When I got back home from work the next day, Celestia was waiting for me. She was excited, almost like a dog that was about to go for a ride in a car. It was a little close to that, I suppose.
She was cheerful, for the most part. It seemed like she expected this trip to be fun, but something told me that she already felt it was a pointless venture.
Every so often, she became a bit downtrodden, but when she noticed me looking at her, she cheered back up and put on a smile for me. This would just be a way to pass the time for her. She wanted something that would take her mind off her situation.
"I'm gonna bring some snacks." I called out to her from the kitchen, "You didn't eat them all again, did you?"
"Was I not supposed to?"
"Aw, really?" I opened the cabinet. They were all still there. Almost all. "Again, you have made a fool out of me."
I heard her giggle.
"If we get really hungry, maybe we could have like, a picnic or something. Would you like that?"
"A picnic? That sounds like a wonderful idea!"
"Huh... I guess it does." How strange of me to offer that. I'm not an outdoorsy person.
"Oh, It's been so long since I've had an actual picnic." she said, a fondness in her voice.
"Yeah, same here."
"I'd usually have one with my sister, but our guards are very obtrusive. Don't tell any of them I said this, but sometimes they can get annoying."
"I don't think you'll have to worry about me telling them anything."
She chuckled. "I suppose. Are there any places with a good view?"
"I might be able to find something like that. You're really happy today, you know that?"
"I'm just excited. I feel so free. No guards following me, no little ponies to look up to me. I'm not expected to do the right thing every minute of my life, here."
"Well, I still expect you to do the right thing, Celestia. You can't really avoid that."
She sighed. "If I made a mistake in Equestria, a whole nation could be affected. It's more stressful than you may think. Here, if I made a mistake, nobody would be there to judge me. But... I loved it. I loved my life as Princess. Seeing the smiling faces of my subjects as the sun rose day after day..." She sighed, then changed the subject. "I've seen very little of this world so far. Your neighborhood is such a small part of it."
"This is just one town too, Celestia. There are thousands of towns and cities out there."
"I know, it's amazing."
"You know, there are more than seven billion people on this planet."
"I know... I read it before... And it's just... Wow... I can't even imagine 7 billion humans. It's just unfathomable."
"Oh yeah."
"This world is so amazing. There's so much to learn."
"Yeah, we're pretty cool. Hey, are you alright with leaving at five?"
"That's fine to me. Twenty minutes, correct?"
"Yeah, somewhere around there." I replied.
I packed the two of us the food I had picked out. My calendar caught my attention as I rummaged through the kitchen. First week of September. It's gonna start getting cold. Right now, it was warm, but there was just no telling with Wisconsin weather.
Screw Wisconsin, man. One day it's like 90, the next it's like 40. It just goes down here. We don't get the luxury of up in the wintertime. Numb fingers make it hard to write. Experiment tested and proven. *I remember writing this part. My fingers were so cold*
As I loaded what I was bringing into the car, Celestia joined me. "So how big is this town? You haven't told me the name, so I couldn't look it up."
"I think it's pretty average... For us at least. There's more than 35000 people living here."
"That's... amazing."
"I think the sign said something like 36... something. Whatever."
"Canterlot is one of our most populated cities, but this city almost has the same population as it. And you said it was average? What exactly is considered large?"
Bend over, I'll show ya. "Out east, New York City had over eight million people."
She nodded. "I don't understand how that's possible."
Guess she already knew about New York. She's done a lot more research than I thought.
"Yeah, it's a pretty crazy thought. Our country has like 300 million or so. They gotta go somewhere. This place is pretty ok, though."
"Ok? What do you mean?"
"Well, it's an alright place to live, I guess. I didn't really have anything to explain that sentence."
"Oh. Is that so?"
"Well, I don't go out much. I don't really know much about it."
"I'll keep that in mind. You humans are amazing, you know that? The more I learn about this world, the more amazing it becomes."
"Just wait, it'll get even better. Are you ready to go?"
"I suppose I am."
The two of us got into the car. I started it and backed out of my driveway.
"I got a little list of some places l think might be of interest. Since Twilight arrived at a high school, maybe we can start at my old high school."
"We may as well try. Is it far?"
"Not really." I made that my first destination. "There's actually another high school in town, but I actually don't know where it is. Unless... That one place..."
"Sorry?"
"Right, you weren't... Anyways, a few years ago, I went to this sport thing on the other side of town. My buddy was playing football."
"Tristan?"
"No, one of my other friends. You might meet him. He's pretty nice. Anyways, I'm pretty sure that place may have been a school, too."
As I said, my old school was pretty close. I parked in the somewhat empty parking lot. The cars that were here are probably for teachers and other staff.
The two of us got out of the car. I leaned against it as she looked at the building.
"School started pretty recently. About a week or so ago." I said to her.
"Why is everything here so big?" she asked me, looking up at the top.
"I dunno. This place has four floors, counting the basement. Over there's the gym." I pointed to the end of the building. "We have two swimming pools, an outdoor jogging track, and a football field. There's a few tennis courts further down, past the bridge. Don't actually know if the school owns them, though."
"How many students attend this school?"
"About... Maybe 1400. I think."
"1400 students..."
"To our left, that whole block is owned by the school. That big, grassy field over there. So the whole thing takes up about four city blocks."
"Amazing..."
"You can get closer, if you want."
"I... suppose."
She joined me as I started walking towards the school.
"So how long did you attend this school?"
"All four years. Favorite had to be year three, when I was in eleventh grade. I had AP chem, and the class was awesome. Don't remember learning anything important, but I do remember talking a lot about nothing related to school. I've never laughed more in a class."
"Is that so? Did you even pass?"
"Well... technically... I did pass, but... We all passed. All eight of us. The work was insane. To me, at least. Everyone else... seemed to be fine. The only reason I passed was because my teacher was a nice guy. I distinctly remember being disappointed in myself when I didn't take the AP exam."
"That's a shame."
"Yeah, I was not the best student. One of my old friends was taking three AP classes at once, and to top it all off, he was on... uh... some sort of sports team. Tennis, maybe... No, not tennis... Whatever, who cares? It's been 7 years. I can't imagine it's important."
"That's impressive."
"You think you could do all that?" I asked her.
"Who do you think I am?"
"I guess. Yeah, he was pretty smart."
"And you're not?"
"Oh, shush. I got out of this place a year and a half before I was supposed to. Skipped first grade and graduated early."
"That's... something. Does that happen often?"
"I doubt it."
We stopped at the street between the building and the lot, looking at the building.
"It's weird seeing it like this with no people around." I said, "Never thought I'd have to come back. Although, it's not exactly out of my way."
"I don't feel anything here."
"So, this isn't the place?"
"I don't think so. There's nothing magical here. Let's try the other high school."
"Alright."
She waited until I turned away from the school before walking back to the car. I remembered exactly where the place was, but was still a little conflicted on whether or not it really was a high school.
After a long-ish drive, in a town, at least, I pulled into the parking lot. Turns out, it really was a school.
"Anything here?" I asked.
"I don't think so."
"Hmm... Oh well. I think... the next stop... should be... The Wal-Mart area where I found you."
"Alright."
"After that, we'll head over to the police station area, and then we can explore the downtown area. Those last two are pretty close together, though. Uh... yeah."
"Was there... any particular reason you chose these places?"
"Well, they're kinda situated in a broad circle around the town. And my old school was about in the middle. That way, we can get a general area where we should look. And, if you ever have any reason to head to these places again, you'd already know where they are."
"I suppose. I don't think I'll be doing much wandering around on my own, though."
I shrugged. "Still, it might be useful. We're exploring around anyways."
She sighed, looking out the window.
I took a slightly different route to get back to Wal-Mart to show her where the hospital was. It wasn't very far from the second school, but unfortunately, it was on the other side of town from my house. A solid five mile drive. Never really had an issue with it before, but I didn't really like it. What if I got a booboo?
At each of our destinations, she never said anything in the positive. She couldn't feel anything different, no matter where we went.
"It's just as well." she stated near the end of our journey, a hint of sorrow in her voice, "I didn't expect us to be successful anyways."
"Oh, don't be like that."
Right now, we were walking around in the downtown area. Celestia's idea to walk. She said she was a little cramped in the car.
The downtown area of my town was almost like an outdoor mall. Stores lined the streets for quite a while, stopping a ways down. Not just stores, though. Tax places, a few banks, some restaurants... and other... stuff. Lotta random stores here.
It actually wasn't like that at all, but if it helps...
Don't look at me like that, it's not like I just go around randomly and mark down places of interest. I don't live in some exciting wonderland of magic and sparkles. That's where Celestia lives.
Celestia let out a sigh, then went to sit on a nearby bench.
"You miss Equestria?" I asked, joining her.
"It hasn't even been a week yet. I've never been... I've never been trapped like this. It's great here, but..." Another sigh.
"Great, huh?"
She smiled. "It's so amazing to be in this world. I'm awed by it." She looked at someone walking by us, who returned a smile.
I looked to the sky. "Yeah. Sometimes I forget how awesome humans are. So..." I looked back to her. "What do you wanna do now?"
"I don't know. I guess I'm hungry. You said that we could have a picnic."
"Oh yeah, forgot about that."
"It's nearing nighttime." she said.
I checked my phone. It was almost eight. "Yeah. You wanna get some more pizza?"
"That sounds nice. I rather enjoyed it cold."
"Same here."
We walked back to my car, which was parked at the next block over. I called in a large pie with nothing good on it before I got in the car. They said it'd be ready before I got there.
"Oh, hey, they sell meat there." I said to her.
"We aren't getting any, are we?"
"Well, no. I just wanted you to know that. I never get anything other than plain cheese anyways. I don't like the taste. Besides, it's pricier."
"Plain cheese just sounds boring."
"Yeah, I know."
I drove there, picked up the delicious grease disk I ordered, then we took off again.
"This smells so good..." she said.
"You still wanna try that picnic?" I asked her.
"Of course." She smiled.
"That's the spirit."
There weren't any lonely-tree-on-a-hilltop kind of places in this town, as far as I knew, so I just brought her to one of the grassy parks. This particular park was located near the college. It was usually empty, as far as I knew, even though there was a playground on it. Like she wanted, it had a nice view.
"This alright with you?" I asked, parking nearby.
"It's perfect." She got out of the car.
This place was somewhat out of the way, so there were never a lot of people around. She stared over the field.
"You know, I've never actually been here before." I said.
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah. I pass by it every once in a while, but I've never stopped here. We can get a good view of the sunset from here."
She smiled at me.
She sat down on the grass, looking at the horizon. I brought the pizza with me as I joined her. The two of us got a slice from the box.
"This is really, really good." she said after taking a bite.
"Pizza's always good."
"So... was this a date?" she asked me, mouth full of food.
"Wow... Where did that come from?"
"I don't know, it just seems like it is. Is it?"
"Uh... Y-yeah. Yeah, I guess it is." What an embarrassing question. "I mean, I don't think it started out like that, but I think it turned into one at some point."
"That's what I thought, too." She chucked. "Don't worry, I'm not mad."
"Well... Celestia... you're a... You're a beautiful woman. It's not... Uh... sorry, nevermind."
"Beautiful? Lucky you." She reached for the box again, then took another bite of the pizza. "This is fantastic." She continued talking with a full mouth. "So, is that how it works here? Take a woman around town and buy her pizza and she sleeps with you?"
"Princess!"
"What? It's a legitimate question."
"No, of course that's not how it works!"
"So how does it work?"
"How does what work?"
"You know, your human courtship rituals."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
She laughed.
"Why are you asking me this?!"
She kept laughing. "Because it's funny! Your reactions are priceless! You should see how red your face is right now."
"C'mon, don't do that to me."
"You're the one who's taking me on a date."
"Who cares what it's called?"
"Then why did you say it was?"
"Shut up!"
She laughed again. After a small while, she spoke again. "I'm rather flattered you think this way."
"What?"
"Well, we're both adults, aren't we? We can make our own decisions. I can make my own decision.
"I feel like I'm getting some mixed signals, here."
"Is that so?" She shrugged. "Perhaps I'm not as good as this flirting thing as I thought I was."
"You weren't flirting at all, you were just messing with me."
"Perhaps I was."
"You were!"
Another laugh. After she calmed down, she said, "You know, I'm not necessarily rejecting you."
"Uh..."
"In fact, I suppose this makes things a little simpler. I'm glad you've at least made it clear to me from the start. I'm an object of beauty in Equestria, as well, and as such, I'm no stranger to advances of this nature. Although, it's a lot less common, and a lot harder for a pony to even get to me in the first place considering my position. You, on the other hand..." She turned away, then leaned her back against my shoulder. "You're my roommate."
"Should we just go home? This got really awkward for me."
"Awkwardness makes things interesting, don't you think?"
"I... I'm gonna shut up, now." My embarrassment was palpable.
"You're easy to embarrass."
She got another piece. I wasn't hungry anymore. Soon enough, she had devoured the rest of it.
"Geez, you get enough?"
"I can ask you the same thing. You barely ate any." She laid her head on my leg and looked up at me. "You know I didn't mean any of that, right? I was just kidding around."
I looked down at her.
"I don't really want anything to be awkward between us. You told me what you want, so here's what I want. I want to get home and you were nice enough to help me."
"That's not the reason, Celestia. I mean, it'd be nice, of course, but that's not me. That's not how I work. I just get attached to nice people really easily. In that show I talked about, you're always nice, so I felt attached to you."
She smiled. "That's a strange reason."
"What?"
"Nevermind. You know, I suppose not all of that was a joke."
"What do you mean?"
"That wasn't a rejection. Of course, it wasn't acceptance, either. Approval, maybe, is more of a correct word. I certainly don't dislike you. Um... Hmm..." Her expression changed. It seemed like she was thinking about what to say.
"I... am... not going to ask you to say anything else."
"Oh, thank goodness. Sorry." She turned her body to look at the sunset, then sighed. "Amazing..."
I place my hand on her shoulder. She snuggled against me. When she got up, we would leave. So I waited.
"You know, if this really was a date, I think it went well." she said.
Even after all these years, the sunset was still great. The top of the sun dipped under the horizon, but Celestia didn't move.
We've been here for a while...
Wait... Is she... I poked her. She's sleeping. Why is she sleeping? I poked her again. You gotta be kidding me...
I let out a sigh before decided to do something that I've really only seen in movies. I gently got out from under her, gently laying her head on the ground. After tossing the pizza box in a trash can and opening the door, I picked her up and carried her to the car.
Heavy...
This felt weird. Really, really weird.
She never opened her eyes. Maybe she really was asleep. I buckled her in and took off for home.
On my way back home, I noticed something odd. There weren't all that many cars out. Given the time, that seemed normal. However, I constantly saw a pair of headlights in my rear-view mirror.
I turned off of the main road onto a side street. The car turned down the street as well. After a while, I turned down a different road, then another. After that, the car disappeared. Weird.
I got the sneaking feeling that they were following me. Of course, snaking through town in itself isn't a reason to be suspicious. I just didn't like the idea of it.
I didn't see anything else like that on the way home.
When I finally pulled into my driveway, I sighed, then looked at Celestia.
"C'mon Celestia, tell me you're awake." I said to her, not loud enough to wake her, but loud enough for her to hear me
No response. Just her quiet breathing.
Right then... How should I do this? Might as well make it easy on myself and...
I walked to my house and made sure the door was open before returning to Celestia. I unbuckled her and picked her up again, making sure I didn't bump her head on the doorframe. It took some careful maneuvering due to her size and weight. She was a lot bigger than your average women. Around here, at least.
I brought her inside and placed her on my bed, then covered her with one of the blankets.
I walked back out and closed the door on the car, then headed inside.
"That was weird." I muttered to myself. I was still thinking about the car. I guess it was my normal thought process. I didn't forget stupid stuff like this. Instead, I forget people's names and phone numbers.
Before I went to sleep today, I glanced outside from between the front room curtains.
