Chapter 7: Minimal Truth

Twilight's house, Ponyville
Local time: 1400
Ten days since arrival

Twilight had left to get the rest of her friends, leaving me and Luna in an awkward silence. We were lost in our own thoughts and I was trying to think of a way to break the silence. "So… how's life in Canterlot?" I know, not the best question, but I was never good with awkward situations.

"Oh, it's fine… I wonder what's taking Twilight so long." We sat there looking at various parts of the house until I got bored. So I closed my eyes and started singing songs in my head trying to pass the time. I was doing this for about ten minutes until I heard Luna get up. I opened my eyes expecting to see Twilight and her friends, but instead I saw Luna looking around the room with a look of confusion on her face. "You ok princess?"

"Fine, I just thought I heard music." She continued to look around and I started to resume my previous activity of singing songs in my head. I was thinking of Photograph by Nickelback when Luna's brow furrowed in concentration. "There it is again, I swear I hear music." I still couldn't hear anything, but I did notice that Luna was starting to talk like everyone else was. "Thank God, I didn't think I would be able to stand her talking like she used to all the time." I thought. She was still looking around the room looking for the source of the music I couldn't hear.

"I don't hear anything. Are you sure you hear music?" She looked at me like I was crazy. "I'm sure that there is music, but I can hear it, it's like I'm standing right next to the source, but I don't see anything, and now it's gone again." I just shook my head. "Well if music was being played, perhaps you could hum the tune." I said waiting for her to not be able to do it. Then she started humming, but what surprised me was that she was humming Photograph. "Do you know that song?" I asked. I needed to know what was happening. As far as I knew there were no songs that had that tune in Equestria.

"No… never have I come across a song like that. It was different than any song ever composed." My mind began to recede into my thoughts. "She was humming Photograph, but that's impossible it doesn't exist here. Could she have accidentally read my mind and heard it. No, if it was an accident she wouldn't have said she heard music twice, was she intentionally reading my mind? No, then she wouldn't have been so focused on looking for the source of the music." As I continued to ponder what was happening, Twilight returned with her friends, bringing me out of my thought and halting Luna's search for the source of the music.

"Well now that we're all here, I can tell you why I gathered you here." Twilight's friends looked at her, then at Luna, glanced at me and looked back to her. "I thought you would all want to be here when I asked Steel how and why he has a picture of humans." Instantly, five jaws hit the floor, four figuratively and one literally. I just stared at Pinkie wondering how her jaw was able to reach the floor. "Steel, do you mind if I showed them the picture?" I didn't say anything and just got it out of my saddlebag. There were five noticeable gasps when Twilight's friends saw the picture.

"Oh, who are they? Are they friendly? Oh can-" Pinkie was then cut off when Applejack put her hoof in Pinkie's mouth. "Darling, how did you get a picture of humans? They're nothing but a myth only seen in dreams." I smiled at that comment, not willing to share the fact that they were nothing but creatures created by imagination back home. "No. They exist, I've seen them and I can assure you that they are real."

"Well then, where are they? How come nopony has seen them except for you?" Rainbow Dash asked, just from her tone I could tell she didn't believe me. "Nopony from here has seen them, but the ponies from my homeland have. We lived in peace for a long time, but all good things come to an end." All of them just looked at me wondering what I meant. Finally, Luna spoke up.

"I'm afraid I don't understand what you mean by all good things must come to an end." Damn, I just realized the position I put myself in. They wanted answers, but I couldn't tell them the whole truth. If I did, not only would they be scarred for life, but the might find out that I was once human. All I could do was to tell them a small part of the truth. "Well, about a few years ago a group of humans and ponies that believed in a different idea than most people created their own country. We had no problem with this… until they attacked. They destroyed the two tallest buildings in the known world, killing many innocent people and ponies. That action caused a war and my homeland was never the same again." They all looked at me with fear in their eyes. Even after giving them the least graphic version of the story possible, they were still afraid.

We talked for about an hour about the human race. They asked about eating habits, clothing styles, farming techniques, and how advanced our society was. They were almost out of questions when Rarity asked a question I was hoping to avoid. "Darling, I was looking at your picture and I noticed there is black marker over the faces of some of these humans." I visibly cringed at the question, and everyone noticed. "They have black marker over their faces because it's tradition. Speaking of that reminds me… Twilight, do you have a black marker I could borrow?" Without getting up, she levitated a black marker over to me. I took the marker and covered the faces of Ramirez and Jenkins 'updating' my picture. They all watched me 'update' my picture and stared at me before Pinkie spoke up.

"Why did you do that, silly? Now you can't see their faces!" I shook my head. Apparently, she hadn't listened to a word I said. "That's the point." They all looked at me confused and I started gathering my things "I don't understand. Wouldn't thou wish to remember their faces?" *sigh* "Well, it looks like Luna hasn't fully adjusted to the 'new' way of speaking," I thought. I looked at them for awhile before responding. "I don't want to remember their faces, since it only brings back bad memories."

"Ah don't understand, ya said that they were ya friends, but out of the fifteen humans in this here picture, ya can only see the faces of these three." Applejack said, while pointing at me, Big Man, and Slick. I looked at them holding back the tears I could feel forming in my eyes. "The keyword in that sentence is 'were'. The twelve with the blacked out faces are incapable of being my friends anymore."

They all looked at me funny until Fluttershy spoke up. "How come they're unable to be your friends?" I couldn't believe it. I expected one of them to ask this question once we started down this path, but I didn't expect it to be Fluttershy. *sigh* I grabbed my bag and opened the door. I looked back before I left and answer that last question. "They can't be my friends anymore because they're… they're dead." I left as quickly as possible in order to avoid any more questions, but on my way I couldn't help not thinking about them. "I don't understand why I feel this way. I never got to know the members of Wolf pack 3-3 or those two members of Wolf pack 3-2. They died on that first mission about two hours after that picture was taken." I thought. "I barely got to know the other members of Wolf pack 3-2 before they were killed a few missions later. The only people in that picture I really knew were Jenkins, Ramirez, Slick, and Big Man." I got about halfway back to my house when I noticed I was being followed.

POV change: Luna

I followed Steel once he left the library. I could only imagine the pain he must be feeling. Sure all of my friends had died while I was stuck on the moon as Nightmare Moon, but I watched as they died and had a thousand years to get over it, while I plotted my revenge. But to me, it seemed that this was the first time Steel had told anypony how he was feeling, so I wanted to be there for him if he needed me. After a while, he suddenly stopped. "You can stop following me. I know you're there." I walked toward him slightly shocked that he noticed I was following him. The night was my element, and almost nopony is able to see me in the darkness of the night when I didn't want them to.

"I saw how sad you were when you left and I just wanted to make sure you were ok." He started to walk again and I walked next to him. Now that he wasn't in a bed, I noticed we were about the same height. He was a little shorter, but you wouldn't be able to tell unless we stood next to each other. "How come you and Twilight didn't tell the others about my nightmare?"

"We thought that if you wanted them to know about it, you would tell them." He stopped and looked at me. "How much of it did you understand?" I thought about how to explain it to him when I had an idea. "Here it would be easier for me to show you." I charged a spell that would allow him to see my memories. When it was we continued walking, (in Steel's mind) "Wow. Lucky me, I guess God is still watching me. It's the only way to explain why I looked like a pony to them and looked like a human to myself." (Back to Luna) We walked in silence for a while before he asked me a question I wasn't prepared for.

"So what's the real reason you're following me? The others were probably concerned, but they decided to stay back at the library." I couldn't tell him that I kind of liked him. I mean I hadn't known him for more than a day, but I had never felt this strongly about anypony else before, either. But I needed an excuse. "Well, um… *sigh* I wanted to know where you lived. I thought that next time I was in town we could get to know each other better." He just remained quiet and stopped walking.

It was then that I noticed we were just inside the Everfree Forest. In the center of this clearing was a tree with a poorly made house in it. "Well, this I where I live. I wouldn't recommend following me inside thought, it was only made for one per… pony. Thank you for being concerned about me, though."

"Anytime. Just let me know if you need somepony to talk to." Then, I hugged him out of instinct. After the shock wore off, he returned it.

POV change: Flamingsteel

She was hugging me and after a while, I hugged her back. I felt butterflies in my stomach. We let go of each other and I went inside. On my way in, I had only one thought on my mind. "Strange. I must be coming down with something. I've never felt this way before and I hope it's not contagious." Luna put her head through the window. "Wow, you weren't kidding when you said this place was made for just one pony!" She looked at the roof and I heard her gasp. "No wonder you got hypothermia, there are more holes in this roof than I can count! You should talk to the mayor about getting a home in Ponyville."

"No, it's ok. I'm fine here. There's no reason to bother the mayor, she's probably busy as it is. Now I'm sorry to say this, but please leave I'm tired and want to sleep. Perhaps we could talk another time." She nodded her head and left. As I went to bed, I had only one thought on my mind. "That was close. I was sure one of them was going to find out that I was an alicorn.

Authors Note: Once again, I'm sorry if I messed up Applejack's accent. Please review, it helps me write better.