Chapters Guards from a distant world
Prologue: (side story to “Five Score, Divided by Four”)
“EVERYPONY PULL BACK!!” Shining Armor bellowed. “RETURN TO CANTERLOT AT ONCE!!
After some minor confusion from the group of guards, I turn to Shining Armor, who turns to me.
“Twilight is under attack. I’m sorry, but I have to get back there now”
I don’t respond, I know his reasons, I’ve been his personal guard for several years. All he wishes is for his sister to be safe from harm, even if that means sacrificing himself to save her.
I see a colorful Pegasus guard salute Shining Armor. “Sir, I will fly there myself. I will arrive before the bulk of our forces, but I will find and protect Princess Sparkle with my life.”
Shining turns to the Pegasus “Your bravery is commendable, but there’s no need for that flight, I’m going myself. I’ll meet you all there when you arrive.” A faint blue aura surrounds Shining Armor’s horn as he prepares to teleport.
One of Shining’s personal guards step in. “Sir, please, you can’t go by yourself, you have to wait for some of your guards to arrive! It’s too risky to go there alone!”
Shining seems very stressed, “Damn it, we don’t have time for this! It’s going to take us over an hour to get back on hoof. That’s too slow! I need to teleport back now! If something happens to me when I’m saving my sister, well then that’s my problem.”
Shining’s guard speaks again. “No, that’s just it sir, this is more important than you! Shining, you’re the Captain of the Guard! With Celestia gone and Luna in her sacred slumber, command of the entire Equestrian armed forces falls to you! If Celestia really did fall in battle, this is an act of war! Don’t you get it? We need to get you to safety immediately! We can protect you from Discord and work to find and protect the other bearers of Harmony, but you have to stay with us! The next few hours will be crucial to the entire fate of Equestria! If something were to happen to you, the entire guard will be thrown into disarray, we would have no way to—“
I stand by, watching the scene before me unfold. Shining shoves the guard off of him. “Damn it, this is my sister we’re talking about! I’m sorry, but I can’t just sit around here and wait while she gets killed!”
Shining’s horn is once again surrounded by a blue aura. A Pegasus guard cries out for him to stay, but then the clearing is lit up in a blast of blue-ish light. Shining was gone.
I nervously look back at the castle, easily a few hundred miles away. I see a faint flash of blue, And after several moments another one, this one black and very powerful. My fellow Guard-ponies must’ve felt the shock of our captain disappearing. I stood up, walked to the front of the group. “As Shining Armor’s personal Guard, I believe it is right for me to take command if something were to happen to our captain.”
A few murmurs of agreement echo from the group of guards. “We need to go back to Canterlot Immediately! We can all feel that something happened to Shining armor, but Discord is there! We can go there and fight him!”
A guard pipes up. “But Sir Fury Blade! If something like Discord can easily take out Shining AND Twilight, I doubt we can even stand a chance against Discord.”
I sigh from defeat… “Well, you’re right…”
Right then, an evil murmur echoes from behind me, which causes a collective gasp to rise from the group of guards. “Yes, My Little Ponies, you can never defeat me without your precious ‘Elements of harmony’”
Discord…
I turn around right as one of my fellow guards throws a spear directly at Discord, Discord teleports away from it and laughs. “You ponies are nothing now, Nopony to direct you, Nopony to guide you. You’re NOTHING!”
I can feel myself being overtaken by rage. “WHAT DID YOU DO TO SHINING ARMOR AND PRINCESS SPARKLE?!” I draw my blades and I leap up into the air with my wings and I launch myself at Discord. All he does is laughs and grabs me in midflight with his magic, causing me to drop my swords in surprise. I try to wiggle free but alas, no success.
“My, my, Fury Blade. Mind your manners, I have a surprise for you. One you won’t remember for a long time.”
Admitting defeat, I shout: “Stop with the riddles and get on with it!”
Discord smiles and I get surrounded by dark energy, for a moment I don’t feel anything, then I can begin to feel my body being literally ripped apart.
The last thing I could remember was Discord’s last riddle.
“For Five Score! Divided by Four!”
“Your memories removed, your body confused!”
“For your insolence you must pay,”
“Cast off to a land far far away!”
“To scatter the six, just the start of my tricks!”
“Your mind shall be weak, your outlooks bleak!”
“Forgetting everything and living like a fool,”
“You have all lost, now no one can stop my rule!”
Guards from a distant world
Chapter 1: Strange Markings
May 1st 2020
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
It was my birthday today! In about one hour I will be officially 25 years old! A few friends from work offered to show up, even though none of their birthdays were the same as mine… aside from my brother, we’re twins.
We all sit in front of a big clock which is hanging from the wall in the middle of my apartment. At about 9:45 pm I will be officially 25 years of age. Everyone was having a conversation, except for me, I was staring intently at the clock.
One of my best friends from work turned to me. “Almost time! We need to be sure we drink our booze when its time!”
I close my eyes for a moment, when I open them I realize the time had changed…
“Am I imagining things? Surely no one could’ve got up and changed the clock manually. I only closed my eyes for a moment…” wait, it has been almost a half an hour since I last looked… was time speeding up or something? I’m not sure what to think. Somehow almost an entire hour passed… but it only felt like seconds… Five minutes left…
My friends had all stopped their discussion and turned their attention to the clock… another time skip… my friends were already chanting,
“TEN… NINE… EIGHT…” I quickly reached for my shot glass of liquor.
“FIVE… FOUR… THREE…” Happy birthday… I smiled
“TWO… ONE...!” I raised the tip of the shot glass to my lips and I drained the glass.
I’m not sure when I passed out but I woke up at some point later with my brother tapping my shoulder
“HEY ZACK!! WAKE UP!”
I rub my eyes and I sit up. “What time it is?”
“Well, seeing how we have a giant clock in the middle the room, you can figure that out for yourself.” He leaves the room.
I smirk, that damn clock. “Yeah, right.” I peer over towards the clock and I see that it was almost midnight.
My Brother comes back into the room, rubbing his pants where his butt cheek is. “What happened to you during the twenty seconds that I was gone for? You look like a dumpster.” I snicker at his joke.
“You should go take a shower Zack, you look horrible… and get a change of clothes, Too.”
I get up and I walk out of the room towards the shower, it’s a good thing I’m prepared for this stuff. I take off my clothes and I place them in the laundry hamper, I catch a glimpse of the mirror and I see an image on my butt. “What the…” I carefully examine the tattoo on my butt. It was a simple symbol. On my butt cheek, was a picture of two orange crossed swords.
“… hell is this?” out of curiosity I check my other butt cheek, and sure enough, the same image. I try to dismiss the weird phenomenon that has happened… it must’ve been Richard. “Damn you Richard! and your obsession with those damn ponies!” I step into the bathtub and I turn on the shower. Dismissing all thought of what just happened.
A bit later I step out of the shower and I dry myself off, I put my clothes on in front of the mirror as an old habit. Halfway through putting on my shirt, I realize my hair color has changed ever-so slightly, you see, my hair is naturally brown... but it’s turning white. I’m sure this isn’t old age… I’m only twenty five!
“Okay… what is the meaning of this?” I step out of the bathroom, and I walk into my brother’s room. I immediately notice that some of his auburn hair has changed color to more of a bright orange. Seeing how those colors were very similar, I surprised myself knowing that I just spotted that, and knowing for certain that something strange is going on.
Since I didn’t have much of a basis to go off of, I just shrugged it off. I walked to my room and I fell asleep on my bed.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
The next morning went rather normal. I woke up and I walked into the kitchen to grab some cereal, I grabbed a bowl, milk, and my favorite cereal and I put it together.
It tasted better than I expected it to.
Hmm… weird, perhaps my taste buds are changing, they always are. But… not overnight, how could this be? I turn to see Richard standing in the doorway behind me, visibly angry. “uhh, what are you angry about?” He doesn’t speak, he never does when he is angry, and he points to his huge head of hair. It takes me a moment to realize what he is pointing at.
He has pointy ears, like an elf.
I couldn’t help but laugh, he looks like a red-headed elf!
My laughing didn’t help Richard’s mood. “I know you did this to me.”
I stop laughing. “Wh- what?”
“You gave me these ears and an orange head of hair!”
“No I didn’t!” I feel my hair, horrified that I may have the same fate. Yep… pointy ears… go figure.
The rest of the day went by; Richard was still fully convinced that I did this to him. He tried taking the ears off but the harder he pulled, the louder he would yell in pain.
At about five o’clock in the afternoon, I realized that sitting down wasn’t very comfortable. I ran toward the restroom, noticing that I’m standing on my toes… huh, that’s weird, I’ll worry about that later.
I enter the restroom and I take off my pants, fearing the worst. I looked behind me, dreading what I may see.
A tail. A white fluffy tail…
THUNK!
I was passed out on the floor.
Around the time I woke up, I was praying that this was all just a dream and I was fine… my pants were still down, I woke up on the bathroom floor…… uh oh… does this mean?... I look behind me and I see a tail…
I struggle to stay conscious. “OH MY GOD! A FREAKING TAIL
A sudden realization occurs to me… “If I have a tail… pointy ears and strangely colored hair… could it be possible that I MAY just be turning into a horse?”
My thoughts were interrupted by Richard pounding on the bathroom door. “YOU BASTARD! FIX THIS NOW! I DON’T WANT A TAIL!”
I put my pants back on and I open the door “Richard… this isn’t my doing. I don’t know what is going on” He looks up at me and instantly all hatred disappears as he sees my pure-white hair and tail.
He doesn’t speak, instead, he starts crying.
I’ve never seen my brother cry before…
I kneel down with a bit of trouble, I realize with a face of horror that my middle toe on both feet… had darkened to a black-charred color and had grown much larger.
“What the… HELL IS GOING ON?!” I watch as my big toe slowly grows bigger and bigger, and starts to merge with my other toes, as if…
A hoof?! Am I turning into a pony?
The realization caused me to forget about my brother. I look at him. “We’ll get through this together”
After a while, Richard stops crying and looks at me. “D- do you have a cutie mark too?”
“A cuti- whatnow?”
“A cutie mark. I have one… apparently, not sure where it came from… Its on my butt, im assuming the same for you?”
“Yes”
“Well? May I see it?”
“Uh… I guess” I pull down my pants just to the point where the ‘cutie mark’ is visible.
“Fury blade, that’s whose cutie mark that is.”
“And… who is ‘fury blade’?”
“Fury blade is the personal guard of Shining armor”
“Okay,” I’m not much of a brony… so I have no idea who Shining Armor is “Who is Shining armor?”
Richard rolls his eyes “You clearly don’t know much… come, lets watch some cartoons” He hints with a wink. Hoping I would catch on… but I don’t.
I follow Richard into his room where there is a flat-screen tv. Richard walks over, takes out a disc from a case and puts it into the dvd player, then hits play. Instantly the room is full of music screaming: “MY LITTLE PONY, MY LITTLE PONY, AAHHH AAAAAAAAHHHHHH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!”
I wince. “Can you turn it down a little?”
Richard clearly didn’t hear me correctly. “You want it louder?! Okay!” he turned it up louder…
At this point my eardrums are going to pop. I cover my ears and I walk towards the tv, manually turning down the sound. “What… the… hell, you REALLY didn’t hear me.”
“Well I thought you wanted it louder.”
“Why in Celestia’s name would I want it louder?...” my voice trails off. What did I just say?
Did I just say Celestia? The ruler of Equestria? I barely even know who she is, yet I’m already saying her name like its normal for me to say such things.
Richard raises an eyebrow. “Did you just say ‘Celestia’? You haven’t even seen a single episode, yet you are already saying her name… what gives?”
“I’m not sure, a tongue slip maybe?”
Richard doesn’t seem to be buying it. “Whatever, let’s just watch some cartoons.”
The remainder of the day went by filled with colorful ponies. I hadn’t even noticed what new changes had occurred to my body.
A thought appeared in my head as the credits were rolling on an episode in season 2.
“Hey Richard? Earlier you said you had a cutie mark. May I see it?”
“Uh, sure” His voice sounded slightly feminine, but I didn’t put much thought into it.
He starts pulling down his pants to reveal the image on his butt. I saw an image of a bow surrounded by electricity with a single arrow appearing to have just been launched from it.
“True Shot, that’s a female archer. it- she was one of Princess Luna’s personal guards… and sister to Fury Blade” Richard looks at me in concern. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this”
Guards from a distant world
Chapter two: What is happening to us?
May 3rd 2020
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
My life has gone and turned itself upside down… a few days ago, everything was fine, I was hanging out with my friends and all that, and on the moment I turned twenty-five years old, a cutie mark of a Pegasus stallion appears on my thigh… Richard isn’t taking these changes so well, he would cry whenever I wasn’t listening. We finished watching about three-fourths of all of the ‘My Little Pony’ episodes before both of us passed out. I woke up and I walked into the bathroom, I stopped the moment I saw my reflection.
“This… this can’t be! How am I growing white fur on my arms and my face?”
I stared at my reflection with a face of horror. “I’m a freak!”
Richard appears behind me and I spin around to face him. “Richard? You look terrible… what happened?”
“I… I don’t want to talk about it” His voice was distinctively feminine.
I look at his feet… or hooves.
I look at my feet… which have become hooves. Great… this is just… great! How much worse can this get?! “I have hooves now…”
Richard places a hand on my shoulder. “Just like you told me, ‘we’ll get through this together’”
That statement made me calm down a bit. “I just can’t believe that we are turning into PONIES! I don’t even believe in magic!”
Richard smirked. “You don’t have to, you aren’t a unicorn.”
I smiled. “Touché”
Richard randomly winced in pain. “Richard? Are you okay?” A few moments later I get the same pain, it seems to be coming from my back, right around where the shoulder blades are. I reach my hand into my shirt to feel two lumps of skin jutting out of my back.
“Well… that settles it. There’s no going back now.” It’s getting tough making sure I say Richard’s name rather than his pony name, holding onto our human names may just be the only thing that we can hold, to keep us human. The idea may not work out in the long run, but I am not too keen on turning into a pony and not giving up my humanity (whatever is left of it) without a fight.
“Zack?” Richard asks, “a-are we growing… wings?”
I didn’t know what to say, if I said yes, it would take us down the path of leaving our humanity and embracing ponyness. If I said no, he’d know I was lying… so what choice did I have?
I sigh deeply “I think so, but I really hope we aren’t”
______________________________________________________________________________
What remained of the day went by smoothly, and we both went to sleep in our own respective bed. I had a decent dream, although I cannot recall what it was, I was abruptly awoken by Richard who had undergone some massive physical appearance changes. His faces was soft and smooth, as if he’d just applied lotion to it and had been keeping it under careful watch and care to keep it that elegant.
But that wasn’t all. His face reminded me nothing of a MALE face. It looked very feminine. As if… as if…
“Richard?” He didn’t respond. “hmm… how about, True Shot ?”
Immediately True Shot responded. “Yes that is me, I don’t know what happened last night, I went to bed and I woke up, as if I was a brand-new me”
His/Her characteristics had not only changed his/her face, but his/her whole BODY was changing too!, it was modeled perfectly as a typical pony should look like. Although I could tell the transformation was not done, as (s)he was still missing a lot of fur, but from what fur I did see, it looked like a bright lavender, and sort-of pinkish color. It was a very dazzling color.
True Shot broke me from my trance. “Hello?! Equestria to Fury! Come in Fury!”
“Yes yes… I read you loud and clear.” Despite the circumstances, I couldn’t help but smile.
“We have a situation here! What is happening to us? And WHY is this happening to us?!”
“I don’t know, but I know we’ll find out soon.” I suddenly remember a faint dream I had, the dream I was having when I was passed out on the floor on the day I turned 25… could it be? (the dream was the prologue, incase anypony is confused) “Hey True? Ever hear this saying?:
“For Five Score! Divided by Four!” ? True didn’t respond to my question, instead, he/she recited the next line:
“Your memories removed, your body confused!”
We took turns reciting each of the lines:
“For your insolence you must pay,”
“Cast off to a land far far away!”
“To scatter the six, just the start of my tricks!”
“Your mind shall be weak, your outlooks bleak!”
“Forgetting everything and living like a fool,”
“You have all lost, now no one can stop my rule!”
How could I have not seen this before? My memory vaguely told me it was discord, but I reminded myself that Fluttershy had reformed discord in one of the episodes of my little pony. My mind screamed against itself, ‘YOU CANNOT REFORM CHAOS ITSELF!’ . I was starting to get a migraine and Rich-True Shot had started to take notice.
“What’s wrong Brother?”
“I-I’m just thinking, about that riddle we just recited. ‘For Five Score, Divided by Four’? isn’t that equal to 25? And didn’t all of this madness START the day we both turned 25? That couldn’t be a coincidence”
True pondered on that for a few moments. “Something magical and ancient is at work here, I don’t know what. But if one thing is for sure, the line about ‘To scatter the six’ doesn’t that refer to the MANE six? From the TV show? Does that mean they are on earth as well as us and trying to cope with becoming ponies?”
“Ya know, you are much smarter than I give you credit for… all of what you just said makes sense, and I think I know what we need to do, find the mane six. I just hope we don’t get to them before it’s too late…”
“Late? For what?”
“I-I’m not sure, I just have a feeling that if we don’t reach them in time, something very bad will happen” I bit my lips, noticing my teeth have changed too.
“Well, I’d assume watching the news would be a good place to start, if any ponies are in trouble, there would have been reports about it in the news by now.”
I pondered on that thought for a moment. “Yeah, why not, it’s not like we have any other leads that we can go off of.”
True sits on his bed and reaches for the remote.
“Remember! Not too loud, last time I was hearing nothing but a loud ringing noise in my ear for well over an hour.”
True turns on the TV and turns down the volume, and we begin to watch the 7-day forecast. Everything in the program seemed normal, but after the meteorologist was done explaining the weather, a woman behind the desk cleared her throat as she began to speak.
“Eye-witnesses have reported seeing 4 and possibly more colorful horses flying around downtown Sacramento California, while officials are not sure what to make of the sighting, a few distinct feathers were found in the area the witnesses described. The government sent someone to pick up a few samples of these feathers for testing, to see what animal these feathers came from. We are still waiting for further updates. This has been Channel-Five news! We’ll see you all in an hour!”
True looked at me. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Yeah! I’m starving!”
True Face-hoofed. “You can get something to eat soon, but I meant, what about the 4 ponies in Sacramento? We should meet up with them and see if they can help us.”
“Ah yes! We should do that, after a meal and some sleep, maybe we can meet up with them then, after all, our wings aren’t fully developed yet.”
“Good point, hopefully they aren’t too difficult to track down.”
After a good meal, we both went to bed, I fell asleep literally right before my head touched the pillow.