Humans in Equestria

Humans in Equestria

Chapter 6

The Queen

He opened his eyes again, looking at the red light that seemed so far away. The blinking was slow, yet rhythmic. He felt dazed, as if he had been drugged. Again, he tried to move his body and was surprised to notice something, that he had not noticed before. His body seemed to be in a vertical, yet standing position. What was this? After a quick assessment of his body, he noticed another thing. There were more limbs then he remembered to have....

But it was so hard to concentrate... The haze in his mind made it hard to think straight. Suddenly a question popped up in his mind, that let his heart-rate skyrocket from one moment to another.

“Who... am …. I...?”, he murmured in a hoarse voice. He had barely the time to realize that the red light had started to flash rapidly again, before he heard the hissing sound again, and fainted once more.

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He didn't know how long he had slept this time, but his entire body felt sore. As he slowly came to, he realized what the red light in the darkness must be. It was monitoring his pulse, triggering some sort of sleeping gas to be released if it reached a certain number of beats per minute. Why was he trapped here?

There was something on the back of his mind, that tried to come forward, back he was unable to put his finger on it. He tried to stay calm, to keep his pulse at a minimum. To his utter surprise, it worked like a charm. The light had begun to flicker on and off in a faster pace, but it seemed that he had succeeded to calm himself enough to keep the machinery from triggering the gas....

But... how did he know that it was a machine? His head started to hurt badly, but he couldn't even touch his forehead. At least something changed, now that he was awake for longer then five minutes. The haze in his head started to lift.

There was a Pony in his mind. An unconscious mare with a midnight blue coat. He had... He had.... He couldn't remember what he had done with her. Had he knocked her out? Had they fought? He didn't know.... Why was it so hard to remember? He knew he had fought somepony.... but he did not know who... What was wrong with him? Why couldn't he move? Where was he?

Suddenly, he felt something that had not been there before. A presence that seemed to envelope him in warm and gentle magic.

“Close your eyes, young one.”, he heard a gentle female voice call out to him. He did as he was told. The darkness behind his eyelids, which he had expected, was not what he got however. He  saw a plain that was bathed in brilliant sunlight. Under a nearby tree stood a regal white Alicorn mare. She had her back turned towards him, so he could not see her face, but what he saw was a sight that looked for it's peer. He wanted to walk closer to her, but could not move.

“Who... Who are you?”, he croaked.

“My name, young one, does not matter. All that matters is that I am here to help you.”, the mare said calmly.

“So you know why I am here? Why I am trapped?”

“I do.”

“Why then? Why am I imprisoned? Is it because of that mare? Did I do something to her?”, he asked nervously.

“Yes, and no.”, she answered without turning to him. Her auburn mane and tail flowed a mild breeze.

“Yes and no? What do you mean? I... I... I don't understand.”, he stuttered.

“It has something to do with her, yes. But you did not hurt her. You saved her. As to why you are trapped... You have to ask yourself that question. I never understood why you did it myself.”

“Ask... myself? I.. I don't remember... I don't remember!”, he complained.

“Technically you are not even imprisoned. You are dead, young one.”, the Alicorn mare said in a soothing tone of voice.

“Dead? But... I'm breathing. How can I be dead?”, he asked aghast.

“You died protecting your family and friends. I have reserved a place in Tartarus for you, yet you can't pass on yet. The reason you are so confused, is because your soul has been ripped apart. In it's confusion, it possessed the only body that it knew would be able to support it. A good thing too... The only problem is, that you yourself imprisoned that body out of fear. You feared it's potential, even though it had done nothing wrong. You are needed.”, the mare spoke softly.

“But... who am I? How am I supposed to get out of here? I... I don't know!”, he paniced.

“All you need to do, is to remember. I have deactivated the gadget that triggers the gas, so you have all the time you need to remember, what you need to know. Remember what you thought when you trapped it. Remember your failsafe mechanism, and you will egt out of there.”, she added, before she vanished into the darkness.

He did not understand what the mare had told him, or who she was. The only thing he knew, was that the red light that had been flashing in the darkness had gone out for good.

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Zeo threw the half eaten Pegasus wing aside, as he entered Celestias study. His wife, daughter, sister in law and a creature he had never seen before looked at him in shock.

“What's up? You don't seem very happy to see your “beloved” husband and father.”, he said sarcastically.

“You are not my father.”, Silk snarled.

“Oh? Am I not? Have you completed your homework for medical school, like I told you to?”, he asked, his voice full of contempt.

“Stop this charade. You are not Zeo. At least you are not complete.”, Luna reprimanded, positioning herself between him and Silk.

“And who do we have here? The little Princess whos fault it was that I ended up in this godforsaken place in the first place. Can you even imagine how hard it was for me not to eat any meat, just because YOU disapproved? At least now I don't have to pretend to like you anymore. It was disgusting to sleep with you.”, Zeo said. Luna recoiled, her face showing that she was obviously hurt.

“Stop it Zeo. You are not yourself right now. You don't know what you're saying.”, Celestia interjected, throwing a glance at Discord, who nodded ever so slightly.

“Awwww... Celestia. I thought you wanted me to be honest with you. But now that I have found a human woman, I don't need Luna anymore. You horses disgusted me from the moment I saw you.”, he snarled, wiping his mouth with the sleeve of his coat.

Celestia took a careful step forward, spreading her wings protectively to shield her sister and niece from plain view.

“You don't mean that. Do you remember the talk we had over a thousand years ago? That night on the balcony? You told me that you loved my sister more then you loved any girl before her.  You gave up eating meat for her, and even found some recipes that you liked. All of them completely vegetarian.”, she said, slowly advancing towards Zeo.

“Not one step closer you freaking mule.”, he growled, pointing at Celestia. The Princess of the sun was not fazed by this outburst however. Instead she threw herself forward, towards Zeo, calling out to Discord over her shoulder.

“NOW!”

In a flash of light Discord, Luna and Silk Light disappeared. A flash of golden light burst forth from Celestias horn, and shot towards Zeo, who raised a shield to protect himself. It shattered, and Zeo got confused for a split second. He did not react in time before Celestia brought her hoof down on his face. The force of the impact was enough to knock Zeo out of her study, and into the technology section. He could not stop his flight in time, before he hit a shelf. All the books spilled onto the floor, burring him under them.

“You are not my brother in law. You have no right to be here, or to speak to my family that way. He would not have fallen for such an obvious distraction!”, Celestia shouted at him, using her royal Canterlot voice.

“I am Zeomak Seline Salchar, and nothing you say can change that fact. I will rip you apart, and see what Alicorn meat tastes like. Then I will do the same to your sister and her abomination of a daughter. When I'm done with them, I may go to Ponyville and visit Twilight Sparkle. I have wondered how Unicorn meat might taste for a while now anyway.”, Zeo responded, as he rose out of the rubble.

Celestia knew that the fight was no on for real. If she held back, he would make good on his threat. Luna would hate her for a while, but she might not have another choice then to kill Zeo. In her inner most parts, she knew that this was not really her brother in law, yet she still didn't like the idea of attacking him with full force.

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Discord stepped out of his teleportation on top of Canterlot castles highest tower. Silk Light and Luna dropped to the floor beside him.

“Why? Why did he say such a thing?”, Luna wailed, tears streaming from her eyes. Silk Light put a wing around her mother, trying to console her.

“It's her influence.”, Discord said softly.

“Your daughter...”, Silk whispered.

“She will know that I am here now. If I know her, she will come to get me soon. I hope you two are ready for a fight. LUNA, get it together!”, Discord snapped at the still sobbing Luna.

“But why did you bring us here?”

“Isn't that obvious beautiful? You are both emotionally vulnerable to the taunts of that fake. Celestia does not have that problem. She is a pragmatic mare, who will do whatever she needs to do to protect her subjects. If you two were to stay down there with her, you would have just gotten in the way. Believe me, she can handle herself.”, the spirit of chaos tried to reassure the two Princesses.

Before any of them could say anything else, something gigantic appeared in the night sky. It was cone-shaped, and it's rear seemed to be on fire.

“Here she comes, brace yourselves....”, Discord said, summoning a giant cloud of cotton candy to intercept the thing that was coming right at them. As the two collided, the cone-shaped object exploded, destroying the cloud, and unloading it's payload of chocolate rain on Canterlot.

Using the blast of the explosion, a figure came flying towards them. It was human in shape, held some strange device in each hand, and had all fours spread while it fell.

“UUUUUUIIIIIII!!!!! DaaaaAAAaaaaAAAaaAAAAaaAAD!”, a female voice cackled manically, as the figure tackled Discord to the ground. It turned out that the object in her left hand resembled a metal shark, with it's mouth wide open. The one in her right, was the weapon she had used to kill Zeo.

“A little help here?”, Discord wheezed as Jane directed the business ends of both weapons towards his face. Silk took the hint, and rammed her shoulder into the woman, who tumbled off of Discord, loosing both of her weapons in the process.

“OUCH!”, she exclaimed, as her head hit the ground.

“You killed my father you bitch!”, Silk screamed, while charging up a blast spell on her horn. Luna, who recognized the spell, raised a hoof to stop her, but was too late. This kind of spell was not meant for attack. It was a spell meant to gain speed in flight, or to remove obstacles close to oneself. The result was a disaster.

Silk Lights blast spell erupted, knocking her backwards into Luna. Both of them slammed into a wall,giving Jane the second she needed to regain her bearings.

“Playing with the both of you was fun, but I'm here for my Dad. I'll come for the both of you some time soon. Tata...”, she giggled, while Discord tried to snap his fingers, to defend himself. The glass door to the balcony shattered before he could. Petra Salchar came charging through them. She had seen what was transpiring there, and charged at Jane. She was holding a shield from one of the decorative armors that lined the hallways on this floor.

Jane was so surprised by this sudden change of events, that she totally forgot to defend herself. Petra slammed into her with all she was worth, all the while screaming in utter fury. Discords daughter got knocked over the railing of the balcony by the force of the impact, all the while cackling in delight.

“I will be back Dad!”, were her last words, before she disappeared in a flash of light.

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Celestia was panting hard. The technology section of the archives was already laid to waste. This version of Zeo was certainly stronger then she remembered him to be. He was not even breaking a sweat yet. Slowly but surely, she began to doubt that it had been a good idea to face him alone. She fired another blast of concentrated sunlight at him, which he matched with a fire spell of his own. The two of them collided, annihilating each other and destroying even more of the valuable scripts.

“Let's just stop this Celestia. Just give up, and I promise I will make it painless.”, Zeo chuckled, playing with a few magical strands that he let dance around his hand.

“Never.”, was her reply. Even if she had wanted, she couldn't say anything more, because she was so out of breath.

“Oh, there you are mistress.”, Zeo said, looking past Celestia at a spot behind her.

“Do.... you... really... think.... I'd... fall for that?”, she wheezed between pants.

“I don't know, do you?”, a female voice from behind Celestia spoke up. Horrified, she turned her head to see a blade coming for her neck. There was no way she would be able to dodge it, and she was too spent to teleport away.

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He felt tremors run through the ground, as if there was an earthquake going on below. The temperature of the room he was in, rose considerably as well with each time the ground beneath him shook. The heat reminded him of something. A white Alicorn with a multicolored mane, who was firing fire spells at him for doing something bad.

It was a long time ago, that much he remembered.... Then, the scene before his eyes changed, and he saw a black Alicorn that was towering over the white one that lay on the ground. He... attacked the black one.

Another scene, again he was fighting the black Alicorn, but she was talking to him.

“Then please don't make me do this, dad!”, she cried, while tears poured from her mismatched eyes.

“S...Si...Silk.”, he croaked. He finally remembered his name. He remembered who he was, and he finally remembered where he was, and how to get out of here.

“R...Release code.”, he said, trying to steady his voice.

“Please enter the code.”, a soft female voice came from the darkness.

“Silk.... Light.”

There was a short pause, in which he could feel the magic return to him. The field that had kept it from his grasp dissipated slowly, while the walls of the room began to glow in a soft light. The room looked exactly like he had left it.

He looked down on himself. He was, indeed, stuck in a block of magical steel. As the light around him intensified, the block began to evaporate. As soon as it was gone for good, the security door at that could only be opened from the outside, started to unlock. Zeo fell to his knees, and then onto his side. He was not used to this body yet.

It took him what felt like an eternity to even stand up on his four legs. It took a conscious effort to fold his wings to his sides, since they had been hanging down limply. As soon as the door had opened to it's full extend, he realized that he would not have the time to get used to his new Alicorn body. With quick teleportation jumps, he began to move forward, since he was not too sure if he could walk in this form yet.