Chapters BANG!
You immediately jolt awake, shivering in fear, at the sound of lightning striking down from the clouds above. As the shivering stops, you roll over to look at the alarm clock on your nightstand.
3:00am
“I still have a few hours to sleep,” you say quietly as you close your eyes and attempt to fall back asleep, but to no avail, you are unable to. Damn lightning ruining your sleep.
As you get up from the bed you turn the lamp next to your alarm clock on revealing your rundown room along with several empty soda cans, empty chip bags, and random clothes scattered across the floor.
“Damn, I really need to clean this room ” is all you can think of as you walk through your room, kicking all the junk and clothes to the side. You reach into your closet and pull out an old gray hoodie to wear, it is worn out, but it is still warm. You leave your room and head towards the front door of the house. You decided to go for a walk, there was always something about taking walks during storms that relaxed you.
You walk outside only to find that there was no storm, in fact it was a full moon. Strange, but you still decide to continue with your walk; It’s not like you have anything else to do at three in the morning.
As you walk through the neighborhood you can’t help but think about how depressing it is. The road itself is not taken care of, trash lines the sidewalks, and it smells of pollution. It is a poor neighborhood in Gardner, Massachusetts, where every house is either a rundown three decker or a one-floor house built in the 1800’s. You live in the latter, which you can barely afford making ten dollars an hour.
The thought of your salary reminds you you need to get back home soon, since you had to go to work at 6:00am. As you head back to your home, you can’t shake the feeling that someone is following you from the shadows. In fact, you have had that feeling since you left your house. You look in every direction, but you see nobody, so you decide to ignore the feeling. Besides, nobody would want to follow you anyway; there is nothing interesting about you.
You reach your house in all of its falling-apart glory. The windows are all cracked, the paint is chipping, and it looks like it would collapse any minute now.
“Hello Josh,” you instantly turn around and see a man. He looked to be in his mid fifties, had spiky white hair, strange red eyes, and he obviously hasn’t shaved in months. He wore a worn-out green sweatshirt and blue jeans.
“Who are you?” you ask wondering why some random guy has been following you at 3:00am.
“Oh, just an old man who has an offer,” the old man says with a chuckle at the end, you are thinking this man is a bit messed up in the head.
“I’m really not interested.” This man was a bit creepy, randomly sneaking up on you with an offer.
“Really now? What if I told you that you could have a second chance at life; where people would actually acknowledge you and you would be able to make friends.” This man was definitely insane.
“What are you going to do, teleport me to a new dimension where people aren’t such assholes?” You decide to go along with it. What’s the worst that can happen?
“Where’s the fun in telling you what I’m going to do, it will ruin the suspense, accept the offer and find out, or decline and continue your miserable life.” You think for a moment, should you accept and find out what will happen, or decline. You go with the former.
“My life is fine, now leave me alone.” The old man just shook his head.
“Don’t try to lie, we both know thats not true.” You don’t know whether to be scared or not, first he knows your name and now he claims to know about your life.
“You don’t know me, now just go away.” You are annoyed and hoping that he will leave you be now.
“ Oh, I do know you Josh. Let’s see, Josh Tristan, Bullied in elementary school by Ryan Cormier and Nate Trifiro, your dad didn’t care and the teachers did nothing. Than, in seventh grade you liked a girl, Sarah, you asked her on a date, she accepted. On your way to the movies Ryan, Nate, and their friends come out from behind a tree and beat you to the ground. It turned out it Sarah planned this. After that you shut yourself in, since nobody cared about you anyway. Ever since then nobody has bothered to even acknowledge you. Even now your life sucks, you’re stuck working in a factory for ten dollars an hour, hell that house isn’t even yours–”
“Enough, I accept your offer!” You only want him to shut up, it’s creepy how he knows all of this, and he was bringing back bad memories.
“Great Choice! Enjoy your stay in Equestria, oh and by the way, you will have no memory of this meeting.” He snaps his fingers and disappears.
“Well that was strange.” You reach for the doorknob only to see that your hand is on fire. You panic trying to put out the fire; you bang it on the door, on yourself, on the ground, but you only succeed in spreading it further. You drop to the ground and roll around as it spreads to your shoulders, chest and torso, but the fire is unaffected.
“AHHH!” is all you can scream as the fire continues to burn, it has spread to your feet, you continue to roll around and panic.
You give up your panic as flames engulf your vision. You close your eyes as you lose feeling in your legs and feet; knowing what is to come in the next few seconds. You then lose feeling in your torso, than your chest, your arms, and now your consciousness.
You are falling, that is all you can feel. You open your eyes only to see a void of black; you can’t even see yourself.
“Where the hell am I?” you ask out loud. You have no idea how you ended up here, all you remember is leaving your house to go for a walk during a thunder storm.
After several hours of falling through the void, you fall asleep out of boredom.
“ Sister, you must wake up, the sun will not raise itself.” You wake up, happy to hear the voice of your sister, one of the few true friends you have.
“Thank you Luna, now go rest, you need as much energy as you can to raise the moon,” you say to her as you walk out of bed and head towards the balcony to raise the sun.
As you go through your daily routine - raise the sun, eat breakfast, look through any letters you received over night, reply to some of the letters, then open day court - you have a strange feeling that something big is going to happen soon, by big you mean something that will change Equestria and the surrounding nations. After being a ruler for thousands of years, you have gained the ability to sense things like this.
“Princess…Princess, are you alright?” You realize that you have spaced out and snap out of it, remembering that you have a noble to deal with.
“I’m fine, I just have a lot on my mind,” you say, knowing that he will buy it; you have been dealing with nobles like this for years.
“Of course, now, I would like to request the funds to build a–”
BANG!
The whole castle shakes, causing the noble to scream like a little filly, and all the guards in the throne room to form a defensive position around you. Screams can be heard throughout the castle so whatever happened must have been serious to cause all this panic.
“Princess Celestia!” The doors to the throne room open and Shining Armour walks in, clad in his shining purple armour, along with four elite unicorn guards, wearing gold armour with sun emblems, on each side of him. “An unidentified object has hit the courtyard, we do not know what could have sent it!”
“I want you to clear the impact zone of any civilians, than surround the area with guards, armed and ready to attack, after that, pick two of your best soldiers to investigate the object with us.” You do not want any harm to come to any of the ponies, so you will be there to defend anything that may come out of this “object”.
The civilians have been cleared, guards are surrounding the area. You, Shining Armor, and two of the elite unicorns that were with Shining in the throne room are standing before the “object”.
There is not much to it, it’s just a black rectangular box with a doorknob on the front of it. Smoke is rising from the box as if it was burning earlier.
“Shining Armour, open the box.” You need to know what is in the box and its purpose, if it is something that will cause harm to your kingdom, you will destroy it immediately, you do not know what to do if not.
“As you wish Princess” He flares his purple magic and grasps the doorknob with it. He opens it slowly, fear is obvious in his face.
“What the hell?”
You are still falling, that much you know. You have lost track of time, that tends to happen when you are trapped in a black void.
“Am I dead?” You know nobody else is there, but it feels good to ask, however as you ask you feel as if you are falling faster, you can also hear something burning.
CRASH!
Your whole body shakes, as if you impacted something. You realize that you must be in some sort of container. The question is: Why the hell are you in a container?
You can hear screams outside the container, and what sounds like hooves clopping on a stone surface. “Maybe I landed in a farm,” you think to yourself.
You hear the sound of hooves again, but this time it appears to be approaching you. There appears to be a man and a woman talking, you can’t make out what they are saying but it sounds like they are talking about your container.
“As you wish Princess,” you make out from the man as you hear a door knob turning.
“What the hell?” Your container is opened and two unicorns are revealed. Before you, a white unicorn wearing purple armour,he has a mane with a stripe of light blue through the middle and dark blue on the sides, his light blue eyes are staring into yours as if he is angry. Another white unicorn is behind him, except this one is much taller, has wings, and has a pastel-rainbow mane. “Am I high or something?”
“What are you, and why have you disturbed my kingdom?” She seems pissed, you have no idea what you got yourself into. “Speak creature.”
“I am Josh, I have no idea how I got here.” You honestly don’t know what’s going on, it could be a hallucination, a dream, or even real, so you decide to be as honest as possible.
“Princess, I do not trust this creature, should we take him in for interrogation?” the one in armour asks. You now know that the tall one is in charge and the one in armour has something to do with police or military. You also know that you most likely won’t like the one in armour.
“Is there something wrong with questioning it here?” You do not like the use of “it”, you realize this is going to be a long day.
The two unicorns bombard you with questions like “How did you get here?” and “Why did you come here?”, none of which you know. “Look, I have no idea why I am here, how I got here, or what the hell is going on, I just went for a walk at night and ended up in this container somehow.”
“Do not lie creature, you are obviously here for a reason!” You are getting irritated, if they will not believe the truth, should you lie?
“I do believe he is telling the truth, after two thousand years, I know a lie when I see one.” You sigh in relief now that the princess believes you, and damn two thousand years .”Now, I believe introductions are in place” she offers her hoof to shake “I am Princess Celestia and this is Shining Armour, the captain of the Royal Guard.”
You shake her hoof “I am Joshua Tristan, it is a pleasure to meet you.” Maybe this is real, and that old man was right, but you are still suspicious. Only time will tell what is in store for you.
“You must be hungry after being stuck in that box for hours, come with me and we will get you something to eat.” You are surprised, how did she go from suspicion to kindness. “Shining armour, set up an escort to bring Josh to the dining room, and Josh, I am sorry but we can not reveal you to the public at this moment, the ponies might have mixed reactions” Ponies, that is what they are called, whatever.
You choose four guards from the squad that was surrounding the container to escort “the creature” to the dining room. Celestia may trust it, but you do not. Why would a creature land in the courtyard in a burning black container and have no idea why. It doesn’t help that he is the spitting image of the ancient bipeds.
As the captain of the Royal Guard, you are scared. This creature has something off about him, you do not know what, but you just have a feeling that he is trouble. Only time will tell.
You do not trust Josh entirely, but you did not detect any dangerous magic inside of him. There was a strange force, but it was benign. You can tell that Shining Armour does not want anything to do with Josh, which is understandable, but he must learn to deal with it. Josh fits the description of an ancient biped. You have always been intrigued by the ancient bipeds, many of our technology was created by them, but they disappeared many years before you were born.
If he is indeed, an ancient biped, this could change Equestria forever. You think of all the advancements this could make. You do realize that he might not be an ancient biped, but you still would like to get to know him and maybe find out why he is here, after it is proven that he won’t harm my ponies. Only time will tell what is in store for Equestria.
Shining Armour has sent four of his guards to escort you to the dining room to get something to eat. What perplexes you is that the guards all look exactly the same, golden armour, white fur, and light blue eyes. They also seemed emotionless. They sort of remind you of Coldstream Guards.
The halls the guards escort you through look like they haven’t been used in ages. It makes sense, since they don’t want the citizens seeing you, but what fun is there in making sense?
You walk through more unused hallways for about twenty minutes, it must be a big castle. You eventually reach the dining room. It is big, that is the only thing you can think of. The table has at least fifty seats, most likely meant to seat many nobles. The sealing is very high, with huge golden chandeliers hanging above the table. The windows have depictions of various events, all involving ponies defeating strange monsters.
Princess Celestia was seated at the head of table. “Welcome Josh, please take a seat next to me.” She gestured to me to sit to the left of her. “and welcome, Shining Armour.” She gestured Shining Armour to Sit to the right of her, he had his armour off, revealing a mark of a shield with a six pointed star on his rear, actually, you noticed that all ponies had one of those. You decide to ask about it later.
“Our food will be ready shortly, now Josh, I would like to know a little better.” You hope she won’t ask questions that you can’t answer, you don’t want to lose her trust and get thrown in a dungeon or something. “Where are you from?”
“Gardner, Massachusetts, but you probably have no idea what that is though.” Seeing as you are in a kingdom full of talking ponies, you are pretty sure she won’t know what it is.
“I cannot say I do, what nation is it in?” She most likely won’t know that either.
“United States” You tell her anyway, she might know what it is.
“That does not ring a bell either, but Massachusetts does sound similar to Maressachusetts.” Great, pony puns for locations.
“Oh well, there wasn’t much to Gardner anyway.” It’s true, Gardner is just a bunch of three deckers and falling-apart houses.
“Thats a shame, but I must excuse myself for a moment.” She gets up and leaves the dining room leaving you with Shining Armour, great, just what you need.
“Celestia may trust you but I do NOT!” This is going to be a long night for you.
You can understand why Shining Armour doesn’t trust you, you show up in his kingdom and pose a threat to his peop- ponies, if you are going to be stuck here for a while, you are going to have to learn their customs. “If you simply cause the smallest amount of trouble I will have you thrown into the dungeon and melt the key”
“I know you don’t trust me, I don’t expect you to, but I assure you, I will not cause any trouble, I’m only staying until I find a way home.” You really don’t want to piss of the captain of the military of Equestria, however you do not want to return to your miserable life just yet.
Celestia returns to the dining room and sits at the head of the table. “My apologies, now I do believe our food is here.” As if on cue, unicorns dressed in waiter uniforms arrive with plates of salads, fruits, and...hay? You then realize that you are dining with ponies.
The three of you thank the waiters as they set your food on the table and provide you with plates, it must be a homestyle dinner. You fill half your plate with salad and the other half with fruits, there appears to be apples, oranges, and several tropical fruits you don’t know the name to.
“Are you going to have any spiced hay?” Celestia asks you, but you cannot eat hay.
“Sorry, but humans can’t digest hay, we can eat fruit, vegetables, and meats.” You see disgust on Shining Armour’s face as you mention meat, but Celestia’s expression stays the same.
“You’re going to have a hard time finding meat in Equestria, but I do believe we have some meat left over from the Griffon King’s visit.” Griffons? First talking ponies, and now griffons. What other creatures live in this world: centaurs? Minotaurs? Dragons?
“No thank you, I do not wish to trouble you” That, and you are pretty sure Shining Armour would puke if he saw meat, judging by the look on his face.
“Speaking of humans, care to tell me about your race? I am ever so curious.” You are no expert on humans but you tell her as much as you can: origins, history, biology, how different nations were formed, a little about how your nation was formed, and several other notable facts about the human race. You talked for about an hour, all three of you finished your food well before you finished talking.
“Very intriguing, It is amazing how your people prosper without magic, what do you think Captain?”
“Yes, very amazing.” He emphasizes amazing in a sarcastic way, damn he must really hate you.
“Well, I think we can conclude this dinner, Shining Armour, you can take the rest of the night off, it has been a long day. Josh, please come with me, I would like to get to know you a bit better.” You don’t mind, Celestia has shown nothing but kindness this whole day, Shining on the other hand, you’re glad he’s gone.
Celestia leads you to a comfy living room not to far away from the dining room. There is not much to the room, on the back wall there is a bookcase filled with a books of many different colours and sizes, on the left wall there is very warm looking couch, and on the right wall there is a brick fireplace. You take a seat on the couch, instantly sinking in and Celestia sits next to you. You have no idea why she trusts you so much already.
“Celestia, I’d like to ask you something.”
“I’m all ears,” she kindly says.
“Why have you been so kind to me even though you barely know me” You know this is rude to ask, but you need to know.
“The question is: Why not? You have done nothing wrong and you are a guest in this kingdom.” She makes a good point, if only people in your world were like this. “ Now tell me a bit about yourself.”
“There’s really not much to tell.” What are you supposed to tell her, that you are an invisible shut in that has done nothing with his life. “ And anything that I have to tell is pretty depressing…” You really don’t want to trouble her with a sob story.
“I don’t care how depressing it is, I will even promise to keep it a secret.” There is nothing but sincerity in her voice, but you still don’t want her to pity you.
“I’ll think about it I guess.” You don’t know whether to tell her or not, you want to let it all out, but you do not want pity. To you, accepting pity is a sign of weakness.
“Maybe we can save this for another time, I don’t want to impose on you anymore.” A feeling of relief washes over your body, but you know you will have to tell her eventually. “anyway, It is almost time for me to set the sun, all of the castle’s ponies have been notified about you so feel free to explore the castle.” Set the sun, what does she mean by that? “Oh, and please meet me here at eight o’clock.” You look at the clock above the fireplace, it reads 6:00pm, so you have two hours explore.
You do not know where to go first, in fact, you have no idea what there is to do in this castle. You decide to do one of your favorite pass times, just walk.
After around forty-five minutes of walking, you realize that the castle is pretty damn confusing. Everywhere you go there seems to more and more branching hallways, it also doesn’t help that you don’t know the place. You eventually reach a door that with a sign reading “Garden” above it. You think it might be a good spot to relax. You are instantly blasted by the sweet scents of thousands of different flowers. The garden was huge and extremely well maintained, there were flowers arranged in rainbows, various types of trees from around the world, fountains made of what looked like gold. There were various ponies working on the garden, you had to appreciate their work. You swore you saw a kangaroo in your peripherals.
After walking around the garden for a little while, and proving that you did,in fact, see a kangaroo. You sit down on a bench under an acacia tree. The sound of fountains pouring water and birds singing puts you to sleep.
So far so good. You are a very good puppet, Josh. Now wake up.
“Wait, What?” you ask aloud.
“All I said was wake up, and didn’t I tell you to meet me back at the living room at eight?” You recognize the voice as Celestia’s.
“I must have dozed off, by the way, how did you find me here?” You realize it was a stupid question since she most likely knows the castle by heart.
“This is where many ponies go their first time in the castle, so it was the first place I looked, now come, theres somepony I would like you to meet.” You wonder who she wants you to meet, could it be the Prince? The King? Who knows?
Celestia gestures you to follow her. She brings you through various random hallways until you make it back to the living room. You made sure to memorize the path so you can return to the garden, you like it there.
“Sister, whom have you brought to met me?” a midnight blue unicorn with a dark flowing mane says. She had the same features as celestia besides the colour and the fact that she was a bit shorter.
“Luna, this is Josh, he landed in a black box in the courtyard today, he has no idea how he is here.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Josh, I am Luna, Princess of the Night.” There is a slight hint of uncertainty in her voice, but you don’t blame her. “I don’t mean to be rude, but what are You?” You notice Celestia give her a glare.
You spend around an hour explainer to Luna what you explained to Celestia at dinner. She doesn’t seem nearly as interested as her sister was, but she was paying attention.
“You have my gained my interest in your people, Mr. Tristan, but I must open night court” You couldn’t tell if she was lying about her interest or not. “It has been a pleasure.”
“You must be tired, Josh, would you like me to show you to your quarters?” It’s true, you are very tired, so you take up Celestia’s offer. Your room was only three doors down from the living room. You don’t notice anything about the room except how comfortable the bed was. You must have been exhausted since it only took a few minutes to fall into a deep slumber.
You have done well, puppet.
(POV: Celestia)
“Our guest has fallen asleep, should we look into his dreams?”
“Luna, although we need to know more about him, I do not feel good about invading his privacy like that.” Luna’s idea does make sense, there is much more about this “human” then he will reveal. “But it is necessary, prepare the spell.”
Luna’s horn radiates a blueish white light as she prepares the dream walking spell. She engulfs the both of you in her magic aura, causing you to lose your vision for a few seconds. When your vision returns you and Luna appear in a black place, void of anything.
“The dream should appear about...now.” You are blinded for a split second. When your eyes reopen, you find yourself floating above an alleyway. Rain was falling hard and thunder can be heard in the distance.
“THERE’S THE SHADOW! TAKE HIM OUT!” Three humans are sprinting down the alleyway. They are each holding something that looks like a weapon; they are L shaped and have triggers. They duck down behind some trash cans and point their weapons at a dumpster further down the alley. Behind the dumpster, a much younger looking Josh is taking cover. Instead of a long, messy brown mane, he has a buzz cut, his beard is gone. He is also holding one of those weapons except his is slightly bigger and has something protruding from the front.
The three humans behind the trash cans pull the triggers on their weapons. The loudness of the weapons firing startles you. Whatever they fired at Josh bounces off the dumpster he was hiding behind.
“RELOAD QUICKLY!” Josh uses this chance to pop out of cover and fire his weapon. Instead of one shot coming out each time he pulls the trigger, a flurry of shots are fired as he holds the trigger down.
“FUCK, I’M HIT!” On of the attackers falls to the ground with blood pouring out of his chest. The other two attackers do nothing to help him and continue firing at Josh. Josh reloads his weapon, and waits until the others have to. He pops his head out of cover and fires another volley of shots, he hits one attacker in the head and the other in the arm. The man who was hit in the arm drops his weapon and screams in pain. Josh uses this time to escape the alley. You hear the sound of sirens approach.
YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE. LEAVE NOW!
You are engulfed in a purple aura as you lose your vision. When you regain your vision, you find yourself in the throne room.
“What was that?”
(POV: Luna)
“The dream should appear about...now.” You are blinded for a split second, and when your eyes open, you find yourself in an alleyway. You hear sirens and the sound of hoofsteps. Actually, you do not hear hoofsteps, you hear footsteps.
Josh is sprinting down an alleyway while other humans in blue uniforms chase him. Josh along with his pursuers are holding L shaped devices, you believe them to be weapons of some sort.
“Lethal force is authorized, shoot the suspect!” You hear one of the uniformed humans say, they must be some form of police force, but what would Josh do to be wanted by the police?
YOU ARE NOT WELCOME HERE. LEAVE NOW!
You are engulfed in a purple aura as you lose your vision. When you regain your vision you find yourself in the throne room.
“What was that?” Celestia asks.
“I honestly do not know, I have never been thrown out of a dream like that.” There has also never been anything strong enough to throw you out of a dream. “ Whatever it is, it must be exceedingly powerful to remove us so easily.”
“This Josh… we must watch him carefully, we cannot allow power of this level get to the public.” You agree with Celestia, there is much more to Josh than we can ever hope to find out today, he could be an immortal god, an advanced alien, or a normal creature with a powerful guardian. There are endless possibilities.
(POV: ???)
“Our scouts say the shadow has arrived, should we take action?”
“Yes, send the assassin, Silent Slash, he should have no problem disposing of the shadow, but first, take this gem, it is what we will use to absorb his power.” You are given pitch black gem.
“I shall send the assassin, Glory to the Red Star!”
(POV: Josh)
“Lethal force is authorized, shoot the suspect!” The cops shoot bullet after bullet at you but only succeed in missing. You fire your suppressed uzi behind you in hopes to hit any of the cops.
“I’ve been hit” That’s one down, hopefully they stop to help them, it would make your escape so much easier.
You have no idea how long you have been running, there seems to be no exit to this alley, just random turns. There has been an absence of gunshots for a while so the cops must have lost you, so you take this moment rest.
*Click* You feel the barrel of a pistol press against the back of your head. “Time to die”
BANG
“Ahhhhhh!” You scream in fear, only to realize you are unharmed, and...in a bed. “It was just a dream, but seriously, what was that about?” You are perplexed by this dream, nothing remotely close to that has happened to you. It may have some sort of meaning, but what? What can a gun fight in an alleyway symbolize? You decide to set that mystery aside for another time, besides, you need a shower. Badly.
Luckily there is a bathroom connected to your bedroom, which you now realize is fit for a king. The bed is big enough to fit at least five of you comfortably, the blankets are unrealistically soft. This room alone is most likely bigger than your house, hell, there's even a fountain in the middle of the room.
After gazing upon the amazing room, you finally get out of bed. Beside the bed there is a blue back pack with your name on it. You look inside to find, clothes from back home, your music player from back home, a sack filled with coins, and a metal box. Inside the metal box there is a suppressed uzi with a note on it:
This will never run out of ammo, never go anywhere without it.
-Z
“Does this have something to do with my dream, and who is Z?” You whisper quietly. “oh well, I’ll figure this out after a nice shower.” You take some jeans and a white T-shirt from the bag and head to the bathroom, which of course had to be grand.
“Alright, what the hell is going on? First talking ponies, then strange dreams, now THIS!” You look at your arms. Black flames are tattooed all the way from your wrist to your shoulder on your right arm, on your left arm black spikes are tattooed. “I guess its just another thing I’ll have to figure out after a shower.”
Feeling refreshed, you decide to take a look at yourself in the mirror.
“Damn I need to shave” Your brown beard is long and untamed making you look at least 10 years older, and your hair, which was also messy, was almost down you your shoulders. “Why couldn't the bag have anything to shave with?” You don’t suppose ponies would have to shave, but a hair cut may be possible.
After you get out of the bathroom, you find a tray of food waiting for you on the nightstand by your bed. There are eggs, hash browns, and surprisingly, bacon. Celestia must have remembered that you ate meat. You finish the meal in less than 2 minutes, you didn't know how hungry you really were.
There’s not much you can really think of to do, so you just settle on going to the garden. You hopefully remember how to get there. You don’t.
“I swear this is the way!” You took what was supposedly the same path you took to the garden last time, but you somehow ended up in a big open room. There room seemed pointless, it was just a big open space with large windows on each side.
“Lost?” The voice startles you from behind. You turn around, there is a midnight purple unicorn holding a strange dagger in his magic grip, his cutie mark is that same dagger. He was wearing a maniacal smile. “Hahahaha, Time to die, there’s nobody to save you here!” He charges at you, readying his dagger.
Combat Mode Active, 100% power remaining
The tattoos on your wrist light up red on or right arm, and light blue on your left. You instantly feel stronger, faster, and powerful. The unicorn swings his dagger at you, you dodge swiftly with a speed you never knew you had. He continues to swing at you as you dodge each of his attacks, but you couldn't keep this up for ever.
You must fight! Use your magic by focusing on your tattoos!
You decide not to question the voice in your head and just go with it. “Focus on my tattoos...Lets see…THAT'S IT! Fire!” You open your right hand in front of you and you think about forming a fireball, and as expected, a fireball forms. It feels like a baseball in your hand, so you throw it at your attacker, hitting him directly in the side. His dagger drops to the ground as he is sent flying across the room.
“They never told me you had magic, but no matter, I will just have to actually try!” He gets back on his hooves and a golden light emits from his horn and the impact point of the fireball. “He’s healing!” You throw two more fireballs at him, but he dodges them both.
“It’s going to take more than a few low level spells to beat me, but maybe not for you.” His horn glows red as he shoots three fireballs at you, you dodge the first two but one makes it’s mark right on your chest.
Your left arm is Ice! Use that!
“So that's what those tattoos mean.” You imagine a spike of ice forming in your hand, and it forms. “This will make a good knife” To your surprise, the spike of ice transforms into a dagger. The adrenaline from the battle and learning magic makes you forget the pain of the burn on your chest.
The unicorn grips his dagger in his magic again, and slashes at you with it, you deflect it with your newly made ice knife. It is surprisingly strong and isn't melting. You swing at the unicorn with it but he deflects it. The two of you continue this routine for a few minutes until you decide to mix things up a bit. As you deflect one of his attacks, you throw a fireball at him, knocking him down. When he is down and on the ground, you try to stab him, but when your knife reaches its target, he disappears into a puff of black smoke.
“I will return, Shadow, but next time I will not lose!” His voice resonates throughout the empty room, as if there was several of him surrounding you.
Healing mode active, power recharging
You feel a cooling sensation on your burn. “How the hell did I get magic?”
“Josh! There you are, where did the assassin go?” Celestia rushes to you, flanked by several royal guards.
“I don’t know, he just disappeared.” As you say that, you start to feel fatigue “And, damn I’m tired”.
“You must get rest, using magic for the first time drains you” You couldn't agree more, you could use a rest.
Celestia brings you back to your room, and places you on the bed, you aren't tired enough to sleep, but laying down feels good. “Thank you”
“It is no problem, You fought well against the assassin, the royal guard is currently searching for him” You feel a bit relieved knowing that he won’t get away. “Goodbye for now, lunch will be brought to you, I do not want you out of this room without me or Luna until the assassin is caught” It's not like you had much to do anyway besides explore a garden.
You are now left with 3 mysteries, Why are you here? Who is the voice in your head? Why do you have magic? There has to be a reason.
Chapter 5: Meet The Human
(POV: Josh)
You have been stuck in your room for a few hours since the assassination attempt; most of the time has been spent reading. You found a book about Equestria that is intended for people who have never been to Equestria. You are about half way through the book when you hear a knock at the door. “Who is it?”
“It is I, Luna.” You hope she is here because the assassin has been found.
“Come in” Luna enters the room, she has dark blue bat ponies by her side, You read about the bat ponies in the book, they were the elite guards of Luna.
“We- sorry, I would like you to come with me, Celestia and I have matters to discuss with you.” You drop your book and get up from the bed to follow Luna. “We do not need to walk.” Her horn glows a blueish white, the moment you blink you appear in the throne room, there were no guards this time.
“Can you please warn me next time, I feel sick” The teleportation must have messed with your stomach and you are pretty sure humans are not meant to teleport.
“My apologies” Luna engulfs you in her magic and heals you.
“No that you are here, Josh, lets discuss the matter at hand, the assassin has escaped.” The news frightens you, not only is the assassin out to get you, he is also nowhere to be found. “The search has ended after three hours, the whole city has been searched and there was no trace of your attacker, which leads me to believe the castle is not safe for you anymore.” This put matters worse, now you have to hide from the assassin. “but, I have a solution, the assassin is after a human, so what if we disguised you as a pony?”
“This is the only solution we can think of,” Luna says in a sad tone.
“If it is the only solution than I accept.” There is nothing else you can do besides hide, but this means you will have to get used to a pony body.
“The spell will look at your traits, both physical and magical, to decide what pony to become.” You think you will be a unicorn, due to your magic abilities.
“Are you ready?” You nod in agreement. Her horn forms a ball of golden aura at the tip, which is than shot at you. You could feel yourself change, you could feel your torso changing, your hands turning to hooves, a horn growing on your head, and two unknown appendages growing on your back. “This can’t be!” You feel taller, in fact you are a few inches taller than Celestia as opposed to being the same height as her.
“What’s wrong?” Nervousness is creeping upon your body as you fear the transformation went wrong.
“You...you are an alicorn, but how.” An alicorn, so you had both a horn and wings.
“What’s wrong with that?” Surprise was clear on Celestia’s face, you have no idea what could be wrong with having both a horn and a pair of wings.
“I have forgotten that you know little of our kind.” The surprise is still apparent on her face. “You see, there are only four alicorns existing at the moment, Luna, myself, Princess Cadence, and Princess Twilight, all of which are royalty.” So that’s why.
“I see, so ponies would consider me to be royalty?”
“Yes,” Luna cuts in “ponies would think that a new prince has been crowned” So your choices are now hide, or become a prince, and you know little to nothing about politics. “What do you propose we do, Celestia”
“I believe there is one more choice, however, I must first write a letter.” Write a letter, what idea could she possibly have. Celestia takes a piece of paper and a quill from the table and writes.
“Who are you writing to, sister?” You wonder who she is writing to also.
“Twilight Sparkle and the other elements, they may be able to keep Josh safe, and Ponyville is a very remote village, although strange things happen there news still spreads slowly from the town.” You know that Twilight Sparkle is a princess, but what are the elements? “Luna, please turn Josh back to human.” Luna performs the same spell Celestia used to turn you back to your normal self.
“Who are the elements, and what does another princess have to do with your new plan?” Celestia finishes the letter uses her magic to send it.
“I would like you to move to a remote town called Ponyville, it is much safer than a busy city like this, as for the princess and the elements, there is a story I must tell you.” She spends about a half hour telling you about the elements, they are six friends living Ponyville who represent different ideals of Equestria: magic(friendship), kindness, generosity, loyalty, honesty, and laughter. They are referred to as the “Elements of Harmony” and they have used the power of harmony to defeat several powerful foes such as Discord, a chaotic chimera god, Nightmare Moon, a corrupted version of Luna, and Chrysalis, the changeling queen, they also ended the war between changelings and ponies when they defeated her. “and their elemental powers will protect you from anypony/one from harming you.”
“Fine with me, I’ll do whatever it takes to get away from assassins.” Although you do not know how living in a remote village will be safer than a huge castle with hundreds of guards, you don’t question her.
“Good, the elements should arrive here in a little while, and Luna, I must speak to Josh in private.” Luna takes her leave and Celestia gestures for you to follow her. She shows you all the different window art in the throne room. They depicted the victories of the elements and several other depictions that looked historical.
“These artworks appear magically when a major event occurs in Equestria, and now I would like to show you the most recent one, in fact, it appeared yesterday.” She points to the picture, it shows two humans, one bright blue with white eyes, ponies surround it as if they are cheering and celebrating it, to the right of that human, a dark red human with black eyes is depicted, ponies bound in chains surround as if they are slaves to the human. “You see Josh, your choices will impact Equestria, it is your choice whether it be good or bad, for others or for yourself, for the one you love or to kill the one you hate, it is all up to you.” You feel a heavy weight drop on your shoulders, you carry the fate of this nation now, nothing will be easy from here on.
“But when and how will I make these choices?” Butterflies ravage your stomach, you have never held so much responsibility or power, how are you supposed to use it?
“That is something you must decide for yourself, the path is yours to take, not mine.” The weight on your shoulders feels even heavier, not only do you hold the fate of the nation, but you alone hold it “but do not fret, you will not be alone on your journey, you will make friends...and enemies, remember that!” You wonder if she can read minds. “I think the elements should be arriving soon” As if on queue, the doors to the throne room open revealing six ponies and Luna. One pony is a light purple alicorn with a purple star for a cutie mark, another is cyan and has a rainbow main with a rainbow lightning bolt for a cutie mark, one is white with a rainbow with three blue diamonds for a mark, another is orange with a stetson hat and has three apples for her mark, the fifth is pink with a pink mane, and balloons for a cutie mark, and the last but not least one is yellow with a pink mane and has three pink butterflies for a cutie mark. The ponies bow before Celestia in respect.
“Welcome my little ponies, as I’ve said before you do not have to bow to me” Happiness and kindness was radiating from Celestia. “Especially you Princess Twilight, we are equals now.”
Twilight lets out an embarrassed chuckle “Sorry Prin—Celestia, I’m not used to being a princess yet.” Her cheeks turn bright red for a moment.
“There is no need to apologize, now for the matter at hand, Everyone, meet Josh Tristan.” The ponies all look in your direction, all of them wearing surprised looks, seeing they have never seen anything like you before.
“Hello” You did not know what to say so you just simply greet them.
“OH MY GOSH, are you an ancient biped!? I have read so much about you and I have so many questions, let me get my note book.” Twilight was exploding with excitement on the sight of you, she must be excited to see a creature that has been extinct for thousands of years.
“Meh, he doesn’t seem that interesting, and he looks pretty slow.” The rainbow one says, well she’s a bit direct.
“Rainbow Dash! How rude, you just met him and you already put him down” The white one says with a of an accent.
“Ah agree with Rarity, ya can’t just insult somepony upfront like that” The orange one replies with a heavy southern accent.
“Ummm, I don’t want to take sides…” The yellow one hides behind rarity showing obvious signs of shyness.
“He looks like he could use a party!” The pink one seemed to be perky and energetic, her rapid jumping up and down giving it away.
“SETTLE DOWN!” At Celestia’s command, everypony shuts up. So that’s what happens when Celestia raises her voice. “Instead of critiquing him, why don’t you introduce yourselves.”
Twilight steps up to you first. “I am Twilight Sparkle, nice to meet you.” She puts out her hoof for you to shake it. The other five do the same. You now have their names down, you already know Rarity and Rainbow Dash, but the orange one is Applejack, the pink one is Pinkie Pie, and the shy one is Fluttershy.
“Thank you everypony, now Josh here is in a bit of a problem” Celestia explains your explains your situation and why she called the six ponies here. “I would like him to move with one of you in Ponyville if you would allow him to, does everypony agree.” You hope everypony agrees, but you won’t blame them if they don’t, having someone you don’t know at all suddenly move in with you. “I will give you the rest of the day to get to know him before you decide.”
“So, how’s everypony?” you ask nervously, you want to give them a good impression of you. they all reply with the common good or well. “Twilight you said you had questions for me, what would those be?” Her face lights up with that question.
“Oh I have so many, I need to make a list first.” She brings a long piece of paper and a quill to existence with her purple magic. You’re pretty sure the other ponies notice your facial expression while she writes her list at lightning speed.
“Yeah she’s like that, egghead stuff ya know.” Rainbow Dash explains, she sounded a little nicer than the last time she spoke. “By the way can you do anything cool, like magic?” You demonstrate your magic, by forming an ice sculpture of her cutie mark the size of the palm of your hand.
“Does this answer your question?” You hand her the sculpture. “Don’t worry it won’t melt.”
“You know what, you’re pretty cool and I’m sorry about what I said earlier; I was just grumpy from being cooped up in a slow train for a long time.” You accept her apology, you realize she was just bored.
“Ooh, Ooh, can you make me one of those ice thingies too?” Pinkie Pie put on a face that you would see on a kid who wants their parents to buy something. You make a little ice balloon for her. “Thank You!”
“Um… Mr. Josh?” Fluttershy asked in a whisper.
“Yes Fluttershy, oh and just call me Josh.” You don’t like it when people call you Mr. , it makes you feel like a teacher.
“I would like one too, if that's okay with you.” She seemed more shy than you were when you were in elementary school. You make an ice butterfly for her. “thanks.” Her “thanks” was almost like a squeak, it was actually pretty cute.
“I finished the list everyone!” Twilight was holding a list, or a receipt from Gamestop, it was one or the other. All the other ponies were on the ground laughing, even Celestia and Luna were trying to hold in their laughter. “Okay, question number one…”
This is going to be a long, long, day of answering questions.
(POV: Josh)
Four hours. Twilight has been asking you questions for four hours. Luna and Celestia left about twenty minutes in, and the other elements have all fallen asleep out of boredom. The questions ranged from what life was like in earth to what what air fresheners humans use.
“Okay, last question: Why are you here?” Oh god, this question again, you face-palm since you have been asked this many times.
“I honestly have no idea, I just appeared here in some sort of a black box.” She writes down every word that comes out of your mouth, how she managed to do that for four hours remains a mystery.
“Oh well, I still have many questions, but I’m sure everypony else has some…Girls?” The realization that everypony has fallen asleep hits her. “oh…” a hint of red is visible on her cheeks “I guess that lasted a little longer than expected, but we don’t leave until tomorrow so we have plenty of time. “
“Alright, I’m tired anyway. “ A long yawn makes that apparent “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Goodnight Josh!”
(POV: Twilight)
Josh left the throne room to return to his room, he did seem tired when you were interviewing him. There is so much more you need to ask him, but there is so little time to do so. You look over your list one more time; such an interesting species. It is amazing how they were able to replace magic with technology. You can’t imagine a world without magic, but you are a bit skeptical about that since he can do magic. Maybe human’s do have magic but their world negates it. Every answer just brings more questions, if only you could interview him longer.
A loud yawn snaps you out of your thoughts. “That was a nice nap.” You see Rainbow wake up with a confused look on her face. “Where’d Josh go?”
“He was tired so he went to bed.” Rainbow rolls her eyes.
“Don’t tell me you bored him with all your egghead stuff.” You give her a sheepish smile which gives her her answer. “Oh well I’m hungry, lets wake everyone up and get something to eat.” That sounds good, the last time you ate was before you arrived at Canterlot.
(POV: Josh)
You dive into your heavenly bed, who knew that an interview could be so tiring? You quickly drift off to wherever your dreams decide to take you this time.
I think it’s time you learned who I am.
“What? Who’s there?” You appear to be in an arena of some sort, you were on a sand ground and there were several empty stands around you like a stadium.
I am what you refer to as the voice in your head.
His voice echoed through the stadium giving an ominous vibe. “Okay… Who are you, and why are you in my head?” You recall his voice and remember he is the one who was talking to you during the fight with the assassin.
I am your guardian, that is all you need to know.
“Whatever, but why are you talking to me now?”
Your performance was pathetic. You should have been able to crush that assassin in less than a minute. It is time you learned your potential. NOW FIGHT!
“Wait, what?” That was all you could say before three shadowy silhouettes of ponies appeared on the other side of the stadium. There is a unicorn, pegasus, and an earth pony.
Combat mode active, 100% power remaining.
Your tattoos light up around your wrists and you feel stronger, just like your last fight. “I could get used to this.” You form a fireball in your right hand and an ice spike in your left in preparation for the upcoming fight.
The pegasus is the first to attack, it dives straight, you step to the side and dodge the attack then throw your fireball at it. When the fireball hits the pegasus evaporates into thin air. “Thats one down.”
You are going to need more than just fireballs and ice spike to survive. You must be creative!
You think of other ways to use fire. You could use your hand as a flamethrower, throw fiery punches, and maybe make walls of fire. For ice you can make weapons, possible erect spikes of ice from the ground, and maybe freeze your enemies. Time to put it all to the test.
The earth pony is next to attack. It doesn’t charge you like the pegasus, instead it slowly approaches you while summoning a sword in its mouth. “If it’s a sword fight it wants, it will get a sword fight.” You summon an ice sword using your ice magic.
The earth pony slowly walks circles around you, taunting you to charge. You are not going to fall for his trap, you can tell he is planning to counter a charge. “Your move, Pony!” You decide to try a little taunting yourself. “I’m open!” You spread your arms out making it you look like an easy target. The pony falls for your trap and moves in to attack. As it swings its sword you deflect it, while you have the chance, you imbue your right fist with fire and deliver a powerful uppercut right to its chin. It evaporates just like the pegasus.
Do not forget you have weapons.
The suppressed Uzi from your bag falls from the sky and lands on the ground in front of you. You dispel your ice sword and replace it with the uzi.
Remember, you are not the only one with magic!
You face your final opponent, the unicorn. The unicorn does not charge or approach you, instead it disappears completely. “Alright, where’d you go?” You feel a presence behind you, you turn around to see it charging its horn with a black energy. It then hits you with a black beam of the energy knocking you to the ground. You fire your Uzi at the unicorn only for it to disappear again. You get back on your feet and search for it while aiming down the gun. You feel its presence behind you again, but this time you are prepared You a volley of rounds at it and succeed at hitting him twice. The unicorn falls to the ground. You aim your Uzi at the head of the fallen Unicorn, as you fire he teleports again. “Son of a bitch!”
This time it appears directly in front of you charging its horn. It fires three black lasers at you which you dodge swiftfully. It’s time for you to start using more advanced magic. You hold your right hand out and let out a barrage of flames. “Taste flamethrower bitch” The unicorn tries hopelessly to avoid your fire, but only succeeds in getting engulfed in flames. Your opponent evaporates like the rest. “Mission complete.”
Standby mode active, power recharging.
“Well voice, did I pass your test?” You don’t know what to call him so you go with “voice”.
Indeed you did, you may call me guardian. Now you may rest.
(POV: Josh)
“Hey Josh, Its time to wake up.”
…
“Josh? Come on its noon!”
…
“JUST WAKE UP!!!”
“Ok, I’m up, you don’t need to yell like that.” You don’t appreciate being woken up like that, you were having a nice dream about a juicy steak. “Damn Twilight it’s only like uhhh…” you glance at the clock on the nightstand “noon…I guess I overslept a little.”
“A LITTLE? We were supposed to meet with Celestia at 11:30 today, and now because of you we are a half hour late!” You roll your eyes, so you sleep an extra thirty minutes, big deal.
“Fine, give me a minute to get ready.” You look through your backpack to find a nice pair of clothes to wear, but Twilight pulls you away.
“No time for that, we are behind schedule!” Her horn glows lavender, the moment you blink you find yourself in the throne room, Celestia and the other five elements are staring at you.
“Again, no warning.” Twilight just rolls her eyes.
“Glad you decided to wake up today, Josh, now it is time to choose. Do you six agree to bring Josh to Ponyville?” Celestia seems like she is in a rush, possible because you were late. “If you are in favor, step forward now.”
Pinkie is the first to step forward, or more accurately, bounced forward “Of course, anything for a new friend!” A friend, you haven’t been called that for a while, but that is a story for later.
“Me too, He seems pretty cool.” Rainbow Dash steps forward next. “Besides, I will do anything for a friend!” Wow, you were shocked. You have only known these ponies for a day, and now they are already considering you their friend, was this true, or was it just pity?
“Ah reckon I’m in too, Ah don’t see anythin’ with it.” You haven’t really talked to Applejack yet, yet she still accepts.
“I simply could not turn this down, its not everyday you get to meet a species who always wears clothes!” You haven’t talked to Rarity either, but she seems excited to accept the offer.
“...I accept…” This surprised you, she seemed scared of you yesterday, yet she also accepts. You can’t help but feel joy as these ponies accept you. They have no reason to help you, yet all they show is kindness and generosity.
“and I have already accepted this offer, I can’t wait to learn more about Humans!” All six of them accepted while barely knowing you. Wow.
“Then it is settled, A chariot shall be ready at 1:30, sorry we could not talk further, I am a bit behind schedule on my duties.” She gives you an annoyed look as she mentions the behind schedule part.
(POV: Celestia)
“The assassin is not the real reason you sent the Human to Ponyville was it?
“No, Luna it was not, the assassin has been locked away in the dungeon, what he needs is friends. I could see the look in his eyes, years of loneliness and loss, and who better than the Elements of Harmony can fix that?”
“It was the best choice sister, however, there is something going on in the shadows, someone hired that assassin.”
“There is a difficult path ahead of our guest, and I am sure he will prevail.”
“I hope so Tia, I hope so…”
(POV: Josh)
“So a chariot, never thought I would travel in a flying chariot before.” You have been in a plane before and you aren’t afraid of heights so you should be fine, besides, Twilight told you that it’s only an hour flight.
“Ugh, I HATE chariots, I can get to Ponyville in ten seconds flat from here!” That’s the tenth time Rainbow Dash has complained about chariots.
“Oh shut yer trap Rainbow and get in." Rainbow let out a sigh of annoyance and took a seat in the chariot along with the rest of you.
The two pegasus guards took off from the platform with power, damn they’re strong if they can pull the seven of you, but then again they are horses.
You and the six ponies talk about various things about your world such as planes and cars. Rainbow Dash seems interested in fighter jets.
“Mach two? That's pretty fast, too bad I’m faster!” She held her hoof to her chest in an arrogant manner.
“Actually, Rainbow, mach two is twice the speed of sound so—” Twilights mouth is suddenly covered by a cyan hoof.
“Don’t listen to her, that's just a bunch of egghead language.” You just roll your eyes, you don’t want the speed of a fighter jet to become an argument, besides, there is now way a one-hundred pound pony is faster than a fighter jet.
“INCOMING!” one of the guards calls.
“What the hell!” Red lasers flying past the chariot, the guards are doing their best to avoid getting hit, causing the chariot to go rock all over the place. The ponies are panicking, Fluttershy is clinging to Rainbow, preventing her from flying, Rarity, Twilight, and Applejack are holding onto their seats for dear life, and Pinkie is...dancing?
BOOM
A hit the front of the chariot, breaking the reigns that connected the guards to it. “We’re going down!” You yell even though it won’t make a difference. The chariot falls at a rapid pace, you see a forest beneath you.
“Oh shit!” The chariot is falling fast, you grab onto the side of the chariot and brace yourself for impact.
CRASH
That is all you can hear before you lose consciousness.