Fortress of Solitude

Chapter 1: Princess of the Sun

Another stressful day at work. Putting on a uniform, doing dishes, cooking patties and taking people’s orders. Yep I work at a crappy fast-food burger joint. I’ve worked there for four months and everyday is a living hell for me. I hate everything about my job, but it was the only one that replied to my resume and times were tough so I had no choice. Goddamn my luck. I’m not much of a morning person so I only take late shifts. But the problem is getting back home. None of the busses operate after 10pm so I had to call a taxi every night, and they were expensive. The worst part is my co-workers. They are never serious about their work and just screw around and annoy me. This is one of the reasons I hate humans. They can’t be trusted. The last friend I had betrayed me on a school camping trip when it was raining as hard as a shower. We were on our way back from canoeing when strong rain suddenly struck us. I was getting so cold that I collapsed on the road and passed out. Nobody noticed me because I was at the back of the group. It took everyone 10 minutes to realize I was missing. They found me severely sick on the road and took me to the infirmary where I spent the rest of the trip under medical attention.

Before I passed out on the road, I saw that my ‘former friends’ noticed me collapse and pretend to not see it. That’s when I learnt my lesson; There are no such thing as friends. Just humans waiting for the right opportunity to stab you in the back. So I have been without a friend for 6 years and I don’t want any and I don’t need any. Some people say otherwise, but they know nothing about me.

~~~~~

The next day, it was my day off and I decided that I’ve had enough of this life. I decided to take a long walk to the salt flats where there were no signs of life within a kilometre (I prefer the imperial system). The ground was made completely out of salt from a dried up saltwater lake along with a few weeds growing out of it. I wanted to be isolated for the whole day. All I wanted was a day of solitude and tranquility.

I laid my back on the ground with my sunglasses and earphones on, thinking about taking action on the humans who ruined my life. Although that was impossible because I haven’t seen them in half a decade and don’t know where they are now. I just keep getting lost in my own private fantasy world in my mind.

Aagh! I’ve had enough! I don’t want to go back to my shadowed life! I’m never going back! I shouted in my mind. I’ve had enough of these damn humans!

I spent half the day laying there denying the fact that I’m a human myself. But I knew I couldn’t change who am outside.

Please… someone, anyone… take me away from this global prison. Give me the life that I desperately need and deserve.

…

“Oh, who the hell am I kidding? That would be too good to be true. There’s nothing left for me. I might as well go home. I’m getting a little hungry”

I stood up from the ground, brushed the salt off my back and walked my way back home from the salt flats my hoodie on, hands in the pockets and staring at the ground in unhappiness and without faith.

The sun was slowly setting in the corner of my eye as I was walking. I rolled my eyes over to the source of the twilight sky without turning my head. It was a little hard to tell, but I think the sun is actually glowing brighter as it sets.

“Huh? That’s not normal.” I said with a confused mind.

I stopped walking in my tracks and turned my head towards the bright sight. The sun was never usually that bright when it descends. I pulled up my sunglasses and squinted my eyes, as it happened to get even brighter until it was bright enough as the middle of the day.

“Aagh! What the hell is going on!?” I exclaimed while shielding my eyes with my arm.

Then suddenly, the sunlight was so bright that it even brightened my shadow. I could almost see through the very flesh in my arm. It was like a natural X-ray, only… this wasn’t natural at all. The brightness eventually began to slowly die down. I then hear the sound of large flapping feathered wings in front of me.

“What in the…”

I slowly moved my arm and opened my eyes to adjust to the light. When I got my vision back, I saw the source of the flapping noise. In front of me was a quadrapedal, beautiful creature with an all-over white exterior, milky flowing hair and tail, a single horn on its head and a pair of wings causing the creature to hover slightly over the ground and then gently landed. I couldn’t believe what I’m looking at. It’s an Alicorn! My eyes widened and my irises shrunk at the sight of the magical creature. And it was the same height as me.

“Greeting, Luther.” The Alicorn spoke in a calm tone.

“Whoa! You can talk!? Wait, who are you!? How do you know my name!? Why are you here!?” I said with a mixture of emotions.

The Alicorn giggled to my reaction. “You sure have a lot of questions. But first let me introduce myself. My name is Princess Celestia, the Princess of the Sun.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Princess of the Sun? Wait, don't tell me that you're the one that made the sun shine so bright.” I pointed out.

Celestia smiled and nodded. “Correct. I used my magic to teleport here from my home world with you sun’s light.”

I was surprised. “So magic does exist!? Or am I just going insane and you’re just an illusion?”

Celestia frowned to my doubt. “Do you really think you imagined pain?”

“Well anyone can go blind for staring at the sun. Beside, I’m already half-blind.”

“Yes, I know. I'm sorry for your misfortune.”

My eyes widened. “Oh yeah, that brings me to my 2nd question; How do you know me?”

Celestia smiled “I’m glad you asked. I discovered your planet and species decades ago through interplanetary research. Earth was an interesting world, populated by very intelligent creatures. You humans peaked my interest and I studied you further to hopefully make contact with you. I’ve been keeping an eye on you because you seemed the most interesting. You’re very different from the other humans around you. And to answer your 3rd question; I came here to see you.”

I was confused, yet surprised. “Me? Why?”

“My younger sister, Princess Luna, the Princess of the Night, wanted to observe your planet with me. I observe your world during the day and my sister observes you during the night. She’s also been listening closely to what you say.”

I had a disappointing expression. “Excuse me? You and your sister have been spying on me?”

“Oh, goodness, no! Only my sister. She’s been paying more attention to you the most because you seem to only like going outside during the night.” Celestia said in a nervous tone.

“Well, that’s true. So why did you want to see me?”

“While we were studying you, we can clearly see that you dislike your life.”

“And?”

“I’m actually here to make a proposal.”

I jumped in surprise to what she just said. “Proposal!? But we just met! I don’t think it would work out!”

“Oh” she giggles. “Not that sort of proposal. I’m offering you a chance to start a new life.”

I suddenly felt like my whole body shut down like a computer. I was trying to put the pieces together. Let’s see; I hate my life, a magical Alicorn appears in front of me, tells me that she and her sister have been monitoring me from God knows where and how long, and she’s offering me a chance of a new life. This is too good to be true.

Celestia saw me standing silent like a statue. She walked close to me and started waving her hoof in my face to make sure I was paying attention by flinching.

“Luther, can you hear me?”

I came back to my senses after hearing the Alicorn’s voice. I had to make sure, one last time, that I wasn’t imagining all this. I quickly grabbed the hoof that was waving in my face, causing Celestia to gasp in fright.

I can feel her fur, her hoof and her mane that was strangely flowing in between us both. Yep, she’s the real deal.

“Luther, is something wrong?” she said in a concerned manner.

I let go of her hoof and mane and take a step back with my arms crossed behind me, showing respect and giving her some space.

“Oh, I’m sorry, it’s just… I had to make sure you were real and not just another eye condition side effect.

Oh yeah, forgot to tell you this, but my eyes are in pretty bad shape. No one can notice unless they looked at them closely. My left eye has Keratoconus; a degenerative disorder of the eye that completely ruins my eye sight. I accidentally scratched my cornea and now it's completely blind. As for my right eye, it's colour-blind... that's pretty much it.

[Enough of that]

Celestia smiled and nodded her head. "I understand, Luther. But may I have an answer?"

I tilted my head and suddenly remembered her little 'proposal'.

"Oh, uhhh... do I have to answer you now?"

"No. You can take all the time you need to find an answer. I will give you 1 week to give me one. When you do have an answer, meet me here at sunset within the week. But if you miss the deadline, I'm afraid we may never meet again. Farewell for now, Luther."

She turned around and flew towards what was left of the sunset.

I reached my arm out and jogged towards her. "Hey, wait! What do you mean we may never meet again!?"

She didn't answer. Her horn had a bright aura around it. The tip of her horn was releasing a solar flare that flashed instantly and disappeared along with Celestia. I stopped jogging.

I groaned Aaaaand she's gone. Huh.

I folded my arms and closed my eyes in thought. Hmm... A choice to either continue my life of humiliation and unhappiness, OR a chance to start all over in, presumably, a better place.

"..."

I opened my eyes and looked up in the sky. I inhaled very deeply, holding it in for very few seconds and shouted at the top of my lungs...

"GOODBYE, HUMAN WORLD!!!