As I stared down at the device in my hands, hundreds of thoughts quickly flooded my mind. My phone? How the hell did they get my phone? Why the hell do they have my phone? Where the hell did they get my phone?

I slowly turned the phone around in my hands, examining it closely. It looked like it had seen rough times; dust and dirt were covering the surface, as well as a long crack running down the face. Experimentally, I pushed the power button, not expecting anything to happen. I wasn’t disappointed when the screen remained black.

Chewing on the inside of my cheek, I cocked my head to the side as I continued to eye my phone. The sound of someone clearing their throat caused me to glance up. I blinked in surprise as I saw the grim look on Celestia’s face.

“Well,” she asked, her voice trembling slightly. “Do you know what it is? Is it dangerous?” I looked quickly between her and the phone, confused. This is what she was worried about?

I couldn’t help it. With how she was acting, I had thought it was going to be something serious, something truly dangerous. To think that she was getting so worked up over a phone, I really couldn’t help it.

I laughed loudly, causing an alarmed look to flash across Celestia’s face, and she took a quick step back. I placed my hand over my mouth, trying to control myself, but the confused looks that crossed everyone’s faces only made me laugh harder. Twilight’s reaction was the worst, her head cocked to the side, one ear perked, the other lying flat against her head. She had a strange look on her face, like she couldn’t decide whether to be happy or concerned.

As my laughter continued, Luna’s confusion turned to anger, and she glared at me.

“We fail to see what’s funny about this,” she huffed, glancing over at Celestia, who was looking slightly nervous at my mirth.

~I’m sorry, it’s just that this thing isn’t dangerous~ I signed, placing the phone in my lap as I chuckled. ~It’s as dangerous as a book~

“It’s not dangerous?” Celestia asked, a faint tone of hope in her voice. “How can you be sure?”

~Because it’s mine~ I signed smugly.

“WHAT?!” I winced as every pony in the library shouted at the same time, even the guards. Rubbing my ear with a finger, I grumbled slightly before signing.

~Yeah, it’s mine. I lost it when Darkflare’s gang found me in the desert~

“So it doesn’t pose a threat to our ponies?” Luna asked as Twilight moved to stand next to me. She glanced down at the device in my lap, a curious look on her face.

~Not unless you throw it at them~ I deadpanned at her. ~This thing, in no way, shape, or form, is a threat to anyone~

“What is it?” Ebony asked, moving to get a better look at it.

~It’s… a communication device~ I signed. ~You don’t have a word for it in hoof-language~

“How does it work?” Luna asked, shifting on her hooves. Celestia remained quiet, eyeing the phone in my lap with a neutral expression.

~Well, I guess I could explain it to you—~

“Excellent!” Celestia said suddenly, straightening up. “Let us just get the other Element Bearers here, and then you can show us the use of this… device.”

~Well, I can’t actually show—~ I began, but Celestia wasn’t listening. Turning to the guards, she cleared her throat.

“Major Rose, if you would be so kind as to run out and grab Ms. Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie, and bring them back here—” Ebony saluted quickly before Celestia turned to Avera “—and if you would be so kind as to retrieve Ms. Dash and Applejack and escort them here, Lieutenant.”

“Consider it done,” Avera said before both guards quickly exited the library.

~But, you see—~ I tried once again, but like before, I was ignored.

“Twilight,” Celestia said, turning to the smaller alicorn. “If you don’t mind, may I borrow your bathroom? I need to make myself look more… presentable.” She motioned towards her disheveled wings and mane. Twilight nodded, and Celestia made her way up the stairs, leaving me sitting there on the couch.

I turned to look at Luna, but she was already on the move.

“Ms. Primrose, if you would come over here for a second, we wish to have a word with you.” With that, the Lunar Princess and the batpony moved towards a corner of the room.

I turned to look at Twilight, hoping for some help, but she was already busy cleaning up the room for her friends’ imminent arrival.

As I sat there on the couch, my dead phone in my lap, only one thought made its way through my mind.

Fuck…

The rest of the gang arrived just as the night was slowly descending, each looking curious as to why they had been summoned. As they all got comfortable around the table, Twilight had moved to the center of the room. I sat quietly, trying to figure out how I was going to bring my phone back to life.

Off in their corner, Luna and Primrose spoke quietly, their heads huddled close together. Every so often, one of them would glance over at me before returning to their conversation. I ignored them, however, focusing instead on the task before me.

How the fuck am I supposed to get this thing some juice? I don’t even have a charging cable or anything. Hell, I don’t even know if their electrical system will work with this phone!

When everyone was finally situated, Rarity had offered to be my voice again in order to bridge the communication gap for those who didn’t know hoof-language. Luckily for her, Twilight had managed to improve the spell. Instead of it sounding like two voices fused into one, it was now split, meaning both Rarity and I could talk while using the spell. When Rarity spoke, it was with her normal voice. When I used Rarity as a puppet, a soft, whispering voice issued forth from between the unicorn’s lips. We could not, however, speak at the same time, as we had found out fairly quickly.

Let’s just say that to anyone walking past the library, it probably sounded like a cat was being stuffed into a blender with a bunch of bells.

Another improvement on the spell was the fact that Rarity could actually see what was going on around her, and retained her motor skills. I just had to keep a hand on her horn in order to keep the connection active.

Once the communication bridge was active, we were finally able to begin.

“And what is this thing called again?” Twilight asked, not taking her eyes off of the iPhone resting in the center of the table. A quill, wrapped in her magic, was scrawling notes quickly upon a scroll that hovered beside her head.

I huffed, rolling my eyes as I was forced to answer that question for the umpteenth time. At least this time I had a mouth to answer it with.

“It’s called an iPhone, and it’s a smart phone. Smart, s-m-a-r-t, phone, p-h-o-n-e,” I said, my hand tightening slightly on Rarity’s horn as she spoke the words for me. Around the table, eleven ponies and a baby dragon jostled for position, each eyeing the phone with mild curiosity. Rainbow and Avera had it easy, floating above the table on their wings as they observed the scene below.

“And what does it do, exactly?” Twilight asked, her eyes sparkling. Beside her, Ebony had a scroll and quill of her own, and was scribbling as fast as Twilight. I chewed on my lip for several seconds as I tried to figure out the best way to describe human technology to a race that used magic.

As I mused, my eyes drifted until they landed on Spike, who was perched upon Fluttershy’s head. A small smirk touched my lips as I eyed the young drake.

“Think of it as a miniature version of Spike,” I said. This earned me a bunch of blank stares.

“Can you elaborate?” Celestia asked, her voice calm. As Ebony, Avera, and Primrose had rounded up the other girls, she had taken a few minutes to freshen up, and she now looked more like her normal self. Her once strained posture was more relaxed and at peace.

“This thing can send messages to anyone else who has one almost instantaneously,” I answered. “It also allows for people to talk to one another as well, no matter the distance.”

“What do you mean?”

“If I was here in Ponyville, and Twilight was in Canterlot, and we both had one of these, we could talk to one another as if we were in the same room, despite the distance between us. Instant communication.”

“That’s all it does?” Rainbow scoffed, folding her hooves.

“A normal phone? Yes. This phone? No. This is a smart phone, which is far more advanced than a normal phone. You can message and talk to people on this, but you can also play games, listen to music, watch videos, as well as many other things.”

“This is amazing,” Twilight squealed, her quill moving so fast that I was amazed that the scroll didn't catch fire from the friction. “To think that humans were able to come up with something like this! This level of technology is incredible!” She continued to write happily for several seconds before what she said registered in her mind. She froze, giving me a horrified look.

“I-I didn’t m-mean it like that!” she stuttered, ears splaying backwards. I chuckled, waving my free hand at her.

“I know what you meant,” I said.

“What would possess a species to come up with such a means of communication?” Luna asked, eyeing the phone. I shook my head, shrugging.

“If you want the exact reason, I can’t tell you. I can tell you my own opinion on the matter.”

“That would be most appreciated,” Luna said, giving me a quick smile.

“We did it because humans are lazy bastards,” I said, chuckling at the look of shock that crossed everyone’s faces.

“But, if they are lazy, how did they come up with something like this?” Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow as she motioned her head at the phone. “Wouldn’t such advances be impossible if all you did was sit around all day?”

“Many years ago, a bunch of humans sailed from their home country across the ocean in order to colonize a new land. Once the colonies had been formed, it took them nearly six weeks to communicate with the people back home, as the message had to be carried, by hand, back to their home country—”

“Why not use magic to send it faster?” Pinkie asked, cocking her head to the side.

“There is no such thing as magic where I’m from,” I replied. “We had to do everything the hard way.”

“The earth pony way,” Applejack said, a touch of pride in her voice. I nodded my head at her in agreement before continuing.

“As I was saying, it would normally take about six weeks for a message to reach their old home. It would then take another six weeks for them to get a response. That meant that if the colonies needed, say, medical help, it would take twelve weeks or more in order for them to receive aid. And that’s if the ship didn’t end up getting trapped in a storm or attacked by pirates. If that happened, there was no way for either the colonies or the parent country to know about it for many weeks.”

“It sounds like they made advances in communication not because they were lazy, but because they needed to in order to survive,” Celestia observed.

“That might've been true in the beginning, but I don’t think it holds true nowadays,” I said.

“Why’s that?”

“Because everything is now so impersonal back home that it’s made everyone lazy. You need to talk to someone on the other side of the country concerning a business deal? Instead of meeting with them in person, you have a conference call, which involves people that are scattered across the country all talking with one another without having to leave their offices.”

“That seems more like a good use of the business’s time than them being lazy,” Twilight piped up.

“You want to talk with your mother who lives in the next town over, but don’t want to travel? Call her. Want to talk with your friend, but don’t feel like getting up? Call them. Want to get something to eat without leaving the house? You just need to call someone and they’ll bring food straight to your front door. Humans might have started to make advances in technology for survival, but it’s made us a lazy race in the process. Granted, not everyone is like that, but there’s a fair few.

“Remember, though,” I said, leaning back in my chair. “That’s just my opinion on the matter, and should probably be taken with a grain of salt. I will admit that communication technology has benefited humans back home greatly. Doctors can now talk with one another within seconds, allowing them to help their patients faster. Emergency services, such as firemen and paramedics, can respond to disasters faster as well.”

“It sounds a lot like the dragonfire we use to communicate quickly with our troops in the field, except without the limited use,” Ebony said.

“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow huffed in annoyance, rolling her eyes. “Communication is great and all, but you said it does more stuff likes games, right?”

“Yes,” I said, blinking at her. “This particular phone does have that option.”

“Well, let’s see some games!” she said, her face lighting up.

“Indeed,” Luna said, nodding her head. “While talking about this is indeed interesting, I’d rather like to see it in action.”

“I can’t,” I said, rubbing the back of my head with my free hand.

“Why not?” Celestia asked, her eyes narrowing. I simply motioned to the phone as I shook my head.

“It’s dead.” Fluttershy gasped loudly, jerking her head up. Spike nearly tumbled off his perch, but managed to hang on.

“Oh no,” she said, eyes tearing up, a distressed look on her face.

“Not dead like you’re thinking,” I replied quickly. “This thing was never alive to begin with. It’s dead in the sense that it doesn’t have any energy left.” As Fluttershy calmed down, Celestia just cocked her head to the side.

“So can’t you just recharge it?” she asked.

“Don’t have the means,” I sighed. “Not only do I not have the required parts to do so, but I doubt you have the electrical grid in order for me to recharge the batteries.”

“Electrical grid?” Celestia’s eyebrows rose and a small smile touched her lips. “As in electricity. Like this?” Her horn started to glow softly, and sparks began to run up and down the length.

My eyes widened, and I quickly shook my head, waving my free hand at her. “No! It requires a specific voltage to charge properly. Too little and it won’t charge. Too much and it’ll fry the phone, essentially destroying it.”

“Then we’ll just have to start soft and increase the power steadily until we find the proper voltage.” I frowned, running my hand through my hair as I stared at Celestia.

“There’s still the possibility that you’ll destroy the phone before you actually figure out the exact voltage.”

“If what you say is true, then this thing is currently useless at the moment. If we do end up destroying it, you won’t be out anything,” Celestia replied, the smile on her face slowly turning into a smirk.

I sighed before nodding my head, “Fine.”

Celestia leaned forward, the light around her horn increasing slightly.

“Where do I need to direct my spell?” she asked, eyeing the phone curiously. Reaching out, I spun the phone around and pointed at the charger port on the bottom of the iPhone.

Celestia scrunched up her face as she concentrated, a small tendril of magic snaking from her horn towards the phone. Small sparks leapt from small cloud of golden light. As it entered the charger port, Celestia cast a glance at me.

“Is there anything in particular we’re waiting for it to do?” she asked, the magic flowing steadily from her horn to the phone.

“Once you hit the right voltage, the screen should light up, and we should hear a chirp.” Celestia nodded once before returning her attention to the task at hand.

A hush fell over the room as Celestia worked, nobody daring to make a sound lest they cause the princess to screw up and accidentally overload her spell.

Gradually, the tendril of magic flowing from her horn increased in size and brightness as she slowly increased the power of the spell. Sweat began to bead upon Celestia’s brow as she slowly, yet steadily, increased her spell. As I watched, I silently prayed that power was the same as voltage, or else this was going to end before it began.

After what felt like hours, but was probably more like several minutes, I was beginning to think that we were wasting our time. Rainbow was fidgeting above me in the air, clearly unhappy with the lack of activity.

I had just opened Rarity’s mouth to tell Celestia that it probably wasn’t working when the phone suddenly chirped softly. I blinked in surprise as the screen lit up, displaying the familiar silver apple logo.

A startled breath went around the table, everyone leaning in to get a better look at the now glowing object.

“That’s it,” Luna said breathlessly. “Keep a steady level of power, Tia.” Celestia didn’t say anything, but nodded her head. She kept her attention on the phone, magenta eyes narrowing as she concentrated.

I held my breath as I eyed the screen, waiting. The silver apple stayed on screen for several long seconds before it changed to the iPhone’s lock screen. The battery icon in the center of the screen had only a sliver of red. As I watched, however, it slowly began to grow larger as Celestia somehow—miraculously—charged the phone with her magic.

“I’ll be damned,” I breathed as the bar indicating the amount of power the phone had continued to grow quickly, far faster than I had ever seen back home. Only a few seconds had passed, but it was already at half charge. “It actually worked!”

“Was there any doubt?” Luna said smugly. I gave her a mock glare before looking back down at the phone.

“That should be good enough,” I said when the battery read around three-fourths full. Celestia canceled her spell, her breathing strained slightly. With the phone no longer being charged, the battery icon disappeared, replaced by a picture of the Earth, taken from the moon.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Twilight twitch slightly, her eyes wide with excitement as she stared at the phone as if it held all the secrets of the world.

“Oh,” Luna said, leaning in closer to stare at the screen. “Is that a painting of your home planet?”

"It’s not a painting,” I said. “It’s a picture.”

“WHAT?!” Twilight and Luna yelped at the same time, both staring at me with their mouths agape.

“A picture?” Twilight gasped. “But, that means that, by the look of the picture, it was taken from the moon!” When I nodded in agreement, her eyes widened. “You’ve actually been to your moon?!”

“Me personally? No, I haven’t. Humanity in general? Yes, yes we have. We have put men on the moon,” I said with a smug sense of satisfaction at the shocked looks on everyone's faces. Rainbow nearly fell out of the air, but managed to catch herself at the last minute.

“But… I don’t… what…” Twilight stammered, staring down at the picture in shock before it disappeared as the phone automatically went to sleep.

“Humans managed to reach the moon,” Celestia said softly, eyeing the phone as well.

“What could possibly possess them to go, though?” Luna asked nobody in particular. “During my stay there, I saw nothing that would warrant interest.”

“We chose to go to the moon, not because it was easy, but because it was hard,” I said with a smirk. I knew that they wouldn’t get the reference, but I didn’t care. It was too good an opportunity to waste.

“Hard? Try impossible!” Twilight said, her wings twitching in agitation. “There’s no way you could have gotten to the moon without the use of magic, but you said your world doesn’t have magic! Going to the moon shouldn’t be possible!”

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic to those who don’t understand it,” I said softly. “When Man first looked up at the moon, they thought it was impossible to touch the heavens. That didn’t stop them, however, and we as a species were finally able to set foot upon the moon. The men who did so even planted a flag, symbolizing our journey.”

“They planted a flag… on the moon?” Luna whispered, blushing as a flustered look spread across her face.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Rainbow said impatiently, returning to her bored demeanor. “Let’s get on with this!” As Twilight shot her an annoyed look, I chuckled softly.

“Okay, okay… hold your horses,” I said. Rainbow blinked in confusion.

“Hold… my horses?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

“It’s a figure of speech from back home,” I replied. “It means ‘calm down’.” A slight frown touched Celestia’s face at my words, but when I looked over at her it was gone. She was looking at me with a calm expression, waiting for me to continue.

Reaching forward, I raised a finger dramatically, before lowering it and pushing the home button on the phone. Twilight, Ebony, and, surprisingly, Pinkie, followed my finger eagerly with their eyes.

As the screen lit up, I placed my finger against the phone and slid it across the smooth surface, unlocking the device. With a click, the lock screen disappeared, replaced instead with the iPhone’s main screen.

I looked up at the sea of eager faces, a smile touching my lips. The look of wonder and astonishment upon their faces caused me to laugh. It was like looking into the face of a child as they caught a glimpse of the presents underneath a Christmas tree.

“Ladies,” I said, before looking at Spike. “Dragon. You’ve all shown me your world. Now, let me show you a piece of mine.” With that, I swiped my finger across the screen, cycling through the different pages of the main screen. One of the apps caught my eye, and my smile grew as I touched a finger to it, opening it.

“This,” I said as the app began to load, “is one of the games this phone can have. It’s called ‘Sudoku’.”

“It looks like a game for eggheads,” Dash said, eyeing the numbers and boxes with a disappointed look.

“That’s because it is a game for eggheads,” I said as some of the girls leaned in closer. Twilight’s face lit up when I said that, and her scribbling quill increased its speed.

“What’s the point of the game?” she asked, drawing out the Sudoku board on her scroll.

“To get the numbers one through nine within the nine three-by-three squares without repeating a number, as well as having the numbers run through all vertical and horizontal rows without repeating.”

“Sounds difficult,” Primrose commented.

“That’s because it’s supposed to be,” I said with a laugh. “It’s a puzzle game. It’s supposed to be challenging.”

“A puzzle game? Those aren’t games at all!” Dash whined, throwing her head back and groaning loudly. “I thought these were going to be cool!”

“This isn’t the only game the phone has,” I said, hitting the home button again. Navigating the screen, my eyes lit up as I saw a game that I realized was perfect for such an occasion. If the makers only knew, I chuckled quietly to myself as I selected the game.

Everyone flinched as menu screen music started to play through the phone’s speakers.

“It can make noise too?” Twilight asked breathlessly. I ignored her, and touched the screen again, causing the music to instantly change. A man began to sing as a silver unicorn with a rainbow mane began to run across a platform of purple grass.

After several seconds, the unicorn reached the end of the platform. Tapping the screen once more, I smirked as a gasp went up from everyone (minus the princesses) as the miniature unicorn jumped. They watched with rapt attention as I played the game. Soon, Pinkie was humming along to the song playing in the background, bobbing her head to the beat.

When the chorus came, singing about harmony, Celestia pulled her head back, a surprised look flashing across her face before a small smile touched her lips.

I continued to play the game for several more seconds before I mistimed a jump. Before the unicorn could fall off screen and explode, I quickly hit the home button, ending the game and returning us to the main screen of the phone.

“Whoa,” Rainbow said, staring down that the phone. “That was just like the games at the arcade… only better quality.”

“And portable!” Pinkie chimed in.

As everyone worked off the daze of seeing the game, I flicked through the pages of apps on the phone.

“Games aren’t the only thing this thing can do,” I said as I eyed the apps, looking for something else to show them. “You can take notes on this thing, much like Twilight and Ebony are doing with their scrolls. Since it’s not on paper, the note can be as long as you’d like.” As I spoke, I opened up the notepad app to show them.

I immediately regretted it, however, and groaned inwardly when the note appeared on screen.

To Do:
1.) Call Mom about dentist appointment
2.) Pick up paycheck from work
3.) Return Andrew’s Xbox controller
4.) Lay around the house and do nothing else all Saturday

“Hey, look Twi,” Applejack said, trying to hold in her laughter. “He likes to make checklists just like you!” Rainbow wasn’t so reserved, and started laughing while still hovering in midair. Twilight’s face turned red at that comment, and she ducked down behind her scroll.

“Yeah, yeah, yuck it up, Applebutt,” I said, exiting the notepad. “Like you don’t need reminders to do something every now and then.” The cowmare stuck her tongue out at me, a teasing smile on her face.

“This thing also has a calendar where you can set appointments, a clock that can act as an alarm as well, a built-in calculator, as well as a place to put the contact information of everyone you want to stay in touch with.

“It also has books on it,” I said, seeing the iBooks app flit across the screen.

The words had barely left my mouth when the phone was suddenly surrounded by a lavender aura and ripped from my hand. I jerked my head up and saw Twilight holding the phone in her hooves, looking down at it as though it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

“This thing has books on it?” she asked, giggling to herself. “Books, written by humans from a different world.” She continued to giggle as she reached up and tapped the screen with a hoof. After a few seconds, a frown spread across her face when nothing happened. She tapped the screen again with the same results.

“Why won’t this work?” she whined, tapping the screen over and over again with her hoof, her ear twitching madly. “Books!”

Suddenly, the phone was pulled out of her grasp by a golden aura and returned to the center of the table.

“I think that’s quite enough, Twilight,” Celestia said, hidden laughter in her voice. Twilight blushed a brilliant red when she realized what she had just done, as well as the many pairs of eyes that were now staring at her. With a small squeak that could rival Fluttershy, she slipped beneath the edge of the table until only her eyes and the top of her head was visible.

“Hooves won’t work on the screen,” I said, chuckling at her antics. “Try using your nose next time.”

As Twilight slowly reemerged from beneath the table, Rarity leaned in closer to the phone, being mindful to not pull her horn from my grip.

“This device appears to be quite the innovative thing,” she said. “To think that something so small can do so much. It’s almost unbelievable.”

“We’re not even done yet,” I said once I was sure she wasn’t going to say something else. “This thing can also play music.”

Tapping the music app with a finger, I quickly organized all my songs by genre. Glancing back up at the ponies, I looked around. “What genre do you want to hear first?”

“How about all of them?” Luna asked, her eyes twinkling. Beside her, Celestia nodded her head in agreement. With her initial unease put to rest, she looked like she was enjoying the little show-and-tell.

“One of everything coming up,” I said, returning my attention to the phone.

Minutes passed quickly as I played them some of everything I had on the phone: Alternative, Metal, Rock, Classical, Dance, Electronic (Dash seemed to instantly take a liking to Daft Punk after hearing only one song from them. She said it reminded her of an artist she liked called DJ PON-3), Heavy Metal, Pop.

I tried to play an even number of each so that everyone might find something they liked. Midway through my albums, I stumbled upon the Phantom of the Opera soundtrack. Smiling, I shot a glance at Luna before playing The Music of the Night for her. As her sister hummed along with the song, Celestia gave me a grateful smile.

“I had read the scripts you had written about the play,” Luna said when the song ended. “But it’s even more beautiful to hear in person. Thank you.”

I continued to play songs for them for nearly half an hour more, all of them quite content to sit there and listen to the new and strange music. During that period, Twilight had to start a second scroll, having filled the first one completely with notes.

As I closed out of the music app, a different app caught my eye. I studied the app for several seconds before smiling and clicking on it. As the app loaded, I picked the phone up and held it in front of me.

“Hey, smile!” I said with a smirk. Everyone gave me a confused look and I chuckled before I tapped the screen. With a flash and a click, I took a picture of the ponies across the table from me. As I flipped the phone around to show them the picture, jaws dropped around the table. Even the princesses looked stunned.

“It has a camera as well?!” Pinkie asked, a wide grin on her face.

“Eeyup,” I replied.

“Where does it keep its film, though?” Ebony asked, her green eyes wide with wonder.

“There’s no film. The number of pictures you can take are limited to how much memory the phone has, so you could take up to several thousand pictures before running out of room.”

As I spoke, Pinkie’s smile continued to grow until it threatened to split her head in half.

“Plays music without a record, takes pictures without film, has books without pages,” Twilight said, staring at the phone in awe. As she talked, I picked the phone back up and began to fiddle with it again.

“Is there anything that thing can’t do?” Twilight asked, shaking her head.

“Is there anything that thing can’t do?” Twilight’s head jerked back and her eyes widened in shock as her voice emitted from the phone. Smirking at her shocked look, I flipped the phone around, showing a miniature Twilight staring out at everyone with a look of awe. Pushing a button, I played the small video clip I had taken again, the miniature Twilight shaking her head as she spoke.

“Wha…” was all Twilight could say as she stared at the moving picture of her.

I smiled at the flabbergasted look on her face, and moved to push the home button, but as I did so, my finger brushed against the screen. The video of Twilight disappeared and I found myself looking at my photo album containing all the photos I had ever taken.

The smile slipped from my face as I stared at the rows of pictures. Swallowing thickly, I slowly lowered the phone back down onto the table, my hands trembling slightly. I heard someone—Fluttershy I think—say something to me, her tone concerned. I couldn’t hear what was being said, however, with my attention fixated on the device before me.

Reaching out tentatively with a finger, I touched one of the pictures, enlarging it to fill the entire screen. A gasp went around the room when everyone saw what the picture showed.

There, gazing up at the surrounding ponies with laughter frozen on our faces, was a picture of me and my friends during our high-school graduation. Myself and four of my friends were grouped together, diplomas in one hand, a flower in the other, as we looked at the person taking the picture. We were dressed in maroon graduation robes, our academic hats perched upon our heads. One of my friends was draped over my shoulder, his arm wrapped around my neck as he laughed. Beside me, another one of my friends had the biggest smile on his face, his academic cap tilted sideways on his head.

“By the Maker,” Ebony breathed, leaning in to get a closer look. “They’re all smiling!”

As I eyed the photo, I could hear the ponies around me speaking to one another, commenting on the photo. Ignoring them, I swiped my finger across the screen, moving from picture to picture, each one depicting part of our graduation. The last photo in the group showed me and my ex-girlfriend standing side-by-side, smiling as we hugged. Her academic hat was missing, but mine was still atop my head. She was leaning her head against my shoulder, looking at the camera with a proud smile on her face.

“Oh,” Rarity said, looking at the picture. “She’s… pretty.” Her tone wasn’t mean, just surprised. I glanced up, and saw everyone looking at the picture with various degrees of shock or surprise on their faces. Twilight was eyeing the picture with pursed lips, her eyes narrowed slightly.

“Incredible,” Luna breathed, her eyes wide. “I did not take you for a liar, but to actually see it for myself: intelligent humans. It’s truly amazing.”

Shrinking the picture again, I flicked through the rest of the photos, looking for more. As I skimmed through photo after photo, my chest began to tighten slightly, and I was having difficulty breathing. Having the old memories there before me again was causing my eyes to begin to water slightly, a small smile on my face as I remembered the past, and the good times captured by the lens of the phone.

Moved by the motion of my finger on the screen, the memories flowed by for the ponies to see.

The day my friends and I went to the beach. My best friend, Andrew, and I diving into the freezing surface. My ex-girlfriend sunbathing on a beach towel. The packed beach as more and more people arrived to find a way to cool off as the sun rose high into the sky. All of my friends gathered around a crackling fire, drying off as the sun set in the distance.

“Well, Ah’ll be,” Applejack breathed as I slowly moved from photo to photo. “Even after seeing ya swim during our trip tah the beach, Ah never thought Ah’d see that many humans swimmin’.”

“They’re all wearing some form of clothing,” Rarity said. “There aren’t any bare humans.”

“That’s because nudity is a taboo back home,” I explained, trying to fight the melancholic feeling that had gripped me. “We wore clothing most of the time, and always when in public or when in the presence of another human.”

“You don’t seem to mind occasionally going around naked here,” Twilight said, looking up at me.

“After spending two weeks naked in a cage, followed by being paraded around Canterlot in the nude, it kind of desensitized me to it, especially seeing as there are naked humans everywhere here. I still have some issue with it, and even though I go around nude in the library, I won’t be going outside without clothing.”

“Why, though?” Luna asked, cocking her head to the side. “It’s not like you’d be the only human outside without clothing.”

“I may have gotten used to seeing other naked humans around, but that doesn’t mean I’m comfortable going around outside without clothing. It’s a comfort thing; I feel better with the clothing on.”

“That’s quite alright,” Luna said, inclining her head. “I was just curious.”

“But why would you need comforting?” Twilight asked. “We don’t make you nervous, do we?”

“It’s more instinctual than that,” I said, pausing my journey through the photos to answer her. “Back home, the only time that two humans usually were naked together, was during, ah… intimate moments.”

“So, the only time you’d be naked around somepony was if you and they were going to…” Rainbow said, tapping her hooves together in a semi-suggestive manner.

“More or less,” I replied, looking away as my face began to warm up.

“It must have been extremely awkward and confusing for you during your first few weeks here,” Celestia said, a note of humor in her voice.

“You have no idea,” I groaned, shaking my head. “Although, naked humans wasn’t the worst shock I got during my first couple of weeks here.” My gaze met Luna’s and she winced, giving me a strained smile.

“Indeed,” Celestia said, her lips thin as she looked at me. “I’ve heard of your experience from my sister. I can see why you were hesitant to reach out when we first met.”

“What happened to him?” Rainbow asked, looking between myself and the princesses.

“That’s a story for a different time,” Celestia said, the small smile returning to her face. With that, she leaned down and returned her attention to the phone.

I resumed my scrolling, moving from picture to picture slowly. There were pictures of my father and I standing outside an ambulance, him dressed in his paramedic uniform. Some were taken from the back of the ambulance, me laying on the cot pretending to be dead, a dopey smile on my face as my tongue lolled out of the side of my mouth. Pinkie giggled loudly at the picture, and several of the other ponies smiled.

Pictures of me at work, taken by a coworker, during a slow day. I was perched upon a small metal cart, pushing myself along with a broom as though I was rowing a boat.

“That clothing,” Luna said, cocking her head to the side. “Was this the place you were at when you were ripped from your world to ours?”

“Yes,” I said, eyeing the photo. “That was actually the same uniform that I was wearing when I arrived. I’m not sure what Darkflare did with it, but I don’t really care.”

“What was the point of this place?” Ebony asked.

“We provided food quickly and cheaply for customers.”

“So it was a restaurant,” she said simply.

“Sure,” I said emotionlessly. “A restaurant. Let’s go with that.” As she scribbled on her scroll, I continued flipping through the photos.

The next few pictures that came up showed me standing in a black tuxedo, holding a cello in my hands. It was during the last concert I played in at high-school before graduation. In the background, you could see the other members of the orchestra setting up, tuning their instruments, and chatting with one another.

“You can play the cello?” Twilight asked, glancing up at me in surprise. When I nodded, her ears perked up, and she got a thoughtful look on her face. She glanced over at Celestia and Luna before returning her attention back to the phone.

“Were you any good?” Primrose asked.

“I was first chair my senior year of school, but that was partly due to the fact I was the only senior in the class at the time,” I replied with a smirk.

I skipped over several saved pictures from one of the apps on my phone, most of which were internet memes and stupid pictures. There were more pictures of my friends: our trip to an arcade, our trip to St. Ignace, our hangout on a river.

After hopping through those pictures, I landed on one that caused most of the ponies to flinch back in surprise.

“What is that?” Avera asked, tilting her head to the side.

“That,” I said, staring at the picture with a large smile growing on my face, “is a five-pound cheeseburger with extra onions.” Just looking at the photo caused my mouth to water. I had forgotten about that particular experience.

Rarity and Pinkie both turned a slight shade of green, while most of the others just looked slightly disturbed. Primrose just cocked her head to the side, eyeing the large burger on screen with a curious look.

Avera had the weirdest reaction. Her eyes widened, and a small smile slowly spread across her muzzle. Her tail flicked as she hovered closer to the table to get a closer look at the picture.

“You didn’t eat all of that, did you?” Ebony asked, her face scrunched up slightly.

“I ate half of it, then took the rest home for later,” I replied, changing the picture as I spoke.

“Five pounds of meat,” I heard Applejack mutter under her breath as I continued on. “Ain’t natural.”

After several minutes of scrolling, I came across my family’s trip to New York City.

“Those buildings are huge!” Rainbow said breathlessly, an awed look on her face. The others had similar looks as they eyed the large buildings in the picture. It was taken at night, so the buildings illuminated the darkness with every color of the rainbow.

“What is this place?” Twilight asked softly, her eyes glued to the screen.

“It’s a place called Manhattan, in New York City,” I told them. Celestia’s head jerked up and she gave me a shocked look.

“Did you say ‘Manhattan’?” I nodded my head and a mystified look crossed the princess’s face.

“Yeah,” I smirked. “I had the same reaction with Manehattan.”

“How many humans live there?” Twilight asked, scribbling furiously. Ink had splattered upon her nose from the speed of her quill's writing.

“If I remember correctly, there was close to eight million humans living in New York City presently.”

“E-eight million?” Ebony asked, her quill pausing mid-scratch. “In just one city?”

“That’s a lot of humans,” Rainbow whistled, Applejack nodding in agreement. I chuckled softly as I flipped to the next picture, only to pause when I saw that it wasn’t photo, but a video. I felt my stomach flip when I saw that it was a video of my mom. It was taken during our trip to New York, with her standing near the Statue of Liberty.

“What’s this?” Luna asked, leaning down and cocking her head to the side. I didn’t reply. Instead, I reached out and touched a finger to the play button. Instantly, my mother’s voice filled the air.

“You aren’t recording this, are you?” she asked, looking at the camera with concern. The sound of snickering was heard, and her eyes widened. “Max! I didn’t do my hair this morning!” As she whined, my dad entered into the frame, laughing.

“Come on, hun,” he said, moving to stand beside her. “We’re on vacation!” With that, the video ended abruptly, leaving an eerie silence over the room. After several seconds, Twilight spoke up, her voice hushed.

“...do you have any more like this?” she asked timidly. Silently, I began to flip through the phone’s contents, looking for another video. After a few seconds, I found one. This one was of me, taken by my friend after he had stolen my phone during a bonfire.

As the video began to play, all the ponies leaned in close, their heads practically touching as they stared at the phone, their eyes wide. The video was jittery, the camera shaking as my friend ran backwards, keeping the phone trained on me. I chased after him, an annoyed look on my face.

“Come on, dude,” my friend’s voice spoke up from behind the camera, his voice filled with laughter. “If you want it, you gotta work for it!” His laughter grew as a scowl crossed my face.

“I’ll work my hands around your neck once I get a hold of you,” I growled as I lunged at the camera.

At the sound of my voice, Twilight inhaled sharply, her eyes widening. The camera jerked violently as I knocked the phone from his hands, sending it tumbling through the air. Green grass filled the screen as it landed with a soft thump on the ground. It was still for several seconds before it was suddenly lifted into the air. My face suddenly filled the screen, looking out at the surrounding ponies with bemused look on my face.

“Dude, be careful,” I said, turning to look at someone off screen. “If this thing breaks, I can’t replace it until my contract is up!” The miniature me on screen turned to look back down at the phone before the image suddenly froze, the video ending.

The silence that fell over the room was deafening, all the ponies staring at the phone with wide eyes. For several seconds, nobody said anything, and nobody moved. Celestia and Luna’s hair even seemed to freeze.

Eventually, the silence was broken by Avera.

“I know you’re intelligent and all, but since you’ve never said anything, it really hasn’t sunk in yet,” she said softly, looking at me. “But that—” she motioned towards the phone “—that was just freaky.”

“Talkin’ humans,” Applejack said, shaking her head. “Ah’m sorry, but that ain’t natural.” Pinkie and Rarity both nodded in agreement. Twilight just continued to stare at the phone, an odd look on her face, her cheeks flushed.

“Amazing,” Celestia breathed, tearing her gaze from the phone and looking at me. “The difference in technology from your world and ours is staggering.” She opened her mouth to say something else, but instead closed it and looked back at the phone.

“Would… would you mind if I borrowed your… phone and took it back with me to Canterlot?” she asked, glancing at me out of the corner of her eyes. “Now that you’ve shown us how to make this thing work, and what it does, I would like my scientists to examine it. With your permission, of course.”

Silently, I reached out with my free hand and picked up the phone. Hitting the home button with my thumb, I started at the main screen for several seconds before hitting the power button and putting the phone to sleep. Bouncing it slightly in the palm of my hand, I scrunched my face up, thinking.

On one hand, it was nice to have a piece of my old life back in my possession. On the other hand, it was next to useless to me at the moment. The only thing the phone provided me was pictures of my past, a few games, and some music.

Don’t get me wrong, it was amazing to be able to look at my parents’ faces again, even if it was only in picture form, but that was all the phone was: a nostalgic device.

After rolling the idea around in my head for a few seconds, I sighed heavily before holding the phone out to Celestia.

“Here,” I said. “Take it. Consider it a show of good faith and friendship.” When Celestia gave me a confused look I continued, “You said you wanted to trust me. Well, I want to show you that I mean none of you any harm. I’m giving you the phone… as a show of trust and friendship.”

“You’re giving it to me… to keep?” Celestia asked, blinking in surprise.

“Yes,” I said with a nod.

“But,” she said, eyeing the phone in my hand, “that’s a reminder of your home. Your friends and family. Are you sure you want to give this to me permanently?” Wordlessly, I held out the phone, raising my eyebrows at her. The princess swallowed before picking the phone up tentatively in her magic.

“Thank you,” she said softly, a small smile touching her lips. I gave her a smile of my own as I returned my hand to my side.

As Celestia tucked the phone under her wing, Rainbow let out a loud yawn, her jaw audibly cracking. Looking at the clock, I saw that it was quickly nearing midnight.

“Shoot,” Applejack said, looking at the clock as well. “It’s about time for me tah be gettin’ back tah the homestead.” A low murmur of agreement went around the table, the girls beginning to blink tiredly with the excitement of the phone now gone.

Celestia chuckled at this. “Yes, I suppose we’ve kept you up long enough. I apologize for the last-minute summonings.”

“That’s quite alright, Princess,” Rarity said as I removed my hand from her horn. “It was an interesting experience.”

“Yeah!” Pinkie said, bouncing around the table. “It was super duper awesome to see all those talking humans! Could you imagine if OUR humans here were intelligent too? Think of all the parties I would have to throw just for them! It would be like non-stop partying! Pony parties by day, human parties by night!”

As the party pony continued to rambling on about throwing parties, Avera stared at her, a blank look on the pegasus’s face.

“How is she still this hyper?” she asked, her ears folding backwards. From beside her, Primrose shook her head, eyeing Pinkie as well.

“I don’t know. I’m nocturnal by nature and even I’m not that active at this hour.”

Slowly, the ponies each began to make their way back home, Rainbow accompanying Fluttershy as the poor pegasus was too frightened to go alone.

The last ponies to leave were Celestia and Luna. Pausing in the doorway, Celestia turned and glanced back at me, a conflicted, yet not unkind, look on her face. She looked like she wanted to say something, but changed her mind at the last minute. Shaking her head, she smiled warmly back at me.

“Good night, human,” she said, her voice soft. “And thank you once again.” With that, she turned and exited the library, closing the door behind her.

“Well,” Avera said after several seconds of silence. “I think I’ll be heading to bed!”

“Ditto,” Ebony said, fighting back a yawn. As the pair headed towards the basement door, I stood up and stretched, my back cracking several times. Glancing around, I noticed Twilight had remained in her seat and was staring at the closed library door, her head cocked to the side. I leaned over and waved a hand in front of her face, causing her to blink in surprise.

“Do you think—” slowly her eyes drifted from the closed door up to me “—that Princess Celestia might let me borrow your phone? For studying, of course.”

~You just want the books on it, don’t you?~ Her ears splayed backwards and she turned her nose up at me, giving me a haughty look.

“I will neither confirm nor deny it,” she huffed, getting up from her chair. Turning, she flicked her tail at me before climbing the stairs. I watched her go, a large smirk spreading across my face.

When she reached the top of the stairs, she turned her head and glanced down at me out of the corner of her eyes, the snobbish look still on her face. “...but those books will be mine.” Flicking her head back around, she disappeared up the stairs.

Chuckling, I turned to the only two remaining inhabitants in the room with me, both of whom were staring up the stairs after Twilight. Slowly, Spike turned to look at me, a bewildered look on his face. I just shrugged before falling back onto the couch next to Primrose.

“No disrespect, dude...” she said, shaking her head as she fished around in the pouch on her leg. Double checking to make sure Twilight wasn’t coming back down, the batpony pulled out her half-finished joint.

Popping it in her mouth, she pulled a lighter out of the pouch as well, and lit the end of the blunt. Taking a drag on the joint, she exhaled a puff of smoke and sighed happily. "...but your owner is crazy!”

The cold night air blew past the princesses as they soared back towards Canterlot. Between them, held securely in the Solar Princess’s magical grasp, was the device, the iPhone, as the human called it. As she flew, Celestia made sure to keep one eye on the phone: she didn’t want to risk losing such a valuable gift.

To think, she mused, her ears splaying backwards. After all the distrust I had of him, he could still find it within himself to forgive me. She knew that she shouldn’t be suspicious of the human: his reasons for staying in Equestria were sound, and he had shown Luna, within the dreamworld no less, that he had no ill intentions against her ponies.

Still, there was this nagging feeling at the back of her mind—an itch that she just couldn’t seem to scratch—telling her that something was wrong. She was forgetting something, something important, but she just couldn’t remember what.

Celestia frowned, tilting her wings as she drifted on an updraft.

“Sister?” At the sound of her sister’s voice, Celestia was snapped out of her thoughts. Turning, she glanced over at Luna, who was giving her a curious look.

“Is there a particular reason you did not inform the human about Darkflare’s escape?” Luna asked, drifting closer to her sister. Celestia’s frown grew.

“I did not wish to burden his mind with things he cannot control,” she replied, her voice soft. “I’ll increase the number of guards around Ponyville, and station a few sensory Battlemages within the city limits, but I want neither him nor Twilight to worry.”

“I hope you know what you are doing,” Luna said. “For his sake, as well as Twilight’s.”

“And what of you?” Celestia asked, eyeing her sister. “I saw you talking with Primrose before the Elements arrived. What does she have to say?”

“Apparently Max found out that she is a sanguinarian after she accidentally got caught in sunlight today.” Celestia paused mid-flap, her eyes widening as she looked at her sister.

“And his reaction?” she asked, regaining her composure.

“Wary, but willing to still have her around,” Luna replied, a small smile tugging on her lips. “According to her, he appeared to have just been caught off guard by her sudden change in appearance.”

“Splendid,” Celestia said, smiling as well.

The sisters continued to fly in silence for several minutes before Luna spoke up again, “Sister, will you be taking this device—” she motioned with a hoof at the phone suspended in golden magic “—to the Academy for study?”

“No, Luna,” Celestia said, her smile vanishing. “I will not be giving this to the Academy. This will be going to the good Doctor and his drones.”

“You don’t trust the Academy?”

“I trust the Academy,” Celestia snorted, “but I don’t trust the Archmage. He’s hiding something from me, something that happened in the dungeons, although I’m not sure what. Until he comes clean, I’m keeping him on a rather short leash.”

Luna inclined her head in understanding, and the sisters spent the rest of the trip flying to the mountainside city in silence.

Author's Notes:

I never really liked reading chapters where the human MC had to explain human technology to ponies, but after writing this, I realized something: I dislike writing them too.