nice, actually... But no, my name is spelled E-D-D-I-E; it's short for my proper name, Edward, which I really don't like too much, so please disregard it. As for people... I don't know; it kind of just refers to anybody, or at least it did where I'm from. Um, humans, I guess. That's what I am, I mean..."
She made note of his particular name preference, but otherwise decided to leave that matter for another time. Her eyes were already alight with interest, which only grew brighter with each answer. "'Anybody'..." she mused. "I guess that's the same as 'anypony', then, based on how you used it. But anyway, does your name really not mean anything? It must mean something. But you're called a 'hyoomin', huh? What are they like, then?" she continued eagerly.
When he made to move back a bit, as her enthusiasm had brought her into his personal space, he realized that he had still been sitting on that dirt road for their whole conversation. He chuckled at himself for being so absent-minded, but figured it wasn't too embarrassing, considering what he was still dealing with. Bracing himself, he stood up and stretched. Twilight's eyes widened at that, with a single thought running through her head: 'Tall...'. The top of her head came up to just about a quarter of the way up his chest.
Spike just thought the thing looked pretty cool standing up, instead of slumped down on the ground with a gloomy expression like before.
"Ha, sorry, but as nice a prospect as it is to try to exchange all the knowledge of two sapient species in one conversation, do you think we can continue somewhere other than this particular patch of dirt road?" he requested with a wry look on his face.
Twilight actually blushed at that, embarrassed and a little ashamed that she had been so unmindful of his comfort even though she came back out of concern for his well-being. She really had to rein in her thirst for knowledge, but it was always a struggle; and one that she often lost, to her chagrin.
"Hehehe..." she laughed nervously. "Sorry about that. Why don't you walk with me? We can talk more on the way, if you'd like."
She turned around and started to walk along the road, adopting a worried expression. Being broken out of her question-spree had reminded her of the crisis she had yet to figure out a way to avert. The thought that Eddie might be somehow involved briefly crossed her mind, but was almost instantly discarded; she had seen no mention of something like him ANYWHERE, let alone in any of the books concerning Night Mare Moon and her return.
Eddie followed after her, not really trying to catch up just yet. Now that he had calmed down and been reassured by meeting some— pony? —friendly who could help him, he was able to notice something even more subtle than whatever was going on with how things looked: he felt good. No… that wasn't quite right, though it was indirectly true. The sun was shining, the air was crisp and clean, and it just felt like all was right with the world. Like the world itself was inherently good, in every sense of the word. And if it hadn't been making him feel so at peace, he probably would have been disturbed by it (and maybe even give MORE credence to the "being drugged" theory). After all, he had hardly been a very "chipper" person, at least on the inside, at any prior point in his life.
Coming back to his senses, Eddie realized that he had been walking with Twilight for a few minutes now, and neither of them had said anything. That big lizard of hers had even fallen asleep on her back, and seemed to be sunbathing as it slept. 'Maybe lizards are cold-blooded here, too.' he thought absently. Speeding up, Eddie came up alongside Twilight, finally seeing her troubled expression before he could try to restart their previous casual, but animated, conversation. Instead, he immediately asked her what was wrong.
Twilight started, being jerked out of her somewhat self-pitying musings. Looking over at the source of the disruption, she found Eddie looking at her with concern, which kind of surprised her, considering that he still seemed to have his own immediate troubles to deal with.
"Huh?" she said. "Oh, it's nothing, really…" she started. However, as Eddie continued to just look at her with concern, she couldn't hold back. With both the Princess and Spike not taking her seriously, she NEEDED someone to listen to her worries, even if they were a total stranger.
And so she told him. Night Mare Moon, the mysterious Elements of Harmony, the prophecies; she told him everything. Eddie just stayed silent through her rant. He could tell easily enough that she needed to get this off her chest. Even so, he had to struggle to take all of the information in and not ask any questions, despite not having any of the basic background knowledge that would have made it easier to understand. He was able to pick up enough to have a better grasp of where he was, though. He seemed to be in another world entirely. There was such a thing as magic here, and the dominant, ruling species was called, and closely resembled ('Kind of…' he thought), ponies. The way Twilight Sparkle had talked about Princess Celestia made it seem that she was the ruler, as well as the Sun Goddess, of this land— apparently called "Equestria" —which made Eddie wonder why she wasn't a queen. 'Well,' he thought, 'there was that anybody-anypony word difference; maybe the word "princess" has the meaning of the word "queen", here.' As important as all this information was, though, Eddie was focused on Twilight and how truly frightened she seemed.
Finally, after about a half hour of talking, Twilight was done. The two had stopped and drifted to the side of the road to sit on the grass as soon as she had started her emotional explanation, and now they just sat in silence.
After a couple moments, Eddie hesitantly raised his hand and placed it on her back, hoping to provide some small comfort.
"You're certainly taking on a lot of responsibility, Twilight Sparkle. I mean, wow, saving the world..." he stated. She seemed to slump a bit at that. "However," he started again, causing her ears to perk forward, "I think you might be able to handle it." He said that with a small smile, not deterred by the face full of doubt that she displayed.
"I may not know anything about anything in this world, but from what you told me you have more going for you than most. You've been taught by possibly the most powerful entity in the kingdom, your own magical power and skills are not inconsiderable, and you actually know what's going to happen. And… it may not be much," he started uncertainly, "but I'd like to help. Even now you're helping me by giving me some of the information I need to understand this place, rather than running away or ignoring me like I'm guessing most would, and I'd like to repay that. So, if you'll have me, I'll do what I can to assist you." Done making his plea, Eddie looked at Twilight with a mixture of apprehension and hopeful determination.
Twilight was a bit stunned at his proclamation. This creature had just been dumped into her land, not knowing anything about it, and here he was offering to help her try to essentially save the world. It was overwhelming: a reclusive unicorn like her being confronted with somepony wanting to just stick around and help her. Still, she needed the help, and on some level she did greatly appreciate his kindness, so, after a moment, she gave him a warm smile and nodded.
Eddie was greatly relived when he saw that she had accepted his offer. He wouldn't lie to himself; he hoped she was wrong. However, waking up in a world apparently ruled by talking ponies made him decide to give doomsday scenarios as much credence as anything else. Noticing the hint of nervousness she had let slip into her smile, he remembered how uncomfortable he used to occasionally (and sometimes still did) get when someone (especially someone he barely knew) was being nice to him, as well as her reluctance to make friends during this time of crisis. He quickly tried to assure her that he wasn't pushing anything on her.
"Oh!" he said in a rush, seeming somewhat flustered as he tried to search for the right words. "Um, you don't have to worry about being my friend or anything, okay? You're right: friendship is important, but keeping the world safe from disaster is more so. You're helping me and I'm helping you; you don't need to worry yourself over anything else, Twilight Sparkle."
Twilight felt a bit better after hearing Eddie say that, and offered up a more heartfelt, genuine smile in response. She was puzzled as to why she also felt a little hurt, but decided not to pursue what the reason might be at the moment. Instead, she stood up and started walking down the road again, gesturing for Eddie to follow her. Suddenly, she turned around.
"Call me Twilight."
((So, there's the first chapter. Again, I'd just like to hear people's thoughts. Yes, it is a Human-in-Equestria story, but I like those, so there. *crosses arms and looks away with a huff*))
