Young hearts, and a new world.

Chapter 2

    The shock of Celestia's statement had worn off quickly, and with some debating from Nastassia, it was decided that the five humans would be brought to Canterlot so that they may explain themselves further to Celestia in private. They were currently flying towards Canterlot in a covered carriage. Inside, Nastassia was asleep on Jp's shoulder, JP busy looking out the window. Cody, Joel, and Bryan were busy discussing a plan.

    "Guys, seriously. Let's just play stupid and ask to live in Ponyville so we aren't effing studied. No need to publicize that we know what's going to happen for the most part," Bryan said, arms crossed. Joel rolled his eyes.

    "True, but if we did tell her, she'd trust us more! What if the truth comes out later, hm? How do ya think the Mane six and her will react?" Joel countered with a frown.

    Cody scratched his chin and sighed. "Ok, seriously. How about we let Celestia know, but leave the mane six out of this? If we do get in the way, they'll never learn their lessons or whatever." Bryan grumbled at this, but nodded his approval. He and Joel had been bickering for most of the ride. Joel voiced his agreement, and left the trio smiling at each other.

    JP looked at them for a moment before looking out the window in shock. "Hey guys, look!" The three crawled over, everyone but the sleeping Nastassia trying to get a look at the view. They were circling the beautiful city of Canterlot, the buildings seeming to radiate peace and acceptance, and the overall view was astonishing. The carriage suddenly dived, but they didn't feel it, before slowly landing in the middle of the castle courtyard.

    Everyone backed away from the window, and waited. The pegasi guards unhooked themselves from the carriage before going to either side, opening the door for the humans. Jp shook Nastassia awake, who awoke and blushed at him, bolting up straight in her seat. The guys chuckled at her in unison before climbing out. Cody and Bryan stretched their backs, Joel took in a deep breath of the crisp, truly clean air, and JP and Nastassia stared at the castle in awe. To say it was regal was an understatement. The castle exterior itself was gorgeous. The humans gathered and stared, just basking in its glory.

    While they weren't paying any attention, the doors to the castle opened, out coming two Earth Pony guards with spears in golden armor, and another, with the same armor, minus the helmet and with purple highlights and a purple shield symbol on the chest piece. He was a unicorn, with deep blue hair, a white coat, and deep blue eyes. He took a double-take on at the sight of the humans before trotting over and clearing his throat.

    The five friends snapped out of their stupor and looked down to him. Most of the ponies came up to their was it, for the guys. Cody, Joel, and Bryan were all six feet tall, while JP was 5'8, and Nastassia was 5'7. The stallion smiled at them and bowed his head slightly. "Greetings, my name is Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard. I received a message from the princess explaining the situation. If you would follow me please."

    And with that, he made an about face, and started for the castle again. Bryan and Joel high-five each other as the five followed him. The interior was astounding, if not more impressive that the outside. Shining had to redirect them quite a few times, until they were finally into a small room with a low set table and pillows for them to sit on, and an extra one, no doubt for Celestia. As he five entered, Shining stayed at the door. "The princess will be here soon. Anything we can get you all?" No one answered at first, but then Cody spoke up.

    "Maybe some water? We've had a long day..." Shining nodded and shut the door behind them.

    Bryan took his shoes off almost immediately and set them by the door, chuckling. "I think we all need some rest after today." He smiled sadly. "Hell, if there IS a way home, it'd be a shame to take it....But we do have families."  Everyone nodded silently before sitting at the table, Bryan on the far left, Joel to his right, Nastassia in the middle, Jp on her right, and Cody on the far right, leaving the last pillow at the head of the table for Celestia.

Twas an awkward few minutes before JP broke the silence. "So. We're stuck in Equestria, with maybe no way back...What are we gonna do, live our lives here?” Everyone stayed silent for awhile and pondered upon their individual lives. Bryan had a good family back home, but started to fall apart due to a few stupid things he pulled at school, Joel had a caring family, period. Cody had a good family, and a girlfriend back home, Milanis, and to say there were in love was an understatement. Jp and Nastassia also had family back home.

    The group's silence continued, even when the door opened and a guard came in and delivered each of them an individual glass of water. The silence ended when Joel stood with a sigh. "I dunno about you guys, but even though I had friends and family back home, more people called us weird for being Bronies. And now that we're here...I want to stay. We could start new lives here!"

    Cody growled angrily. "And what if we liked our lives back home!? I was in love back home, man! hat about our friends, our families!? HUH!?" Everyone winced at Cody's outburst.

    Bryan stood up and sighed. "I can understand your rage, Cody. I had a love life back home too, after all. But I'd bet my right hand that we're stuck here. We can't even recreate that circle, unless one of us can remember those symbols. And even if we did, we don't know the incantation that would reverse this...." Cody tried to find a way to argue back, but ended up throwing his hands into the air with a sigh, before folding them on the table and putting his head down on them, sobbing tearlessly. They had all run out of tears earlier...

Suddenly, in a flash of light, Celestia was at the head of the table. All but Cody were standing now. JP and Nastassia bowed to her, Bryan saluted her, and Joel just waved casually. Celestia chuckled at them, glancing at Cody briefly, a sad frown on her face. “Be at ease, all of you, and please sit down. We have much to discuss.”

The four sat down, and Cody found the strength to sit up and pay attention as Celestia made her way over, taking the last seat available at the table. “Now then, I can tel there is some distress in your group, but can you please, tell me what brought you here?” Everyone remained silent at that.

Bryan rolled his eyes and rested his elbows on the table. “We were back on our world, a planet called Earth. Joel here found this weird circle with crazy symbols in it. Since we’re teenagers, we didn’t think anything of it, but were forced to when the thing literally glued us down to it. Next thing we know, this strange lightning storm appears overhead, Nastassia reads some sort of incantation that appeared in the circle in the place of the symbols, and we ended up in the castle.”

Celestia furrowed her brow at the explanation, and looked to Nastassia. “Can you recite that phrase, Nastassia?”

Nastassia nodded with a sigh. “Young hearts, magic of old, change what the fates foretold. Turn back time, with this rhyme, let fates meet, and worlds collide. I read that damn line, and we ended up in the castle, like Bryan said.”

Celestia put on a look of deep thinking before nodding once. “Very well. I will see if I can’t find anything on that particular incantation. For now, what do you five plan to do?” They all blinked and looked at each other at that question.

Course, then Joel had an idea. “Hey, you think it’s possible I can join your Guards? I’d be perfect since I’m immune to magic apparently!” Celestia gave him a wary look, while almost all the others gave him a look of shock, save Cody and Bryan, who had thoughtful looks on their faces, and smirks.

Simultaneously, they both said, “I want in too.” Then, proceeded to stare at each other, then fist-bump over the table.

Celestia frowned at them, then raised a brow. “Why are you so eager to join the Royal Guard? Yes, you seem to be immune to magic, but for all we know, it could only be temporary. What then?”

The three looked at each other before shrugging and replying with, “We’ll wing it!” Celestia raised both brows at them from this, before sighing and giving in.

“So be it. Have any of you had training?” Bryan’s hand shot up.

“Me, archery training, and my dad trained just short of being military. I watched him sometimes, cheered him on. I’ll handle the premature stuff, then your commanders can take over, say after a month or so?” Celestia smiled and nodded at this, but then Bryan’s smile grew wider. “One last question though. I want to keep my archery skills at their current level and improve them, and you can bet yer hind that I want these two to get used to their weapons. Think we can pay your blacksmith a visit?”

She contemplated this, and then smiled at him. “I don’t see why not. I will send for a guard to escort you there shortly, just let the Head Blacksmith know I sent you. Try not to order too many.” Bryan put his hands up in defense.

“Hey! I only want a bow, maybe a shield and a melee weapon!”

Joel chuckled. “I want a hammer. Plain and simple.”

Cody grinned. “Daggers. Stabby stab stab!”

JP and Nastassia frowned and face palmed at the three. JP removed his hand from his face and thought a bit before speaking. “I could probably make money by doing drawings and paintings. Was what I was good at back home. What about you Nastassia?”

Nastassia rolled her eyes as she moved her hand from her face. “I don’t know yet, but I’ll find out.” Celestia nodded and stood.

“Very well then, I will look into the incantation. Until the day we can send you all home, I hereby announce you all citizens of Equestria. If we cannot send you all home, this will be permanent. Since you all have already met my student, I will be sending you all to live at a home in Ponyville. I will look into the real-estate and see if there is one available, or if we need to build one, and get back to you all.  Jean-Paul and Nastassia, I will have a maid show you all to the dining room, so you might get some food you may no doubt be craving. As for the three eager ones, I will send the guard in shortly. Until we meet later.” And with that, she vanished.

Nastassia wasted no time in turning on the three soon-to-be guards. “GUARDS!? Are you guys stupid!? Seriously, you could get yourselves killed!”

Joel smirked at her. “And yet, we have an advantage. Immunity to magic, which we can exploit as Guards. Plus, I wanna fight Discord at some point!” Bryan rolled his eyes, but had an evil grin on his face. Cody was deep in thought.

Jp rolled his eyes at them. “You guys are idiots, even if that argument is valid.”

Cody turned to him and grinned. “We may be idiots, but as you said, it’s a valid argument, and we can really piss some people off with this.” This caused JP and Nastassia to roll their eyes. The door opened, and a mare in amid outfit stepped into the room.

“Pardon me, but I am here to lead a Nastassia and JP to the dining hall?,” the mare said nervously.  Jp and Nastassia nodded and followed the mare out without another word, leaving the other three behind. Cody looked to Bryan with a dull smirk.

“You just want to shoot again don’t you?”

Bryan flipping him the bird was his only answer. The three stood there, each thinking of what weapons to request if possible. Joel sat down and got back to thinking, Cody paced, and Bryan went over to a nearby wall and leaned against it. The trio was silent as they waited. One was able to hear the birds chirping happily in the peaceful outdoors. Cody couldn’t stand it, having made up his mind, and spoke. “So, we gonna get code names too?”

Bryan grunted towards him. “I’d doubt it, but we could still make some up. Wadya think Joel? Think we should make up some names?” Joel gave them both an inquisitive look before shrugging.

“I don’t see why not. Any ideas?”

Bryan was quick to respond. “I think I’ll take Zephyr, like that bow from Skyrim. Cody should be Reaper, or Grim. Joel…..I got nothing for you.”

Joel’s response was to shrug and chuckle. “Call me Maul if it comes down to that, or Smash.” Bryan and Cody nodded, just in the time for the doors to open, and Shining Armor to be standing there, the most curious of looks on his face.

“Celestia told me you all wanted to join the Guard, this actually true?” The three nodded silently. He smiled at them and beckoned them to follow, which they did. As Shining led them down the halls, each one thought on the design of their weapons, except for Bryan, who was thinking on a design for a shield. Twas awhile, till they ended up before a large wooden door, the temperature in the air extremely stuffy, just outside of it. Shining turned to the three humans and eyed them over. “Ok, before we go in, I want to know, no, HAVE, to know. Why do you three want to join the Guard?”

Joel was quick to answer. “I just want to protect people, or, ponies, in this case.” Bryan remained silent, so Cody picked up.

“I need something to keep my mind off of what’s going on, and if I can protect while doing that, hey, it’s a bonus.” Shining nodded at that, before looking to Bryan, who stared back.

Bryan pushed his glasses against his face and sighed. “My reason isn’t any different from theirs really. Nothing much to tell.” Shining seemed satisfied with the answers, nodding and spinning about, his horn becoming covered in a cobalt aura, coating the door handle in the same aura, pushing the door open with his magic. The three didn’t even have to duck as they entered the thresh-hold. The doors seemed to be built for creatures of most sizes.

Inside, there were several forges, with teams of four ponies each, ranging from all three races, Stallions and Mares alike. It was about impossible to hear through all the hammer strikes, until a burly earth pony stallion saw the group. “EVERYPONY, HAMMERS DOWN! CAPTAIN IN THE FORGERY!” Somehow, his voice was louder than the hammers, as they all simultaneously stopped.

The pony, with a dark black coat and a dark red mane and blue eyes, trotted up to Shining Armor, offering a quick salute. His cutie mark was a thunderbolt striking an anvil. Shining returned the salute. “Good to see you, Quick Forge. Got a special order for you.” Shining said as he moved aside, letting Quick have a look at the three humans, sweating from the heat. Quick looked them over carefully, his stern gaze not even twitching. The three also felt the gazes from all the other Blacksmiths.

Quick turned to Shining with a raised brow. “I see the creatures, but wadya want me to do with them?”

Shining rolled his eyes at him. “Arm them. They’re going to join the Guard, but the Princess said they have preferences when it comes to weapons, so I brought them here instead of the armory. Any weapons we have probably won’t fit them anyways.”

Quick nodded, looking back to the trio briefly before looking towards the crowd of blacksmiths. “Rope! Get over here!”

As soon as the words left his mouth, a unicorn with a light green coat, covered in soot, with red hair and brown eyes teleported in front of him. His mark was a rope with numbers on it. “Yeah boss?”

Quick nodded to the now curious humans, grunting. “Measure them up. We’ll need them for weapons and armor. Measure those claws of theirs too.”

Rope nodded, and with a flash of his horn, a rope, notepad, and pencil popped into existence and floated behind him. “Got it.” He trotted up to Cody first. “You, hold out both of your arms, please.” Cody raised a brow before doing so. Rope uncoiled his length of rope and measured it agains the total length of his arms, around his wrist, and from palm to fingers, jotting down numbers as he went. “Ok, stand up straight, arms at your sides.” Cody did so, Bryan and Joel watching with interest as Cody was measured all over the place. When Rope was done, he floated the rope behind him. “Alright, now what’s your name so I can file these measurements away for future reference?”

Cody couldn’t help but smile at the stallion. “Cody, nice to meet ya man.” Rope smiled back at him and jotted down his name. He did the same procedure to Bryan and Joel, and then turned to Quick. “Done. Send a copy to each team?” With a nod from Quick, Rope tore out the pages, his horn glowing brightly before dimming, the pages multiplying into the dozens. With another flash, a copy was in front of a single pony at each forge, who immediately went over it with their team, leaving the original with Rope. “Done, sir. Anything else?”

When Quick shook his head, Rope nodded and vanished, taking the original copy, notepad, pencil, and rope with him. Quick looked to Joel. “You, go over to Dark’s forge, has the number eight on it. He and his team love a challenge.” Joel nodded and jogged among the forges, stopping at one with two pegasi, a unicorn and an earth pony. Cody was next. “You, forge number twelve. Velvet runs the show there. Move.” Cody nodded and walked off, stuffing his hands into his pockets, ending up at a forge with two unicorns and two earth ponies. He pointed at Bryan finally. “You, you’ve got broader shoulders, so you’re at my forge, number one.” Bryan smirked and stalked over to the forge, two earth ponies and a pegasus waiting there. Quick looked to Shining. “Where do I send them when done?”

Shining turned to the door. “Dining hall. Oh, and Celestia said to be careful using magic around them. Said you’d want to see it for yourself.” Quick grunted and watched Shining leave before turning around and headed to his forge. Joel got underway almost immediately, the team he was assigned to starting to work on his Warhammer. Cody’s team was also on the move, one of the earth ponies starting to work on a set of daggers, while a unicorn and the other earth pony worked on the throwing knives, and the last member of the team working on sheathes.

Over at Bryan’s forge, he broke it down for Quick and his team. “Ok, so back home, I was an archer. I was thinking a crossbow. A large hip quiver would be helpful, material doesn’t matter. For up close and personal, I was hoping for a shortsword and a shield. I’ll be shooting right handed, so the shield shouldn’t be a problem. Materials are at your discretion. Sound good?”

Quick and his team listened silently, impassive gazes meeting Bryan’s. Quick smirked and looked to his team. “Well? Get moving! I want it all done in less than an hour! Leave the shield to me.” Te group nodded, each running off to perform a task. Quick looked to Bryan and smirked. “You and your friends had everything already up in your heads, I’m impressed. Now, let me see your arms?” Bryan rolled up the sleeves of his jacket and held his arms out to Quick. Quick ran his hooves along them individually, giving them a smack here and there, which Bryan winced at. Once satisfied, Quick removed his hooves from Bryan’s arms, the latter rubbing at them, a curious glare on his features. Quick turned away. “You’re mostly bone than flesh and muscle. A shield is a good choice for you indeed. Any design ideas?”

Bryan frowned at the question, giving it a bit of thought before responding. “Ever done a phoenix design?” Quick’s smirk turned into a small smile and a determined look.

One hour later…

The crews had finished their tasks, and the trio was now fully armed, to their specifications. Joel had a silver warhammer, with a metal pole with leather bound grips instead of a traditional wooden handle. Cody had two wicked looking daggers, reminding one of Lightning Bolts, sheathed on his hips. Four holsters, two on the sides of his torso, and one peeking over each shoulder, each holding five throwing knives, finished his set. Bryan had his crossbow, with a lever-action draw system (for reference, look up the ones from Skyrim’s Dawnguard dlc). He now sported a belt of quivers full of ten bolts each, starting at one side of his waist, and ending at the other, his front bare. At his left hip was a steel shortsword in a black sheathe On his left arm was a silver aegis shield, with a blood red tribal phenoix on the front. (copy and paste this link into a separate tab to see: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://waktattoos.com/large/Phoenix_tattoo_264.jpg&imgrefurl=http://waktattoos.com/category/27/phoenix.html&h=672&w=600&sz=40&tbnid=_04c8kyzBT-rMM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=80&zoom=1&usg=__GAtz8ZKL2eB4GaD9H8y3mwETPkQ=&docid=topUL_OytnumbM&sa=X&ei=t5U_UomZKIjm8gTqq4H4DQ&ved=0CDMQ9QEwAQ)

Quick stood before them and eyed them over warily. “Alright. We’ve given you three the tools, now you need to promise me that you’ll do the right thing with these, ya hear?” The trio nodded in agreement, smiles on their faces. A guard came by, motioning for the boys to follow, and with nods they did, waving their goodbyes to the blacksmiths as the guard led them away. Quick shook his head as he watched them leave. “Dear Celestia, I hope we didn’t fuck up, giving them those weapons