Chapter 10:
The first day – yes it was morning in the cave I had been given a watch with the correct time on it – had gone smoothly lots of notes had been taken, lots of explanations, some upset unicorns who couldn't stand the notion of an entire population of predator non magical apes who were more technologically advanced than them. Most had treated me with the respect you'd expect a bunch of multi-chromatic ponies would do after their princess already told them to treat me well, I wasn't overly happy with the amount of stuff they went through but I wanted to be free the best way to do this was to let them figure me out. For now, I needed to be cooperative and helpful and hope that soon I could start to enjoy my life – I dropped my glass… feelings that I didn't think were there chocked me for an instant while the glass was in free fall, images of my past, my mother, sister, loved ones and close ones all flashed before my eyes… I could feel the pressure build; and as the glass hit the floor it was like a bomb on a dam, all I could feel was pain and sadness I cried alerting the closest researchers. I still have some sense of stupid manly pride left and so I made a dash for the top room where I knew there were not any ponies to bump into and the room could be locked… I sprinted my heart feeling heavy in my chest… I locked the door behind me… tears were now flowing freely… and I collapsed to the bed cursing through tears worrying about my life I was so quickly ripped from.
I finally began to feel better after a few hours of bailing my eyes out, it was late in the evening now I had shut out everything in order to let my emotions flow; with eyes red and dried lines of shed tears across my face I finally unlocked the door. I found a watery eyed Luna awaiting me, without warning she hugged me tightly I resisted a little at first but then hugged her back my eyes felt like they had no more tears to cry but somehow they flowed anyway. "Ahm sorry I'm getting' your nice coat all wet," Luna sniffled and giggled "Stop being silly, I'm already getting wet" I looked up to her and she was indeed crying like me like foals or babies… we both smiled, a silent understanding of loss passed between us as we giggled and let the last of our tears fall. I break the hug sniffling a little, "so how may I help you Luna apart from shed tears together?" she managed a louder giggle as we pulled ourselves together, "We would like to know if you would like to stargaze and talk?" I nodded drying my eyes by taking my glasses off and rubbing the last of the tears away, I walked to the corner and offered a tissue for the Princess, she bowed her head in thanks before magically taking a tissue and softly wiping around her eyes. With that she teleported us to her observation point.
Groggy is the best term for that experience; perhaps this teleport sickness would be variable in how much I felt it. I looked up to the night sky Luna with her hoof pointed me towards the horizon, "I would like you to watch this," with that Luna's horn began to glow brighter and brighter her entire being filling the air with energy and light slowly in the distant horizon the Moon of Equestria lifted into view it was just a tinge blue when it was on course and moving around the planet her magic dissipated and the slight blue tinge of the moon faded.
"Wow… I mean, I know that you do control it but still… wow" Luna huffed obviously moving an entire Moon was no easy feat the air around us was cold I could only speculate that her energy was drained and the environment was refilling it from heat light friction, every type of energy gently drained to refill her magic reserve.
Luna leaned on me making my head stop trying to figure the world around it out, I gently sat down letting her head rest on my knees "Sorry it always takes a lot out of us" I smiled "No problem Luna, even if I am in an alternate dimension I'm still big and bad enough to let people lean on me haha," this only got a slightly confused look from Luna before she shook her head "we do not understand why you call yourself bad… its not the right thing to be, but we'll talk about that another time first I want to know more about your telescopes in orbit" she got comfortable looking up at me from my lap, I couldn't help but chuckle she was a large pony compared to Twilight but she was slightly more… tactile and just as curious as Twilight. "Our species have huge machines called Rockets, they fire like dragon's breath and lift huge scientific instruments into space above our planet, they are large loud and not the best way to get up there but we have yet to make Carbon Nanotubes to make a space elevator a blank face from Luna almost makes me chuckle loudly hmm, its essentially a very long tower… so tall in fact that it can reach a height where gravity is… zero well not technically but meh…" further odd looks were given "ok… so how is it that your species survive there?" Luna enquired "very protective clothing, made of a material called Kevlar; this material stops miniature meteors puncturing the suit, rubber and other materials protect us from radiation, vacuum and other deadly things in space – how do you do it?" she gave me an unimpressed look "Magic… and lots of it." Her emotion changed to relaxed as she looked to the night sky, "we are curious you speak of items and ideas far greater than ours but our sister explains you have a thirst for blood we do not see, I do not understand if you can make such wonders such as exploring the universe without Alicorn level magic and make a vast civilization also without magic, how can you be evil or even violent?"
It was my turn to look out to the stars a little sadder than the relaxed princess of the night, "I don't know, maybe because we are the top predators we still feel the need to be top of the pile and we know how to get it the easiest… the guy with the biggest stick essentially. Our world is one of great beauty, horrific truth and mind bogglingly awesome odds of how we have become what we are today; we could of died many, many times not to mention our success as a species we don't have the same natural weapons as other animals we just have our hands, minds and our insane probability as a species to survive. I cannot explain it but just as we believe to be at our darkest we also see our brightest; in a war less than 100 years ago, we found a darkness, a single man managed to push the thought of genocide of an entire part of our species for their belief alone, but in that darkness we also found light, we found we wouldn't sit by and let this evil have it's way we fought it an entire world at war for freedom and justice, there were too many deaths to count, but in the end what we see as good prevailed a lot was lost, and from the ashes we rose, creating international laws to stop evil rising again… however in our world those in power always become corrupt, so to this day in my world peace is never to reign supreme there is no one strong enough to take all liberties away and keep themselves from corruption, there is also no harmony strong enough to bind us together as an entire species – too many ideas of individual countries, power and the mistrust of fellow humans is strong. It sounds stupid but against all those odds there were those who made strong movements against that. Some braved into science and cured or made life easier for the masses, some lead ideals and legislation for peace and some inspired all of us the particular leader whom inspired the world when it was almost on the brink of total self destruction was a man called John Kennedy, I wasn't even alive nor one of his citizen's! However I have deep respect for a man who tried peace and winning disagreements with showing the right path… a path for all those on earth to follow, to aim higher and try to surpass each other in feats of knowledge and discovery rather than feats of war and pain."
I looked to Luna she was a little taken aback – I must admit I didn't realize I belonged in the debate club… "How strange your species are; both violent and yet so ready to be more than they are" I chuckled "yeah, a bit of madness a bit of brilliance and just a hint of harmony maybe one day they'll learn" a warm feathery wing pulled me into an unexpected hug "I guess they will – in the mean time I would very much like to hear about what you think we should do to colonize My Moon?" I was taken aback slightly "you want to colonize the moon, just like that?" Luna Smiled, "We have lived for more years than I think you'd like to count and yes we both act immature at times, but we do see the world we live in, and since times are relatively peaceful all beings have increased their population… it is time we needed new land and just as the griffons have thought before; my sister and I have tried to think of peaceful ways to expand the land to let our Ponies have the land they need to expand and grow. If you can imagine our home on the moon and further perhaps there will be no need to make military plans." Luna seemed upset by her last sentence I assumed the world is not controlled by Luna and Celestia alone but instead the world was just more peaceful than ours and even here in this land the idea of land, energy, food and resources still bought the idea of war to the minds of the rulers in order to provide for their subjects.
After discussing possible plans and a brief explanation of how rockets worked Luna had enough notes and was planning to explain her thoughts to Celestia, she hoped a new land to explore and colonize would put many ponies fears of war to rest and perhaps a new partnership between all the rulers of this world. She teleported me back to my house, I felt bizarre but overall good to go I realized it may only be a few hours until morning so I felt like sketching the ideas for the Luna bases. As I reached completion of the design (although my drawing skills are beyond terrible) I was teleported from my desk I landed on my ass, as there was no chair to support it, I find myself in front of a few ponies, Luna & Celestia.
"May I be of assistance?" groaning as I got up Luna gave Celestia a look, "I cannot force you however I belive it best for your own safety and our world to examine you in light of recent abilities not found in your own species, we found a book explaining your DNA, cell structure almost enough to dissect you to work out how you work. Now please we want to help" Celestia seemed genuine there was a sense of worry in her voice but she was right – although I seemed healthy and had an apparent ability to regenerate, there was untold concerns of what side effects the transportation had on me… if any. "Celestia, I will go along with any observation, thank you for your concern of my well being" Luna and Celestia smiled Ponies in medical overalls were allowed in and all I remember then was celestia putting her glowing horn on me and falling into a darkness no sound no light no feelings.