Nine Different Flavors
Chapter 1: Prologue, Part 1
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Outside of Ponyville. 9:35 AM
The morning sky was clear with no chance of rain. And with a breath of that same air, Twilight Sparkle had sighed happily in it. A small group of ponies was walking up to her. One of them spoke first:
"Twilight, what in tarnation is goin' on here?" Applejack asked in a slightly aggravated tone. "Because ah sure as heck would like ta know what y'all are plannin' here!" Twilight was about to explain herself for summoning her group of friends to some distant part that was a few miles away from the castle when another pony, Rarity, had spoken up in her usual way.
"Now, Twilight darling, even I find myself, though reluctantly, agreeing with Applejack. Even I am glad to say that all of us can get together with the other Princesses, but I simply must ask you, my dear: What is it that has gotten you so excited that you would summon all of us and the Princesses from Canterlot and the Crystal Empire?", she asks with a look that was mixed with confusion and curiosity.
"Yeah, because even I believe that summoning our leaders is a bit over the top. Even for you, Twilight," Rainbow Dash quips with a forearm pointing to the mountains at a far distance and then to Twilight.
"Ooooh! You asked for Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and your former foal-sitter Princess Cadance to come here? This is gonna be majorly exciting!" Pinkie Pie jumps with her usual bubbly bounce in her tone.
"Uh... y-yes. I would, that is.... I'd like to know.... what we.... ~eep!~" Fluttershy squeaked.
Twilight took a moment to listen in on her friends concerns. But just as she was about to answer her friends, Spike runs up to the group.
"Twilight!!!"
The purple alicorn had looked at Spike for a moment before asking: "What's up, Spike?"
"Celestia! Luna! Cadance! Carriage! LOOK!" he yells while pointing at some part of the sky. The group of ponies on the ground and the baby dragon, though he was not actually a baby anymore and more like a teen now, looked up to the part of the sky where he pointed with his claw. Sure enough, a majestic looking carriage with three alicorns as its passengers was flying in the air with four armored pegasus stallions carrying the vehicle on their backs.
"Oh my sweet Fausticorn! They're coming!" Twilight gasped in a surprise. "Quick, everypony! Make room for the carriage!"
The group scrambled about in a line with Spike standing next to Twilight. The carriage had slowly descended to the ground. As it did so, the group of ponies on the ground, as well as the dragon, had decided to wave to the Princesses with their hooves. royalty on the vehicle waved back with their hooves and their own smiles to the group down below. As the vehicle came to halt after landing on the ground with a bit of friction, the Princesses had placed their hooves on the ground and walked up slowly to the rest of the ponies. The exchanges of greetings and a few giggles had been given for a few seconds before they all looked to Twilight in a curious way.
"So, Twilight, can you give us the reason that you summoned all of us here?" Cadance asked with a cheer in her voice. Luna and Celestia merely nodded as Twilight then began to answer:
"Yes, I believe that I can answer all of you. Princess Celestia, do you remember three months ago when I sent you a letter describing my recent findings?"
"Of course, Twilight. I believe that you had written to me about the multiverse and the theoretical teleportation of certain plants or creatures with a certain spell in a book within your library, correct?" Celestia answered with a small grin.
"Yes. And that is exactly the reason for why I've summoned every pony here!" Twilight proudly states.
"And what does that even mean? And, please, be clear," Luna then quips with an arched eye.
"Oh! Right. *Ahem* For the past three months, I have read all about the predictions, theories and stated practices about Starswirl the Bearded's educated theories on the teleportation of different things from a different time and space within our universe and many others. And with some heavy research, as well as.... uh.... certain trials with some minor errors, I had finally figured out how to properly cast the spell that can transport a new plant or animal from another place within the multiverse. And, before you even ask, yes I do know what will happen if it goes wrong. But this time, I know that I got it right!" she answers with the same thrilled voice.
No pony spoke. This was just very confusing. Twilight looked at them and hoped that she was clear. But the confusion was evident, with no clarity in sight. The murmurs even came from Spike, who just looked perplexed. But just as the mass had got it, it sunk: No pony understood her at all.
"So.... what does it mean?" Cadance spoke up after seeing no pony talking.
"Well, DUH! She's about to use a spell that will summon a creature that is from another place that isn't Equestrian!" Pinkie shouts with a new delight.
"WHAT?!" Celestia and Luna gasped in a sense of horror while looking at each other.
"Hey! Didn't I just say that I know what might happen? And for the record, I am still quite confident that it's going to work," Twilight shouts back before apologizing to the Sun and Moon Goddesses while lowering her head and ears. "Oh, right. I'm so sorry about that. It's just that--"
"It's.... it's alright, Twilight. It's just that we just have our concerns about the whole event that you wish for us to be witnesses in," Luna then sighs after looking away from her sister to lock her gaze onto Twilight.
"And I truly understand. Really, I do. I just wanted to see if I can at least try to do something that could potentially change history as we know it," Twilight responds.
Rarity then puts a hoof to Twilight's shoulder and says: "Twilight, darling. If you wish to do this, then I'll be more than happy to witness this event. But please, for all of us here, do be careful."
The other mares give their nods and small cheers with Celestia finally saying, "Good luck, Twilight."
"Thank you, Celestia," Twilight responds with a quick hug to her former mentor. Then, after a quick hug from the other Princesses and her friends, with Spike sharing a small tear to show his love for his foster mother, she motions them to move back a few hooves away.
"Alright, my friends! Let's see what happens!" she announces before her horn begins to glow in its red-purple aura. The spell begins with a few breezes from out of nowhere turning into gales. The leaves from certain trees surrounding them had fallen with a few hitting the ponies lightly into their faces. Fluttershy squeaked in fear and fell to the ground on her back from one of them slightly touching her rump. Then, Twilight begins to recite the spell from her memory within her mind: 'From all things motionless, let nothing with a life come to me with any sign of death upon them! And let this unknown creature or plant come to me with vigor and heart! Open now, the gates of teleportation! And from there, let this non-Equestrian thing become matter!' And after a few minutes of extreme concentration, a magical circle turns up just twenty feet above the ground. It then moves around to touch the ground just a few inches up while it goes into a vertical motion.
The Princesses and Twilight's friends can only go so far as to be surprised. The circle then shows many more circles within it. And all of them have a certain pattern that is identical to the ancient Northern Whinnyshire designs. Then, after a moment, a click is heard. And more clicks follow up. This was identical to the sound of gates being unlocked, by the sound of it. And after the well needed conclusion of what must have been more than fifty locks unlocking themselves, the circles then begin to glow a certain light that was familiar to the sun, except it was shining brighter than the star that shows the day. This, of course, temporarily blinds the party for a moment or two. When the light shimmered down, they looked to the gates, only to find that it had disappeared just as fast.
The ponies look around.... 'Nothing?', Twilight thinks in a hint of disappointment and sorrow. She then looks to the group and is about to start crying. But then, the slightly taller dragon, Spike, screams out: "TWILIGHT!!! LOOK!!!"
She and the other ponies look to the ground just ten feet away from them, and they see something on the ground. They all gasped in surprise. What they actually saw was a mysterious silhouette that must have been bigger than all of them. "It worked. It.... WORKED! IT WORKED!!! THE SPELL ACTUALLY WORKED!!!" Twilight screams in a heightened sense of happiness. Some loud shrieks and giggles were heard while she jumped and down, hugging her friends and the Princesses in the joy that she found. This was indeed a great moment for all of the history of Equestria.
"Twilight...." Celestia speaks up to her.
"Yes, Princess?"
"You might want to check on this new thing that is on the ground now," Luna suggested.
"I agree," Cadance quips up. "You don't know what it actually is, so you might need to investigate it." The other ponies nodded in a concurring mood. Twilight then goes to the group and nods to them before trekking to the enigma that laid on the ground so stiffly.
Her hooves, though shaking quite a bit, started to gently feel on the mass that just stayed there. "Hmmm.... clothing."
"Say what now?" Rainbow asks.
"I definitely know that this.... thing, is indeed, wearing clothes," Twilight responds. "But why?" she asked herself as she continued her studies. Then, after moving towards the other side, she was able to see that it was curled up. "Must be a response from going through a major teleportation spell. I wonder...." she mutters curiously. Her horn begins to glow on the body. But then the spell bounces off, resulting in the sound of a whip being cracked. She yelped out as response.
"Hey! What just happened, Twi?" Applejack asked with a surprised look on her face.
After a moment, Twilight answers: "This must be some creature that is immune to all forms of magic! Well, in times like this, I'll have to use a hooves-on approach." She moves her hooves to the same thing and slightly pushes it to see it from another view. The face of the new species is then revealed. She isn't frightened at all, her fear being replaced by her ever-mounting curiosity.
"Care to share what you see, Twilight?" Celestia asks from a distance. Then, Twilight looks to the Princess and says: "Just give me a moment, please. I need to make sure if this is what I think it is."
Twilight then moves the limbs of this tall looking thing in order for it to look like it was just laying on the ground while it is on its back. "Hmmm.... No hooves, but has nearly spidery ligaments that resembles a griffon's claws. But these things are not sharp looking at all. In fact, it has some kind of.... perpendicular opposition?" she mutters to herself. "Five talon-like digits for each hand." She then looks to the chest and abdomens while moving the layers of clothing just a little slowly, hoping to not wake it up.
"Hmmm.... A pack of well-developed muscles on its front, from its chest to even its stomach. I guess that it is what I'm seeing," Twilight quipped in her continuing observation. She then moves her hooves to replace the clothing to their respective places. "This creature has no fur coat, so it must depend on some kind of clothing for warmth against the environment." Her hooves then touch what she believed to be the legs. "Wow. It looks like it's a bipedal creature. These legs are made from birth to be walked on," she rambled. Then, she saw what must have been shoes. "These hooves --no!-- limbs on the bottom of the legs must be something like the feet of a dragon. I won't know until I can do a proper investigation," Twilight speaks once again.
She then looks to the face of the mysterious creature and walks up to face it. She was able to see that it had a patch of hair on its head that must have been at least one and a half feet long. But not only that, it had another set of hairs that were similar to ponies bit of hair; eyelashes and eyebrows to be exact. But even with that, she was able to see that this must have been a male. And yes, quite handsome to look at. She blushed from the moment that she looked at its face. She then shakes her head to continue her preliminary report. She moved her hoof to its lips. After a few seconds, she saw its teeth and gums. "Bits of sharp teeth on the upper and lower jaws.... just like in Spike's mouth. But there are also chompers.... must be an omnivore," she then sees after moving her hoof further in before removing it from the mouth. She then steps a few feet away from the creature for a moment. And with a deep breath from her nostrils, she looked to her friends and gestured them to come over. They do so slowly. Just as they soon look to it, one of them decided to speak up:
"So, uh... Twilight? What is it?" Fluttershy asks in that adorable yet quiet tone.
Twilight looks to them and says: "I believe that this creature is from an ancient time, long before Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were even born. A bipedal omnivore with a bone structure that is shaped like the apes within their own tribes from Zebrica. I think...."
The group looked to her with suspense.
"I think.... that Lyra, from Ponyville, might have been right all along. This.... is the species that is known as the 'homo sapien' in scientific terms. It is otherwise known as.... a human being," Twilight concluded in a surprised tone.
This announcement causes both Twilight's friends, Spike, and the other Princesses to gasp in shock.
"You mean.... the ancient race that mysteriously vanished in myth?" Luna asked in her own shocked voice.
"The one race that was once known to be the greatest inventors, explorers, philosophers, hunters, artists, thinkers, investigators, and war masters?" Cadance added.
"And were once living in harmony with the ponies in the past?" Celestia then adds to the queries.
"The what and the what now?" Applejack quips curiously.
Twilight was then about to answer these impending questions when a shrill gasp was heard out of nowhere. Then, as the ponies moved out of their instincts, the arms of the male human begun to flinch around. His head moved around in a shock. Then, after he stopped moving, he raises his arms up and shouts:
"HOLY SHIT!!! I THOUGHT I'D NEVER GET OUT OF THAT WORMHOLE ALIVE!!! I'M ALIVE!!! IIII'MMMMM AAALLLIIIIIVVVVEE-AH!!!"
The cheer from this man had shaken the ponies and the dragon just a bit. Fluttershy then runs away in her usual fear with a small scream. But it was soon replaced by fit of small giggles.
"What the--?", both Twilight and the human say in unison. The man raises his body halfway to find the source of the voices. And what he sees is just.... a bit freaky. But it was not even slightly strange.
"Woah! Holy shit! ....this is just.... wow!" he gasps. Twilight then looks to the man with a question: "Oh wow! You can speak like we do?"
"Yeah, I-I guess so. But the big question is: What the heck are you?"
"Huh? What do you mean?" Twilight asks with an arched eyebrow.
"Well," he begins to say. "I noticed how you look like the hybridization of a unicorn and a pegasus horse. And then, there so happens to be.... uh.... some symbol on your.... I-I don't wanna say anymore," he stops while pointing his finger to her rump with his head down while still looking at the mare.
"Oh! You mean my cutie mark?" she then responds with a little wiggle from her rump.
"Yeah. That."
She giggles a bit before answering him. "Well.... I think I can give you a bit of the well-known information that is commonly known here: This so happens to be a cutie mark. And each cutie mark symbolizes what a ponies calling in life is. Mine just so happens to show that my calling in life is to learn and explore the many levels of the many different types of magic."
His head nods a bit, keeping his attention on the mare.
"And I just so happen to be what is known as an 'alicorn', the mix of regular earth, pegasi and unicorn ponies. My friends here," she points with a hoof towards the group of ponies, making his head see them, "are the best examples of the other three races of ponies here in Equestria!"
Some of them start to giggle and blush a bit while Fluttershy just hangs her head down, hoping to hide her from his view. He decides then and there to stand on his feet. And when he does this, he notices that he is taller than the ponies in question. Even the Princesses are just a few feet shorter than him. This was a bit intimidating to all of the mares surrounding him. Of course, he never did know that his height was able to give him a slight advantage. But then again, he also didn't know that he is completely immune to all types of magic.
"So, unless I'm mistaken, you," he points to Pinkie Pie, who just happens to bounce up and down, "are an earth pony, right?"
"Yes-indeedy!! Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! It's a pleasure to meet you, stranger," she says in her happy voice.
"And.... you happen to be a unicorn, correct?" he further asks, pointing a finger at the marshmallow-white pony.
"Why, yes! I am, of course, named Rarity. But you can call me Miss Rarity if you prefer that," Rarity answers in that classy voice of hers.
"I'll keep that in mind, but just saying the name works better," he responds with a wave of his hand. Then, he points to the pegasus that is trying to hide from his sight. "And I guess that you and the blue one," he quips, "are known as pegasus ponies, right?"
The butter-yellow mare just squeaks at the question. "Aw, come on, Fluttershy! He's not gonna hurt you.... right?" Rainbow asks him after peering her head to his.
"Now why would I want to hurt any of you?"
The yellow pegasus slowly approaches him. "Uhm... hello... I'm.... I'm Fluttershy", she softly squeaks. His ears are able to pick up what she was afraid to say out loud. "Fluttershy, huh? It's a pleasure to meet you, my new friend," he says to her while she backs away from him just a few feet away.
"Don't worry, big guy. She'll come around eventually," Rainbow speaks to him. "And I just so happen to be the one and only Rainbow Dash! Nice to meet you!" She raises a hoof to him and he bumps it with a closed fist.
"And ahm Applejack! A pleasure makin' your acquaintence!" Applejack then says while shaking his fist rapidly before letting it go.
He looks to Twilight and she says: "And I'm Twilight Sparkle, The Princess of Friendship and current ruler of the small village called Ponyville. It's an honor to meet you, sir!"
"You too, your Highness!" he says with a bow to her.
"Oh! Please! Just call me 'Twilight'! All my friends do, anyway! Heh-heh!" she giggles with a blush on her face.
The Princesses in another small group all go up to him and begin to introduce themselves to him.
"I am Princess Mi Amore Cadenza of the Crystal Empire. But I'm better known as just 'Cadance'", the pink alicorn begins.
"I am Princess Luna, the Princess of the Night and co-ruler of the land of Equestria", the dark blue alicorn then speaks.
"And I am Princess Celestia, the Princess of the Day and ruler of all of Equestria," Celestia finishes with a loving smile.
After the introductions were made, he learned about each of their talents in life, along with how they all got their cutie marks. And when he had learned about all of the mares lives, he then raised his hand and asked:
"Listen, uh.... Princess Celestia? I know that we all just met today, but, and I hope that this isn't asking too much, but I have to ask.... may I, uh...." he blushed while his voice trailed off with his head on the ground.
"What is it?" she wonders with a concerned look to him.
"Well, the thing is.... I-uh.... just wanted to know if.... I-if I-I-I could....", he stuttered before taking a deep breath in and out, "If I could, well.... hug you?" The mares gasped in shock. And even he couldn't believe what he just asked, evidenced by his shy face looking away. Celestia, however, just walked up to him and placed a hoof on his chest. She gave him a warm smile and said:
"Yes. You may give me a hug, good sir."
His reaction was just as cheesy as any other; he then kneels on one leg while keeping another leg up. She then approaches him with a raised hoof around his shoulders and fully hugs him with him wrapping his arms around her shoulders. They held the embrace for a good two minutes. Her scent of citrus and vanilla was able to bring good feelings to him from his nostrils, while his scent of an earthy tone was able to please the Princess. After a moment of this tender embrace, they broke off the hug and parted.
He then remembered that it was just rude to not introduce himself and started to cast himself as just an idiot to himself.
"Aw, jeez! I just remembered that I was supposed to introduce myself to all of you!"
The mares simply had a small laugh with him. "My name is...."
End of Part 1....