Celestia's Guards

A/N: I realize that these chapters are getting shorter, but there isn't much I can do about it other than force more stuff into them. I will try to make the following sections more extravagant. No promises. Applejack!

“I wonder if Twilight is okay? I didn’t give her much to stand on and Selen was injured this morning.” Celestia was in her chambers with Burgundy and Alabaster. After the library was fixed they reported back to her and she invited them in. They had stepped in side by side in perfect unison, despite the huge differences between them. Burgundy, tall and dark, towered over the Alicorn beside him. Alabaster was just as small if not smaller than Twilight. His horn and wings were a pale skin color and the rest of his pure white body was speckled with small grey blotches. His lips were a light pink as well as the area around his eyes.

“I’m sure the young-un will be fine Princess. All of us have been before. Except for when James...” Burgundy trailed off at the remembrance of his last mission.

“James was unfortunate. If he had come back then none of us would have fared well. James was also the reason I sent a mare this time, because hopefully your species will be a bit nicer to ‘girls’.” Celstia remembered the day she was told that the mission for James had failed. She had been in her room, just like she was now. The stack of papers to go through was piled high on her desk and she was ready to take a break. Burgundy had burst through the doors missing a leg and bleeding profusely from his head. His horn even had a few cracks in it that day. His words before he passed out rang in Celestia’s head.

“He was crazy Princess. It isn’t safe to bring him here. I’m calling this one aborted.” Even when he was on the verge of death, Burgundy did his job to the best of his abilities.

“Burgundy you’re banished.” Celestia said aloud. She had decided on the next course of action and snapped out of her memory. Despite the severe and random punishment, his face didn’t even twitch. It did however turn into a scowl when he was face to face with a cardboard cutout of Princess Luna. He knew where he was. The moon.

“Three... Two... One...” He thought to himself. The cardboard Luna turned into Celestia rapidly. She was just as close to his face and she had a smirk plastered upon her maw.

“Your tricks are getting old ma'am. You should think of some new ones.” Burgundy had seen that many times before and even if he hadn’t, it still wouldn’t have perturbed him.

“Fine. Burgundy you may leave. But Alabaster you must stay here.” Celestia turned around and at the flick of her mane, Burgundy went away.

“I need some ginseng or something...” Burgundy told himself as he walked away.

“Alabaster, can I ask you a question?” Celestia knew it was a pointless inquiry. She would ask anyways, but it seemed right to have his permission first.

“I swear I didn’t mean to eat her! She was just so scrumptious looking. Her wings were so tender and I was only off duty for a minute. Please don’t banish me!” Alabaster dropped to stomach and put his front hooves together above his head.

“I wasn’t going to ask about that... But now that you mention it someone did ask about their filly. Who did you eat Alabaster?” Celstia turned back around to face the almost pure white pony. She saw how red around the eyes he was and how discolored his teeth were. To her, Alabaster was the limit of insanity she could keep under control. Just mere inches from turning into James.

“I didn’t know she wasn’t an orphan or I would have just let her alone. She just seemed so alone. Only the cutie mark crusaders were ever with her. She didn’t even sleep in a house the days I saw her.” Alabaster explained. The princess already knew what had happened. Alabaster ate Scootaloo.

“Alabaster... People are going to miss her too much. I am afraid I’m going to have to bring her back.”

“No please don’t... It hurts so much when you AAAAAAAHHGH!” Alabaster was flung into the air and  turned upside down. His distended stomach flattened and began pushing in on itself. His mouth was wrenched open and red misshapen chunks began making their way out. They fell to the floor in a huge heap. Alabaster dropped to the floor as well, but he missed the pile. He groaned loudly.

“My original question was ‘Would you be willing to watch over Twilight and Selen?’ But now it is an order. As payment for Scootaloo.”

“Oh god... yes ma’am...” Alabaster got up with loud grunts, as he walked over to the obsidian teleporter. “Bye then baby cakes!” Alabaster shouted to Celestia. She began to run at him to teach him a lesson but he just laughed and cast the spell.

“I hope he dies.” Celestia said to no one. She began casting spells that would revive and fix Scootaloo’s body. Hopefully she wouldn’t be missed for too long.

“Whoa, space and things... ah my god...” Alabaster was partially stunned when he arrived at Earth. He recovered swiftly by shaking his head and forcing himself forward through the dizziness. He walked slowly towards the puddle of blood that he saw on the pier. “I suppose I should get a drink before I run off to find them.” After a quick, demented refresher, Alabaster set out at a sprint, giggling the whole way.

“Can we please just walk? I don’t want to die today. Tuesday would work but I don’t feel like it today.” Twilight joked around halfheartedly. She was terrified on the inside.

“Today is Tuesday Twilight... Besides, we should be fine. And I’ve been meaning to try this out.”

“Oh Celestia help me...” Twilight climbed into the cart. Selen rocked back and forth, lifting up the front of the cart and slowly moving them forward towards the steep drop. He stopped swaying when the front reached the metal part of the sewer. “You better scream or this wont be any fun.”

“What do you meeeeeeeeAAAAAANNNN!” Twilight bellowed in fear as the cart began it’s downward descent. Selen whooped and Twilight screamed as they plummeted down the slope. The cart’s front limbs ground against the cement and were visibly growing shorter. It began tipping forward and finally one of the beams broke, sending the cart to the side rapidly. Twilight screamed harder as they began to move towards one of the blocks of concrete jutting out.

“Well shit...” Selen said dully. The edge of the cart clipped the side of the cube and sent the two riders careening down the sewer. Twilight’s yells only stopped for a second when she hit the ground with a thud. Selen landed on his feet, which was a mistake. His ankle shot icy shards of ice up his leg and he gave a yelp as he landed. Quickly he decided to roll with it and try and save the now flailing pony. After the original somersault that he performed, he pushed off with his good foot and flew inches from the ground towards the pony. He wrapped his arms around her as she slid down the sewer and began forcing her to roll. He then wrapped his legs around her and the rest of the way down, she failed to touch the ground at all. She once again felt the sense of security that she loved. Even though she was also feeling dizzy, she no longer had the sense of trepidation that she was granted before the plummet. The two adventurers rolled to a stop ten feet from the edge of the sewer. As soon as they stopped rolling Twilight wanted to get up to avoid an awkward situation, despite the good feeling she had. But Selen’s tight embrace still held it’s grip on her.

“You can let...” Twilight tried to explain but was cut off by her shield.

“No not yet.” As if to make his words ring true, the parts of the cart that had broken apart came crashing down the slope. The main part that was still together hit Selen straight in the back and Twilight felt the impact as well as his shudder afterwards. She waited a few more seconds patiently and when the clatter stopped, Selen let her go. As soon as she was a few feet away from him, he began coughing vigorously. “I’m going to need a couple minutes... Just... just like... two.” Selen waved his hand at Twilight while speaking and rolled onto his back. Twilight looked away from Selen and back to the steep sewer they had just survived. She saw a few pieces of wood rocking back and forth on the concrete block they hit. It was almost all the way at the top. A small red blotch marked where she hit the ground with her rear. She looked back at her damaged flank and noticed several deep scrapes. She regretted getting hurt and then looked at Selen. Guilt swept over her. He was hurt much worse than she was. She looked back at the slope to see if she could find any other areas that would yield information. A few other red splotches accompanied the one she made and she was left to assume that those were from Selen rolling down the sewer. Just as she was looking away a flash of white shot across the top of the waterway. Gears began moving fast in Twilight’s brain. Every thing she had encountered in this world was hostile. And if it could move that fast then... Twilight spun around and tackled Selen’s leg. She dug her teeth into his pants and ripped off a strip of denim. It tasted vile in her mouth but she worked quickly despite it. Before Selen could begin protesting, Twilight was lining up broken peices of wood.

“What’s the rush little pony? We’re already, holy balls of the Pope!” Selen yelped in pain when Twilight pulled the band tight around his ankle.

“Let’s move please? I’m getting a bad feeling around here.”

“Alright fine. We’ll go.” Selen rolled over onto his stomach and pushed himself up in the same manner he did when he was shot. He slowly tested the splint again and finally took off at a jog once more. Twilight followed but not before looking back at the top of the sewer.

“What were you saying earlier?” Twilight remembered how he cut himself off.

“Oh yeah. We just made up like 20 miles time. We should be just about there.”

“What? How? We only took one little shortcut.” Selen stopped when she asked. He pointed away from where they were going and explained.

“The road that we’re on is the same one that we were on before. It goes ten miles that way and then loops back this way. There’s no other way through since the only gaps in the buildings have ten foot drops or walls.”

“Oh I see. By the way you lied.” Twilight raised her head higher at the claim. “You have been hurt before today. Why else would you have the scars?” Her gut wrenched as she looked over at his chest.

“Well... yeah I suppose I did didn’t I. Well... not all of these are from bandits and such. Some of them are... from... the...” Selen trailed off into his thoughts and memories. Twilight thought it better to stop asking about his carvings and injuries.

“How far away are we? From your house that is.” Twilight asked a little louder than normal.

“We should be there in about five...” Selen stopped running quickly. “Did you hear that?” Twilight also stopped, and when the sounds of her hooves ceased, she heard a sound of scuffling as well. She saw where Selen was looking and followed his gaze just in time to see a small trickle of blood fall from one of the sidewalks cracks.

“Run. Run now. I don’t care what that is we are going now.” The fear in Selen’s voice alerted Twilight even more. It also gave her Twilight took off as fast as she could and the other followed soon after. Twilight slowed her pace after a few steps to wait for her friend but as she did this, Selen shot past. Twilight reeled first at how fast the injured man could be and then regained her speed. Selen slid suddenly almost horizontal to the floor with his hand grinding against the ground. He let the soles of his feet dig in and the momentum carried him into a standing position. He pointed into an alleyway and shouted something. Twilight couldn’t hear his words because of the blood pounding in her ears but she followed his finger and dashed into the corridor. Selen made one last check to see that nothing would see him go in there before following the purple pony.

“Twilight slow down. Were fine now.” Twilight stopped and waited for Selen to catch up. As soon as she could see him by her side, a question popped into her head.

“Why were you so scared back there? I would have thought that you would just fight like last time.” Twilight pondered answers herself as they turned a corner.

“You tell me. If you’re having a little trouble then you should probably take a look at me.” Selen gestured to himself by spreading his arms to the sides.

“But you seem so fine. You haven’t collapsed yet and you’re still walking. You don’t even sound like you’re in pain.” Twilight then thought to herself. “Even though you do sound a little mad...”

“That’s just adrenaline and Annie.” Selen turned another corner.

“Annie? Who’s that?” Once again the conversation was cut short.

“Here we are. My home.” Twilight stood open mouthed at the scene before her. The crude portal of broken bricks and pieces of drywall, there lay a peaceful scene that reminded her quickly of home. The first thing that struck her was the amount of green. Not only was grass growing on the ground but there were vines cascading down the walls. A huge tree filled the majority of the room and Twilight spotted the aforementioned apples growing on it’s branches. Before seeing this wonderful atrium, Twilight had the impression that this world was devoid of plant life. She hadn’t seen any flowers or trees or even grass on their way to the safe house. But here lay lush grass and a seemingly happy tree. Twilight pulled her jaw from the floor and stepped quickly over to the tree. The grass comforted her hooves and she stopped on her way to balk at it. This confirmed it, what she saw was real, and to her, the whole atrium seemed like heaven. Fluttershy would have enjoyed it more but Twilight pushed the thought from her mind. She was happy. She put her hoof on the tree and felt it’s bark. It felt exactly like the trees in Equestria. Her world and this one began to seem very similar. This was all so much like her home, except for the fact that a small red trickle touched her hoof. She turned and saw Selen completely collapsed. His face had barely landed in the grass and most of his still stuck out from the gaping hole in the wall. Twilight had to assume that he had finally passed out from blood loss. She dragged him inside by the untorn leg of his pants and laid him down in the grass next to the tree

“So he isn’t invincible.”